RESULTS: New York Excelsior Hands Philadelphia Fusion 2nd Loss of Week 3

The New York Excelsior came into today's match with a record of 12-2 and in 2nd place in the Overwatch League. With this match as their first of Week 3, New York was looking to defeat a tough opponent in Philadelphia to build some momentum for their next match. The Philadelphia Fusion came into the match with a record of 9-6 and in 6th place in the league. Philadelphia was looking to rebound from their 1-3 loss against the Seoul Dynasty earlier in the week. Here is a short breakdown of how the match went. 

Volskaya Industries was the first map of the match, and it was a very close battle between the two top teams. Both teams would deliver aggressive attack rounds that would see each of them capture both control points to force a 2-2 tie. The Fusion were able to utilize their very strong dive composition to take Point A in their second attack round. New York took the opening that their defensive hold on Point B gave them and would go onto capture both points once again to secure the 4-3 map win and 1-0 lead in the match. Showing onlookers why he is considered to be the best Tracer in the world, Jong-Ryeol "Saebyeolbe" Park would dish out 30 eliminations and a kill streak of eight, while only having seven deaths on Volskaya Industries. 

Nepal was be the following map and once again it was a very close contest for the two highly skilled teams. The New York Excelsior and Philadelphia Fusion would both capture one of the first two hills to force a 1-1 tie going into the third and final hill. In the same manner as Volskaya Industries, New York would be able to close out the map with a strong offensive push to grab their third point and collect the 2-1 victory. The Excelsior's win would allow them to go into halftime with a 2-0 lead in the match. Strong performances from Seong-Hyun "Jjonak" Bang (15 eliminations, 8,765 healing done, 8,615 damage done and six deaths as Zenyatta) and Dong-Gyu "Mano" Kim (19 eliminations, 9,363 damage blocked and only four deaths as Winston) would lead the way for New York on Nepal.

Both teams traveled to King's Row for the third map of the match. Feeding off of the momentum that they built in the first half, the New York Excelsior would execute an impressive offensive push in their attack round to capture the payload and deliver it to the end of the map. This would give the Excelsior a 3-0 lead over the Fusion. Philadelphia would answer back with a excellent attack round of their own to deliver the payload all the way to the end of King's Row to force a 3-3 tie. The Fusion would be right back on the attack side to begin the time bank round and were able to capture the payload to grab a 4-3 lead, but New York would hold strong and prevent Philadelphia from grabbing another point. The New York Excelsior would be able to secure the payload in their second attack round to tie the map at 4-4. A triple kill by Hae-Seong "Libero" Kim's Pharah would allow New York to capture their fifth point and collect the 5-4 win. This would result in a guaranteed match victory for New York with the score at 3-0. Superb tank play by Dong-Gyu "Meko" Kim's D.Va (30 eliminations, 13,232 and only three deaths) would be a driving force for the New York Excelsior on King's Row. 

Route 66 was the final map of the match and saw the New York Excelsior out for blood, as they were looking to wrap up the 4-0 sweep of the Philadelphia Fusion. They would begin the map making a major step in accomplishing the sweep, as New York would break Philadelphia's defensive holds and deliver the payload for the 3-0 lead. Not willing to let the New York Excelsior take all four maps off of them, the Philadelphia Fusion would bounce back and grab three points in their attack round to force a 3-3 tie. Philadelphia was able to grab the first checkpoint in the time bank round to grab a 4-3 lead. Looking to help out their overall map count, the Fusion were able to put together a defensive hold to prevent New York from gaining a fourth point. This resulted in the Philadelphia Fusion taking the 4-3 win on Route 66. Josue "Eqo" Corona (27 eliminations, a kill streak of seven and only seven deaths as Tracer) would be the top performer for Philadelphia on Route 66.

With the win, the New York Excelsior improved to a record of 13-2 and took sole ownership of first place in the Overwatch League. The loss dropped the Philadelphia Fusion to a record of 9-7, but playing a team of the Excelsior's caliber that closely shows that the Fusion have the ability to compete with the very best teams in the league.

Interested in more Overwatch League coverage? Check out our recap of the Boston Uprising and London Spitfire match from earlier today.

(cover photo courtesy of New York Excelsior)