With the Overwatch League Asia-Pacific (APAC) games just starting, an early upset of the Philadelphia Fusion over the Shanghai Dragons has caught the eyes of fans across the world. A sweep from Fusion over the Dragons was the highlight of a very entertaining start to the 2022 season’s APAC games.
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An early upset within the APAC region
In the first week of APAC matches in the Overwatch League 2022 season, the first match proved to be the most surprising one as well. The re-tooled Philadelphia Fusion managed to sweep the 2021 champions Shanghai Dragons. Much like the Dallas Fuel in North America, one of the top-ranked teams in the league got swept in their first match of the 2022 season.
In the new 5-vs.-5 format, the rookies from the Fusion stepped up against the veteran talent of the Dragons. Out of all the players on both teams, rookie Kim “ZEST” Hyun-woo had a great debut, especially on the first map of New Queen Street. Alongside his team, he helped prevent the Dragons’ DPS and Zarya from getting value.
Tracer, Echo, Genji…. you name it and he can play all. Today's MVP goes to @OW_Zest ! pic.twitter.com/M0PDoBTKfn
— Seoul Infernal (@Infernal) May 20, 2022
For map two of Circuit Royal, Lee “LIP” Jae-won showed off his skills on Widowmaker, pushing the Fusion back. Even though the Fusion only got a point and a half on their attack, the duel between both Widowmakers and Echos started to favor the Fusion. The Dragons didn’t even capture a point on their attack, putting them down 2-0 in the series.
Then, it all ended on map three, King’s Row. As both teams kept running Zarya, returning tank Kim “Fury” Jun-ho proved that his performance last season was an anomaly. As both teams finished the map, Shanghai went into their second push with more time. Even with Lee “WhoRU” Seung-jun coming in on his signature Genji, ZEST and the Fusion outplayed him as they finished the sweep.
Two more APAC matches set a bar
As for the other two APAC matches, we got the Los Angeles Valiant versus the Guangzhou Charge, and then the Seoul Dynasty versus the Hangzhou Spark. With each team making their debut for the 2022 season, this was an early litmus test for the region.
The Charge ended up beating the Valiant 3-1, off the back of recent signing Cao “Farway1987” Jiale. On Ana, he managed 20 biotic grenade kills in the series, playing that offensively minded support to a win.
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Then, to end the day for APAC, the Spark beat the Dynasty 3-1. This was arguably the second upset, with Dynasty ranked high on most power rankings. As for Spark, their performance was due to great coordination between rookie Kim “AlphaYi” Jun and the team. On Genji, he helped tear the respected Dynasty to pieces in that 3-1 win.
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After Philadelphia made their mark against the best, the only team that hasn’t played is the Chengdu Hunters, who make their Overwatch League 2022 APAC debut against the Guangzhou Charge on May 21, 2022.
