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Overwatch League playoff preview: New York Excelsior

New York are one of the favourites for 2019. (Photo: Robert Paul/Blizzard Entertainment)
Expert
15th July, 2018
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We are looking at all of the teams making it into the Overwatch League playoffs and today we look at the most formidable team in the league, the New York Excelsior.

New York, New York they’re a hell of a team and they’re the favourites to take home the big win.

The season that was
The Excelsior are the team with the biggest bragging rights out of anyone having made it into the finals for each stage. They lost to other finalists London in the finals for stage one but this was back when the Spitfire were a terrifying force to be reckoned with and it was a close 3–2 match.

Stage two saw them take it back in the finals when London were knocked out in an upset victory by one of the other teams out make it to the playoffs the Philadelphia Fusion. This put the Excelsior up against the Fusion and they defeated Philadelphia with their own 3–2 win and really solidified them as top contenders in the league.

Then came stage three where New York faced off against the Boston Uprising who were just knocked out of the playoffs. They defeated them handily in a 3–0 fight and were looking completely unstoppable.

But the streak was halted by another playoff team the LA Valient who took the stage four finals with three wins to New York’s one map. It’s easy to see this recent loss as a sign of decline for the team – but it’s really not that simple.

Photo: Robert Paul for Blizzard Entertainment

The Excelsior incredible consistency has allowed them to maintain an absolutely crushing lead over the other teams. The completely eclipse everyone else with their +83 differential which is more than half of the next team on the ladder. We started to see them slump slightly in stage four and lose to Valient in the big finish but to hear New York tell it, there’s a reason for this.

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This team claims they’re coasting, resting. Star widowmaker player Do-hyeon “Pine” Kim once explained in a post-match interview that they were cooling their heals as they knew they were in the playoffs no matter what. Rather than bring their A game to the field they’ve chosen to hang back and rest without revealing their top hands.

Now if this is true and New York are just secretly waiting to annihilate the other players this could be terrifying. On the other hand, it could all just be an excuse for a bit of a dip in play but they’re just so good I’m inclined to believe them.

Why they can win it
Because they’re the best.

You can’t look at that map differential and not see that this team clearly and sharply outclasses everyone else in the Overwatch League. That isn’t to say they haven’t had losses – like I’ve already said they lost to London during stage one and they’ve been defeated by Valiant twice in stage 4 which is very recent history.

They have some of the best players on the league which has been proven with Seong-Hyun ‘Jjonak’ Bang recently being crowned the Overwatch League MVP for his deadly Zenyatta play. The crazy part is that’s their healer! This team is almost always running triple DPS even when they’re not.

If it’s true that this team has been biding their time and resting up, practicing secret strategies and unheard of metas then they also have the element of surprise. Every other team in the playoffs has had to fight for their spot and show all their cards. New York did the hard yards in the early season collecting map wins if I was going up against them not even knowing what to prepare for I would be terrified.

It’s a big series for…
The snipers.

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Their next map is up against the Philadelphia Fusion who have had a very impressive time in the playoffs but haven’t beaten NYXL since stage one. The Fusion have been doing well in part thanks to their double sniper composition but that could be nothing compared to what Excelsior may well bust out.

As mentioned before, Pine is a living highlight real of a sniper pulling off intense widowmaker plays which seem impossible. Then you’ve got Hae-Seong ‘Libero’ Kim who has one of the league’s better Hanzo records up his sleeve.

This meta could boost the Excelsior up to new heights as they’re one of the teams better built for it and with games we’ve seen so far, it looks like teams with good Hanzo players will certainly excel.

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