After claiming victory over the undefeated Boston Uprising in Overwatch League’s third stage, the New York Excelsior continues to dominate the League in Stage Four.
The Excelsior swept the Seoul Dynasty on Friday night, putting the team one notch further from making it to playoffs. And even though New York already has its division locked up, it still came out strong against Seoul. The win pushed the Excelsior to 30-3 for the season and clinched the top seed in the playoffs.
But wait, there’s more!
New York also gets a $300,000 bonus for being the team with the best record in the regular season.
That is some efficient rocket usage! @Liberot99 #OWL2018https://t.co/U6dIipgQGs pic.twitter.com/hy8boa3KEq
— Overwatch League (@overwatchleague) May 26, 2018
But Dynasty’s tale is much darker.
After another loss earlier today to the London Spitfire, Seoul is now 19-15 with a poor, positive 11 map differential, which is far behind the teams they need to beat to earn that sixth playoff spot.
Dynasty entered Friday’s match against New York with some hope thanks to the return of their main tank, Gong “Miro” Jun-hyuk, and a role swap of team captain and flex support Ryu Je-hong. Seoul looked more coordinated in their dive compositions with Ryujehong on main tank. However, dive is less prevalent now because of the new Brigitte meta, putting more emphasis on the mechanical play of tanks.
But even the return of Miro’s tank performance couldn’t stop the Excelsior. Dynasty stopped Excelsior from finishing King’s Row in the first map, but their own attack was stalled. Then on Horizon Lunar Colony, Seoul put up a pretty weak attempt to break through Excelsior’s Orisa bunker. New York then posted one of the fastest attacks on the map.
"I seem to have, uh, lost my temper." @Mano_OWL #OWL2018https://t.co/U6dIipgQGs pic.twitter.com/pCeyUvinf7
— Overwatch League (@overwatchleague) May 26, 2018
Dynasty had a chance on Lijang Tower, but lost the point by getting off of it. Finally, on Gibralter, Seoul’s star DPS player Kim “Fleta” Byung-sun started to show some fight, but it wasn’t enough to secure the map.
Even when Seoul had the upper hand with ultimates, Excelsior consistently came out on top in every fight. Dynasty has a lot of work to do if they hope to make it to Stage Four playoffs, and they don’t have a lot of time to do it, especially after losing to the London Spitfire earlier today.
London’s win pushed them to 22-12 on the season and second in the standings above the also 22-12 Los Angeles Valiant and Boston Uprising.