RESULTS: New York Excelsior Sweep San Francisco Shock in 4-0 Win

The New York Excelsior entered today's match with a 13-2 record and sole ownership of first place in the Overwatch League. An impressive 3-1 victory over the talented Philadelphia Fusion had the Excelsior looking to end Week 3 with a 2-0 record. The San Francisco Shock came into the match with a 5-10 record and in 9th place in the league. With a 3-0 victory over the Dallas Fuel to begin Week 3, San Francisco was determined to stage the second upset of Saturday and defeat New York to secure a perfect record for the week. Here is a short breakdown of how the match went. 

Volskaya Industries was up first and and saw an offensive onslaught from both teams, as New York and San Francisco would each capture Point A and Point B in their attack rounds. This would force a 2-2 tie, but the Excelsior would break the stalemate in their second attack round to take a 3-2 lead. Pushing back multiple offensive advances from the Shock, the Excelsior were able to prevent San Francisco from securing Point A and thus allowing them to take the 3-2 win on Volskaya Industries and a 1-0 lead to begin the match. Jong-Ryeol "Saebyeolbe" would turn in another classic Tracer performance, as he would collect 28 eliminations and a kill streak of 10, while only dying four times. Dong-Gyu "Mano" Kim would also have a strong performance with 24 eliminations, 9,576 damage blocked and only three deaths as Winston. 

Lijiang Tower followed Volskaya Industries and saw the New York Excelsior focused on taking a 2-0 lead into halftime. They were able to achieve taking the 2-0 match lead by securing the first two hills to capture the 2-0 win on Lijiang Tower. Saebyeolbe was all over San Francisco's Zenyatta player Nikola "sleepy" Andrews the whole map. The New York Excelsior player would eliminate sleepy eight times, while the support player of San Francisco would fail to collect a single elimination on Saebyeolbe. On the other hand, the Excelsior's Zenyatta player Seong-Hyun "Jjonak" was able to almost out duel the Shock's Tracer player Dante "Danteh" Cruz with six eliminations to Danteh's seven. The DPS and support duels going in New York's favor was instrumental in the Excelsior attaining a 2-0 lead going into halftime.

Hollywood was the third map of the match and had New York looking to secure the match victory, while San Francisco needed a map win to keep their chances of a match victory alive. However, this would not be the case on Hollywood, as New York would complete the map to secure three points. San Francisco would only be able to secure one point in their attack round, which resulted in the 3-1 win on Hollywood for New York and guaranteed them the match victory with a score of 3-0. Monster performances from Saebyeolbe (39 eliminations, a kill streak of 17 and only four deaths as Tracer) and Jun-Hwa "Janus" Song (42 eliminations, 12,595 damage blocked and only four deaths as Winston) would seal the win on Hollywood for the New York Excelsior. 

Route 66 was the final map of the match and had both teams playing for overall map count at this point. Continuing the high level play they had shown through the first three maps, New York was able to deliver the payload to the end of Hollywood and grab three points in their attack round. Not being able to break through the New York Excelsior's defense in their attack round, the Shock were only able to secure one point. This would give the Excelsior the 3-1 map victory and 4-0 match win. Tae-Hong "Meko" Kim (35 eliminations, 8,096 damage blocked and only four deaths as D.Va) and Jjonak (26 eliminations, 7,844 damage done, 6,268 healing done and only six deaths) would not allow San Francisco to have any chance of victory.

Jjonak was named the player of the match for providing yet another exceptional Zenyatta performance. He would finish with 89 eliminations, 32,873 healing done, 32,172 damage done, 40 final blows and only 20 deaths. 

With the win, the New York Excelsior improved to a record of 14-2 and continued to cement their spot at the top of the Overwatch League. The Loss dropped the San Francisco to a 5-11 record and will have them looking to improve going into Week 4. 

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

(cover photo courtesy of Robert Paul via Blizzard Entertainment)