Overwatch League Season 2: Stage 1 | Week 1 Recap Part 2
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Overwatch League Season 2: Stage 1 | Week 1 Recap Part 2

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Michael Czar
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Published: Feb 20, 2019 10:30 am

This article is over 5 years old and may contain outdated information

And we’re back to finish off the team ratings for the first week of the second season. The Overwatch League is back, and lots of teams performed in surprising ways. To look at the first 10 teams and their performances (including New York and London), be sure to read my first recap. But if you’ve already read through that, here are the rest of the teams who played this week. Starting off…

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Dallas Fuel

The Dallas Fuel were in an odd situation, and people didn’t expect them to do well this stage. Their first game seemed to confirm that, but nobody expected them to win their second one. The San Francisco Shock were their first opponents, who dominated them in the second 4-0 sweep of the season. But they recovered well and showed a lot of promise in a 3-1 win over the Seoul Dynasty. Dylan “aKm” Bignet was the true star of the Seoul match, popping off and helping them win King’s Row. Min-seok “OGE” Son seemed to improve the more he played, and Zachary “ZachaREEE” Lombardo also improved a lot for the Seoul game. I give them a small pass for losing to a great Shock team, and they recovered a lot for the Dynasty game. They ended the week 1-1.

The way they started was the opposite of the way they ended this week. I’m giving them a 6/10.

San Francisco Shock

This team, along with Atlanta, had the hottest start of the season. Unfortunately, like Atlanta, they just couldn’t get two wins in the opening week. Their first game was against the aforementioned Dallas Fuel, stomping on them in a 4-0 victory. But their second game against the Los Angeles Gladiators wasn’t as easy, losing a close 3-2 match. Even with the loss, the team impressed, with Hyo-bin “ChoiHyoBin” Choi and Jay “sinatraa” Won playing off-tanks well. Their immense roster showed, with constant subs such as Myeong-hwan “smurf” Yoo and Matthew “super” DeLisi switching between main tank. With how close their second game was, the loss must’ve felt heartbreaking. They also ended the week 1-1.

Even though they lost a game, the Shock look like the team to beat. I’m giving them a 6.5/10.

Shanghai Dragons

The winless Shanghai Dragons are going to win soon, but this week wasn’t kind to them. They faced two teams projected to be top-tier in this stage, and unfortunately they lost to both. Their first game was against the Hangzhou Spark, which they lost 3-1. Their second game was against the new Vancouver Titans, where they got convincingly swept 4-0. On the plus side, they were much more competitive than last season’s Dragons, with Min-seong “diem” Bae and Seong-hyeon “Luffy” Yang being bright spots in the roster. Due to main tank issues and very recent signings, they never got a consistent roster in the first week.

Hopefully they can get through their issues and get their first win in the league next week. I’m giving them a 1.5/10.

Hangzhou Spark

This bright pink-and-blue-colored team was hyped to be an underdog, but I don’t think people saw this coming. The Spark’s first opponents were the winless Dragons, who stayed winless after a convincing 3-1 win. Their second opponents were the feared Los Angeles Valiant, who took the Spark to five maps before taking the win 3-2. Xu “guxue” Qiulin’s debut was met by fantastic play, but the true standouts were Da-un “NoSmite” Jeong and Sung-wook “Ria” Park. Both of them were always on the same page, especially Ria’s D.Va bombs. Yoon “BeBe” Hui-chang was also a standout Zenyatta, rivaling Sung-hyeon “JJonak” Bang at moments.

This team went out and lived up to the hype and then some, making them my team of the week. I’m giving them an 8.5/10.

Chengdu Hunters

This team was considered one of the worst heading into the season, but they’ve already picked up their first win of the season. Like Toronto and Florida, they only had one game to play in the first week, but they won it. Their only match was against the Guangzhou Charge, a fellow Chinese expansion team that everyone expected to win against Chengdu. In the end, Chengdu won in a close five map series 3-2. Ma “LateYoung” Tianbin continued his good form from the World Cup, and Lo “Baconjack” Tzu-Heng did well considering his year-long break from Overwatch.

Much like Florida and Toronto, it’s hard to judge how good they are off of one game, but they did surprise mostly everyone watching. I’m giving them a 6/10.

Guangzhou Charge

Another one-game team this week, the Charge disappointed in a close game. The exact same game as the one above, the Guangzhou Charge lost to the Chengdu Hunters 3-2. On the Charge’s side, Jung-woo “Happy” Lee and Jin-seo “Shu” Kim looked amazing in their debuts, and Hong-Jun “HOTBA” Choi did great on Tracer. Their play style was entertaining to watch, but it also led to the aggressive push that lost them the game.

They played well, but the team clearly needs more time together to work on communication. I’m giving them a 4/10.

Paris Eternal

This is most likely the biggest surprise in the season. The Paris Eternal is an all-European team, and it is very familiar with the three-tank, three-support composition most teams play this stage. This showed in their only game this week against the London Spitfire. They won the game convincingly, in a 3-1 win. Terence “SoOn” Tarlier seemed to play well with his new team, and Benjamin “BenBest” Dieulafait was a great main tank for the entire game. This team was a great showing of how important chemistry and communication are important in this stage, and their chemistry was clearly great.

Off of one match, it’s hard to tell how long this will last. But I’m giving them a 7/10.

Washington Justice

This new expansion team had only one match this week, and it was truly a trial by fire. They were the unlucky expansion team who had to face the New York Excelsior as their first match, and they didn’t fare too well. They got dominated in a 3-1 loss, getting a map but losing the other three heavily. The bright spots were Corey “Corey” Nigra on Zarya and Jun-hwa “Janus” Song on main tank, but even then it didn’t help them to more than one map win.

Hopefully they recover, but their future opposition is tough. I’m giving them a 1/10.

Los Angeles Valiant

The Valiant was another team with only one match, and boy was it an entertaining one. Their match of the week was against the hyped Hangzhou Spark, which turned out to live up to that hype. The Spark took them to five maps, just edging out a victory, as they lost 3-2. On the bright side, Pan-seung “Fate” Koo and Indy “SPACE” Halpern proved to still be a great tank duo, and Min-chul “Izayaki” Kim debuted amazingly. Unfortunately, they did lose the game due to small mistakes.

It was the only game they had and it was against a good opponent, but they lost it. I’m giving them a 5/10.

Vancouver Titans

The only other Canadian team in the league dominated in their only match of the season. Their game of the week was against the hurt Shanghai Dragons, who just lost to the Spark this week as well. Shanghai was hungry for their first win, but Vancouver swept the floor with them in a 4-0 win. All members of the Titans were amazing, with Min-soo “SeoMinSoo” Seo on Zarya being a nice surprise, but Sang-beom “Bumper” Park on Reinhardt was the clear MVP of the match. Even Chung-hui “Stitch” Lee, who only played their last map, played an amazing McCree that led them to their last map victory.

It’s hard to tell how they’ll fare against other teams, but they seem right at home in this meta. I’m giving them an 8/10.

And that is all for this week of Overwatch League! Be sure to tune into the league at twitch.tv/overwatchleague on Thursday nights to Sunday nights to watch the games live.

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Author
Image of Michael Czar
Michael Czar
Polish-Canadian game enthusiast. I've been entrenched in gaming for as long as I can remember, with my first game being Pokemon Yellow and my most played games being Borderlands 2 and Overwatch. I have a degree in Film Studies, but writing about esports just makes my job all the better.
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