The London Spitfire have sent a message to the rest of the competition, finding their lethal Stage 1 form again as they defeated the Los Angeles Gladiators 3-0 twice to claim a stunning 2-1 playoff series victory.
Having suffered a comprehensive 3-0 loss against the Gladiators on Thursday, all the money was on the home team to get the job done against a Spitfire team who’d never tasted success against them. But the Stage 1 champions found a whole new gear in the two matches today, rarely troubled at all as they steamrolled the Gladiators twice to set up a date with the other Los Angeles team – the Valiant – in the semifinals.
After a very rough Match 1, London looked the goods attacking on Dorado first. They outfoxed the Gladiators across the first two points with some smart composition changes, while their targeting of the supports and superior ult economy management saw them get into the final section quite smoothly.
But, like they did twice on Thursday, the Gladiators were able to put together an impressive late hold with the payload just inches from its destination. Los Angeles got their ult economy back on track and were able to stall out the Spitfire with some crucial late kills in teamfights.
In reply, however, the home team didn’t look nearly as strong as they had during the first match of this series.
Lane “Surefour” Roberts wasn’t able to quite hit the shots he normally would as Widowmaker, while once again it was London targeting the opposing supports very effectively. Benjamin “BigGoose” Isohanni was caught out of position as Mercy several times, often being the first to go down, leaving Jonas “Shaz” Suovaara – who plays an aggressive Zenyatta – out of position and unable to provide the additional healing required.
Some great stalling from Jun-woo “Void” Kang kept them in late but, in the end, they could only take the one point – dropping the first map 2-1.
With the wind suddenly at their backs, London went on the offensive on the second map, Oasis.
Previously the bogey map of their Overwatch League season, the Spitfire took full advantage of a very unconvetional composition by the the Gladiators. Ji-hyuk “birdring” Kim was simply lethal on Widowmaker, making light work of an LA team using Surefour as Soldier: 76, BigGoose as Lucio and Hydration as Doomfist in a 100-0 sweep on City Centre.
The Gladiators came out breathing fire on University, taking the point quickly and running it up to 58 per cent before London flipped it back in their favour. The visitors were able to run their percentage up too but, with both sides conserving their ultimates, it was shaping up to be frantic final team fight.
Los Angeles teed up the classic Zarya-Pharah combo, only for Choi-tae “bdosin” Seung to deny them with a crucial Zenyatta ult. Then, it was Spitfire’s turn to show them how it’s done, with a masterful Zarya-Hanzo combo wiping half the Gladiators team, preserving a 2-0 map win and giving London the 2-0 match lead.
It just wasn’t clicking for the LA DPS characters and, while he’d silenced the critics with a strong Game 1 effort, Luis “iRemiix” Galarza Figueroa was struggling badly subbing in for benched superstar Chan-hyung “Fissure” Baek.
Needing a win on Eichenwalde to keep Match 2 alive, the Gladiators looked the goods in the very early going with a strong first point composition, but they were undone quickly by a very clever long flank from birdring as Tracer.
Once they got the payload moving, London just cruised all the way to the end of the route. They built up ultimates frighteningly quickly – especially birdring again as Hanzo – while their supports found themselves in unprecedented free space to operate.
The incredible turnaround from Match 1 was completed on defence, with a magnificent full hold completing a 3-0 map win and a 3-0 match win.
London simply got better as the match went on and, with the third and final match of the series taking place immediately afterward, it was looking very grim for the hometown Gladiators.
The Gladiators needed to regroup after a horror Match 2. (Photo: Robert Paul/Blizzard Entertainment)
They did get the first pick in the decisive Match 3, however, and they went back to where they had the hot start on Thursday in Junkertown. The Gladiators did a good job to take a fair bit of time off the clock with a strong first point hold, with Aaron “Bischu” Kim’s D.Va self-destructs particularly impressive.
But London pushed on. Some fantastic communication between Jan-hee “Gesture” Hong on Orisa Joon-yeong “Profit” Park set up several multi-kill dragonstrikes as the Spitfire rolled on to claim all three points.
In reply, however, Los Angeles went back to the trusty pirate ship comp and, despite an early roadblock, managed to roll through the first point quite easily. Bischu’s superb D.Va play was crucial again, including one instance of him eating an entire dragonstrike with defense matrix.
The second point was caught even quicker, with an insane double self-destruct seeing almost all of the players killed at once. The Gladiators were left with two tanks, while London had just a Junkrat, allowing for a very easy second point for the home team.
It was another ultimate frezny on the third point, although this time it was the Spitfire emerging from the rubble with superior numbers. With a massive amount of time to hold on, London were able to do just that and claim a crucial 3-2 victory on map one.
In desperate need of a victory, the Gladiators opted for familiarity again with the selection of Lijiang Tower. That said, their composition was anything but familiar, opting for a highly tailored composition of Pharah and Doomfist to counter the triple tank London team.
London got the early capture, but Los Angeles did a fantastic job to flip it at 68 and withstand an absolute barrage of ultimates to get it to 99. The Spitfire looked very much on the back foot, but some great Ana play by Jong-seok “NUS” Kim and Profit as Pharah saw them recapture the point, before a great Winston ultimate by Gesture kept LA at bay for a 1-0 lead.
It got even worse for the Gladiators on the second map. birdring got off the chain as Widowmaker once more as the Spitfire took a very easy 100-0 victory to put them just one map win away from completing the comeback victory.
Making their final stand on King’s Row, they simply got shredded on the first point. Surefour (as Widowmaker) found himself hassled effectively by bdosin’s Tracer, before Fury picked up a whopping four eliminations with the Roadhog ultimate to finish a clean take.
On the second point, it was a repeat of the Dorado dominance from Game 2, with BigGoose constantly picked off as Mercy early and Spitfire able to gobble up a Gladiators team suddenly devoid of healing. The third point was even easier for Spitfire, as they took all three points on offer with an enormous amount of time in the bank.
With their season on the line, Los Angeles laboured, but managed to take the first point in good time. Targeting the main tank broke the Spitfire defense, before some very aggressive play on the second point paid off despite the risk – a crucial triple kill courtesy of iRemiix’s earthshatter to thank.
They switched it up for the third point, however, getting very conservative with their ults and the discipline paid off. They got the payload the full distance, although they entered the timebank phase with a minute less than the Spitfire – getting the payload halfway to point B thanks to a great shutdown of a riptire by Silkthread’s Pharah.
In reply, London got the first point wrapped up quickly again, with Profit finding his best Hanzo form of the playoffs at right time. birdring – surely the man of the series – went off again, this time as Pharah, ripping the Gladiators defense apart on point B as his team secured a 5-4 map win, a 3-0 match win and a 2-1 series victory.
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