Overwatch League Recap Stage 2 | Week 2 | Day 2

Welcome to the Overwatch League S2W2D2 Recap! Surprising results were on the agenda for tonight, as teams who we didn't expect to emerge on top snatched the victories away from the favoured squads. From a first win to debut matches for some players, here is a recap on the latest Overwatch League action.

Final Scores

Teams highlighted in bold are the match winners.

Los Angeles Valiant vs Atlanta Reign – 3-2

Hangzhou Spark vs Boston Uprising  – 3-2

San Francisco Shock vs Guangzhou Charge – 4-0

Shanghai Dragons vs Chengdu Hunters   – 3-1

Highlights

Los Angeles Valiant versus Atlanta Reign

Incredibly, the Valiant have finally done it. After going a whole stage with no wins, the team in green and gold have secured their first win of the season against the Atlanta Reign. There were no particularly standout moments during the match, but fans of the Valiant should be installed with more confidence now that the team has picked up a win. Because of this, the victory itself should also install a lot more confidence into the squad themselves, as this win is most likely what they needed to pick themselves back up off the ground. With their new assistant coach, Promise, coming from the Florida Mayhem, the team now have new pieces to work with that can help them rebuild. That said, there is still lots of work to do for the Valiant, but things may finally be looking up.

Boston Uprising versus Hangzhou Spark

The Hangzhou Spark may finally be getting back into stride. After a strong start to the season, the Spark dropped off a little, losing 5 of their 8 matches in the first stage. Consequently, it seems they’re back in the saddle, and ready to get going again after they took the win over the Boston Uprising in an intense five-map series. But there was a new face on the scene for the Spark, as DPS player Krystal made his Overwatch League debut during the match. And he didn’t disappoint either.

After Hangzhou had captured the point on the third and final round of Oasis, percentage began to build, but the Uprising couldn’t avoid what Krystal had in store for them. The DPS player chose to play as Bastion to start out with, and by the time the team were reaching 20% capture progress, he already had his ultimate, and he unleashed chaos onto the Uprising with it. One by one, four members of the Uprising fell to clear them off the point, with each precise shot as deadly as the next. Because Boston had nobody left on the point, the percentage kept building, and Hangzhou would go on to win the map.

Guangzhou Charge versus San Francisco Shock

Unfortunately for fans of Guangzhou, the team was going up against a very tough opponent in the San Francisco Shock. And whilst you can always hope the match will be close, this was quite the opposite. The Shock rolled through the Charge in this match, earning a crisp, clean sweep over their opponents. There was nothing too exciting, but the Shock showed everybody that they are one of the teams to be scared of this season.

They’ve also picked up on utilizing the abilities of the new hero, Baptiste, very quickly. DPS player Rascal was in charge of Baptiste duties on Blizzard World during their defence round, placing his ultimate down in just the right position, as well as the Immortality Field to keep his team alive whilst they wiped out Guangzhou. The Shock managed to fully hold the Charge twice during the match, once on Blizzard World and again on Watchpoint Gibraltar, making for a very impressive showing from the team in orange.

Chengdu Hunters versus Shanghai Dragons

The final match of the night was one that any fan of the Shanghai Dragons should watch, as they came out of the gates swinging, and whilst the Hunters did manage to full hold them on Paris, they didn’t let that slow them down. The star moment of the match came from the frog queen herself, flex tank Geguri.

But as the clock ticked down for the Chengdu Hunters to push the cart forwards on the third point of Junkertown, DPS for the Hunters, Baconjack, used his Graviton Surge to hold some of the Dragons in place. But not Geguri. With her D.va ultimate ready, she launched it into the cluster of Chengdu players, taking down three of them with it. With only a minute left on the clock and the entirety of the Hunters now back at spawn, it was scrambling time for the team from Chengdu. But it wasn’t enough for them, and the Dragons took the match win.

Coming Up

SATURDAY 13TH APRIL

4 PM EST – London Spitfire vs Philadelphia Fusion

5:45 PM EST – Vancouver Titans vs Houston Outlaws

7:30 PM EST – Dallas Fuel vs Toronto Defiant

9:15 PM EST – Los Angeles Gladiators vs Guangzhou Charge

SUNDAY 14TH APRIL

4 PM EST – Dallas Fuel vs Paris Eternal

5:45 PM EST – Atlanta Reign vs Washington Justice

7:30 PM EST – New York Excelsior vs Florida Mayhem

9:15 PM EST – Los Angeles Valiant vs Los Angeles Gladiators

Images VIA: Robert Paul and Blizzard Entertainment