Overwatch League returns after a week break from the extremely exciting Summer Showdown tournament. In what seems to be a pattern, the week back from a tournament is usually pretty quiet as far as good matches go.
This week starts off another cycle of qualifier matches for the final regular season tournament of the 2020 season, the Countdown Cup.
News & Blues
- wya becomes two-way player on Guangzhou Charge, Ignition One picked up as academy team
- Krystal joins Guangzhou Charge as two-way player – uhh this is a questionable move considering Krystal’s history with the Hangzhou Spark
- SPREE parts ways with Houston Outlaws – SPREE was a off-tank player who hasn’t really seen play time over Meko this season
- Babybay retires – Babybay was a DPS player for the Atlanta Reign
- Kodak retires as player, become coach for Atlanta Reign – Kodak was a flex support player for the Atlanta Reign
Postseason Announcement
We have a few details about the 2020 post season! It starts September 3, 2020 with two weeks of online matches with the grand finals being played in Asia (most likely South Korea).
The Meta
Hero bans are back this week and they are:
- Mei
- Widowmaker
- Orisa
- Ana
We saw variations of the Genji based meta that was dominant in the Summer Showdown, Genji/Tracer or Genji/Sombra or Genji/Ashe with a Winston/D.Va or Reinhardt/D.Va or Reinhardt/Sigma tank lines. The odd one out this week were the Chengdu Hunters who ran compositions like this – Pharah/Genji/Wrecking Ball/Zarya/Mercy/Lucio. Yeah, the Hunters are always bringing something interesting to the table.
The Games
There are two games this week that are worth talking about. The rest were either extremely one-sided stomps or otherwise boring.
Houston Outlaws vs Dallas Fuel
This battle for Texas was quite the match! The first half of the series, it felt like Houston was going to walk away with a 3-0 clean sweep but the Fuel were able to light the spark in the second half bringing the series to a map 5 tiebreaker. And to end it all, the Outlaws failed to contest the third point in overtime even with players alive which led to Dallas Fuel being able to complete a reverse sweep for the first time in Overwatch League history. What a way to end the series.
Chengdu Hunters vs New York Excelsior
This one is so strange, in the first half Chengdu’s strange composition didn’t work at all and the Excelsior were able to defeat them with ease. In the second half, it felt like the Excelsior sort of degraded in performance and the Hunters were able to bring the reverse sweep to a map 5 tiebreaker which they won. The Excelsior coaches are going to be reviewing this particular VOD particularly closely I bet.
The Conclusion
Overall, it has been a pretty quiet week of games and a quiet start to the qualifiers. Here’s hoping next week is more exciting!
I’ll leave y’all with this:
See y’all next week!