The New York Excelsior Are Your Stage 2 Champions

The New York Excelsior came into the championship match with a Stage 2 record of 9-1 and in first place in the Overwatch League. The Philadelphia Fusion entered the championship match extremely hot, as they were riding the momentum of their exciting 3-2 semi-final victory over the London Spitfire earlier Sunday. With the $100,000 grand prize and the right to call themselves Stage 2 Champions on the line, both New York and Philadelphia were looking to play their very best Overwatch.

Route 66 was the first map of the match, and it saw Philadelphia deliver the payload to the second checkpoint to take a 2-0 lead in their attack round. New York was able to deliver the payload to the first checkpoint to cut the Fusion's lead to 2-1, but 38 eliminations and 18 final blows from Simon "Snillo" Ekström's Tracer and 19 final blows from Jae-Hyeok "Carpe" Lee's Widowmaker prevented the Excelsior from being able to secure another point in their attack round. This resulted in the 2-1 map win and a 1-0 match lead for the Philadelphia Fusion. A strong D.Va performance from Gael "Poko" Gouzerch (29 eliminations, 15,785 damage blocked and three deaths) was also a strong contributing factor in the Fusion taking the first lead of the Stage 2 Championship.

Lijiang Tower was the following map of the championship match. Looking to avoid going into halftime down 0-2, New York was able to capture the first point of the second map to take a 1-0 lead. However, Philadelphia was able to make the necessary plays down the stretch, including a perfectly timed Pulse Bomb from Carpe on a group of Excelsior players, to capture the second point to tie Lijiang Tower at 1-1 and force a winner take all third point. A triple kill from the Rocket Barrage of Josue "Eqo" Corona's Pharah helped the Fusion take a 99% to 0% lead. Philadelphia was able to close out the final point and secure the 2-1 win on Lijiang Tower. This resulted in the Philadelphia Fusion taking a 2-0 lead over the New York Excelsior into halftime, a score many were not expecting to see at the break. Strong performances from Carpe (29 eliminations, a kill streak of ten, seven Pulse Bomb kills and five deaths as Tracer) and Poko (19 eliminations, 10 Graviton Surge Kills and two deaths as Zarya) led the way for Philadelphia to take the victory.

Volskaya Industries followed Lijiang Tower, and it saw the New York Excelsior come out of the halftime break on fire, as they would complete a full hold in their defensive round to hold Philadelphia scoreless. Seeing the opportunity to cut the Fusion's lead in half, New York executed a well coordinated offensive push in their attack round to capture Point A and secure the 1-0 map win. With the Fusion's lead down to 2-1, the Excelsior were one game closer to avenging their Stage 1 Championship loss. Solid performances from Seong-Hyun "Jjonak" Bang (nine eliminations, 3,514 healing done, 3,456 healing done and zero deaths as Zenyatta) and Dong-Gyu "Mano" Kim (10 eliminations, 3 finals blows and one death as Winston) led the way for the New York Excelsior on Volskaya Industries.

Hollywood is where our two teams traveled to for the fourth map of the match. The Fusion were able to capture the payload to take a 1-0 lead, but dominating play from Jjonak and Jong-Ryeol "Saebyeolbe" Park on their signature heroes of Zenyatta and Tracer stopped Philadelphia from collecting any more points in their attack round. New York rode the momentum from their defensive round to break through Philadelphia's defense and deliver the payload to the second checkpoint and collect the 2-1 win and tie the match at 2-2. A whole host of impressive statistics from multiple New York Excelsior players were the difference makers in the match tying win, as Jjonak (26 eliminations, 9,015 healing done, 8,468 damage done and three deaths as Zenyatta), Tae-Hong "Meko" Kim (24 eliminations, 7,800 damage blocked and one death as D.Va) and Saebyeolbe (20 eliminations, a kill streak of eight and one death as Tracer) led the way.

Watchpoint: Gibraltar was the final map of the championship match, and it saw Philadelphia on the attack first. The Fusion were able to deliver the payload to the second checkpoint to secure two points, but that was all the Excelsior allowed Philadelphia to collect. Seeing the opportunity to take home the championship, New York was able to push through the Fusion's defense and collect three points in their attack round to secure the 3-2 win on Watchpoint: Gibraltar and the 3-2 match victory. 

Hae-Seong "Libero" Kim was named the player of the match for his Widowmaker play on each map, as he finished with 25 eliminations, 14 final blows and three deaths. 

With the win, the New York Excelsior completed the reverse sweep against the Philadelphia Fusion and claimed the $100,000 grand prize and the title of Stage 2 Champions, after failing to do so in their reverse sweep loss to the London Spitfire in the Stage 1 Championship. The loss sent the Philadelphia Fusion home with the second place prize of $25,000, but the team was able to show that they can compete and beat the very best teams in the league.

Interested in more Overwatch League coverage? Check out our recap of the Stage 2 semi-final match between the Philadelphia Fusion and London Spitfire. To see where your favorite team currently stands, check out the official standings.

(cover photo courtesy of Robert Paul for Blizzard Entertainment)