- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
The Overwatch League’s Stage 3 finals ended with Stage 2 victors, New York Excelsior, coming back for a second win, defeating the Boston Uprising in the finals with a 3-0 clean sweep, having done the same to the Los Angeles Valiant in the semis.
It’s no surprise to see the all-Korean team once again on top of the ladder, as they have consistently been strongest in the league, sitting way up with a +68 map differential and 27 total wins.
This eclipses all other teams, with Stage 1 winners London Spitfire only holding a +38 differential and 20 wins.
The funny thing about Excelsior’s win is that they lost to Boston 3-2 in Week 2 of Stage 3. In fact, despite still wracking up overall wins, this stage presented the NYXL with more than a few close calls, which could easily make people wonder if they were really giving their all.
This question even came up during a match, when host Soe Gschwind-Penski put the question to superstar sniper Do-hyeon ‘Pine’ Kim. The absolute powerhouse of a player is one of New York’s secret weapons – he isn’t used every map – and even he conceded that the team was biding its time.
According to Pine, the team had been taking it a bit easy in order to recover and play to their best. This could be taken to mean they aren’t bringing their A-game to every match, which explains a lot of the results, but it’s also clever and probably key to how this team is still on top.
The Overwatch League is an intense match-up of constant competition which started with preseason matches in December and will run well into the middle of the year. This means teams play two professional games a week on top of constant practice.
Players like Pine probably have the easier end of it, being only swapped in when needed, but for other members of the Overwatch League, this means trying to be at the top of your game in every one of these matches.
A decline in performance from some smaller teams like the Houston Outlaws or Philadelphia Fusion, who placed in the finals for Stages 1 and 2 respectively, does appear to be noticeable. Both teams dropped to eighth and ninth place in the standings, which is far below what most would expect, running similar line-ups for each game.
Obviously constant play takes a toll, regardless of skill level and training, and it seems like a lot of these players could probably use a bit of a break.
So it makes sense that, if a team can afford to do so, they should pull from their bigger pool and let their B-list players take some of the easier matches.
It may come as a let down when we don’t get to see constant performances from all stars, but having two rosters – as many teams do – is necessary for the current league scheduling.
Alternatively, doing like NYXL and simply taking it easy and not going all out every now and again is a smart practice. More importantly, it appears to pay off, with the team cashing in after their second big win.
Adding to the stress of playing non-stop, many team members are young and far from home, with a lot riding on their shoulders. It’s not uncommon for a player to take a break for mental health reasons as well as physical ones.
Because of this, it’s questionable as to whether or not the current layout of Overwatch League is sustainable. Whether it’s a change to league scheduling or serious changes to team makeups, something needs to improve.
There’s likely a desire to cash in on the growing popularity and youth of the sport, but hopefully Blizzard will take a step back and assess whether this model can continue.
As an avid viewer, I would rather have to wait a bit longer to see my next match as long as it means everyone’s getting the rest they need. Without some change to the current state of Overwatch League, something is going to give for these professionals – something which can be prevented.