Overwatch League: Philadelphia Fusion vs. NYXL Stage 3 Recap

Thursday was a big one for the Overwatch League, featuring two massive games. The Boston Uprising took on the London Spitfire. And the Philadelphia Fusion went for a rematch with Stage 2 champions, the New York Excelsior. But while one of these matches proved a major upset, the other saw history repeat itself. In the end, the Boston Uprising brought down the London Spitfire in a surprise reverse sweep. This makes yet another major upset for the team against one of the top three teams in the Overwatch League. Meanwhile, however, the Philadelphia Fusion once against narrowly failed to secure a win over their opposition. This time, however, the match was even closer, proving that the team has improved since the Stage 2 championship.

The Boston Uprising is often regarded as one of the best-coached teams in the Overwatch League. Some have even called them to be the second best in that regard, behind only the NYXL. This is, no doubt, an enormous factor in these major victories. They’re a team that plays an incredibly disciplined game. They don’t allow themselves to make mistakes that the enemy team can easily capitalize on. This worked well against the NYXL, which is a team known for adapting to their enemy’s weak points and take advantage of those mistakes to make huge plays. And it worked for them against the Spitfire on Thursday.

The Philadelphia Fusion, however, weren’t so lucky. The team has, no doubt, made some major improvements throughout the season. The tanks leveled up in a big way. Carpe continues to be a dominant DPS player and Snillo has been an excellent addition. But the team isn’t especially disciplined in the same regard. A lot of very questionable plays leaves them extremely exploitable to teams like the NYXL. What’s more, the map pool on Thursdays didn’t favor them in the slightest. Ilios is, historically, and NYXL map. Everyone remembers the godly performance that Pine put out on that map in Stage 1.

Furthermore, Junkertown simply isn’t a map they’re quite comfortable with, yet. They’ve obviously put in some major practice since falling to Houston on it and, again, to the Spitfire. They managed to force Junkertownto time-bank. However, the NYXL just barely came out on top. The match came down to Oasis, which also favors the NYXL, with the exception of University. The Fusion are extremely favored on University, typically pulling out an extremely effective multi-tank composition around Fragi’s Reinhardt. However, the team was unable to secure two points as Pine popped off. In the end, the Fusion once again forced the top team in the league to a Map 5 scenario.

Overall, Thursday saw some amazing Overwatch being played. There were two map-5 games in one night, both of them ending in reverse sweeps. But the stage isn’t over yet. The Valiant are still at the top of the standings, along with the Gladiators and the Uprising. Only the NYXL have a presence in the top four out of the Big 3.