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OWL Power Rankings, Stage 1, Week 4

@RNach_ 2018-02-06 05:53:26

With 4 weeks of Overwatch League behind us, fans have had the opportunity to see each of the twelve teams play at least 32 maps and everyoones is starting to have an understanding of what each team has to offer for the time being. In my own attempts to decipher the official standings, recent form and surrounding context, I've formed a power ranking in which I rank and separate the teams in several tiers. The criteria is a mix of overall performance during the past four weeks, recent form, performances against the upper echelon of teams, official record, and, last but not least, a healthy portion of the old-fashioned eye-test.

Tier 1, the elite -- these are the teams who are the favorites to come out as the winner of the stage 1 title matches and pick up the hefty cash bonus. Whereas, in the first few weeks, the league's cream of the crop seemed somewhat invulnerable to the lesser squads, the last few sets have shown that the teams in this tier are anything but. Bad form for a week from the elite or a particularly good day from a mid-table team can still be the difference maker between either of these two waiting in the grand final or sitting out the stage 1 title matches.

1. New York Excelsior, 7-1

Notable results: 3-2 win over Seoul Dynasty 3-1 win over Houston Outlaws 2-3 loss to Philadelphia Fusion

2. London Spitfire, 7-1

Notable results: 4-0 win over Seoul Dynasty 3-2 win over Los Angeles Valiant 2-3 loss to Boston Uprising

The #1 and #2 positions are as close as it gets. Even though NYXL had harder time overcoming Seoul Dynasty than London did, the latter still don't appear to have figured out their exact starting lineup as of the last week. The variance in performances, which has followed changes in playstyle the starting six, makes me anxious to give them the #1 spot. The issues exist in part due to, as head coach Bishop said himself, them having too much talent on the roster but are also a result of their lack of success when attempting to branch out of the Junkrat meta. Spitfire's clean sweep over RJH-less Seoul was most certainly impressive, but the Excelsior has looked much more consistent across the board, especially so when it comes to their approach to the game.

Both elite squads dropped series to teams outside of the top4 during week 3, but London did it in a much more questionable manner. The Excelsior had a match against Seoul to focus on during the same week they dropped a 2-3 set to the Fusion and that likely played a part in their loss to the Fusion. Spitfire, on the other hand, lost to Boston with the other match they had to prepare for being against the Shock. The latter have been sitting in the bottom half of the standings for the better part of the season and have never been looked at as a top team, on top of still missing some of their key players due to the league's age restrictions. Fusion and Uprising have proven to be similarly dangerous, mid-table teams, but the excuse that London was too focused on San Francisco and that's why they lost to Boston is a poor one. As much as the Boston has been on the up and up, birdring and co.'s loss was in a significant part a result of poor execution during fights, not using ultimates properly and lack of taking the initiative. Even if they had to play on seven different maps in the span of two days, the lack of synergy Spitfire shows sometimes is hard to understand or excuse at this point, especially in the context of some of the much more crisp performances they've shown. Additionally, excluding the week 5 matchup against London,  Saebyeolbe and co. have gone through all the top opponents and their other matchup to close out stage 1 is against Florida Mayhem. Spitfire, on the flip side, have the Houston Outlaws to get through as well.

One of the things Bishop's boys have going for them, however, is that they'll have to prepare for only 5 maps in Stage 1's final week. And if the team comes out in the same red-hot form they showcased last week, Spitfire will be seeing their team waiting in the stage 1 title matches grand final.

Tier 1.5, the teams who do their job -- these teams still have a the toolset to beat the T1, but from what they've shown so far, are unlikely to do so. Still, there's enough of a discrepancy between them and the teams in the surrounding tiers to put them in a group of their own. Excluding Houston's shaky first week, which saw them lose a close 2-3 to the Fusion, both squads have been able to reliably deal with the teams from the bottom tiers, but proven inferior to Spitfire and Excelsior. In other words, they are doing their job and, as a result, their positions in my ranking completely coincide with their standings based on team records.

3. Seoul Dynasty, 6-2

Notable results: 3-2 win over Houston Outlaws 2-3 loss to New York Excelsior 4-0 win over Boston Uprising

Houston's stronger run in the last few weeks may cause some to them above Seoul for some, but not for me. However, the LiNkzr-less Outlaws put up close enough of a fight for viewers to start questioning the form in which Korea's golden boys find themselves. On top of the current metagame not being optimal for tobi, the squad as a whole has had issues in dealing with top Junkrat players. Perhaps, if the star Finn was present, Houston could have come out on top and that likely would have been enough for them to rank above Seoul here. Nonetheless, Outlaws are just one more name added to the list of teams who can say 'what if' after a loss against Dynasty and teams can only be evaluated upon what happened. As much credit as I give the boys in green for pushing Seoul to a fifth map, it's hard to rank Houston higher because of that.

Additionally, while RJH's boys have had slightly rougher time and some of their roughness exposed during the last two weeks, it has happened against the other 3 best teams in the league. In the meantime, Houston's only match against a potential title contender since week one has been the one against Seoul. Even if their recent form has looked slightly better, week 5 is about to put them in a significantly tougher position with matches against London -- who is currently #1 in the standings -- and a surging Boston Uprising, who are coming off of a two clean sweeps against the Gladiators and the Valiant.

4. Houston, 5-3

Notable results: 2-3 loss to Seoul Dynasty 4-0 win over Dallas Fuel 1-3 loss to New York Excelsior

Tier 2, what's going on here?! -- the general theme for the squads in this tier is inconsistency. On a good day, when everything goes their way, these squads have it in them to challenge anyone on the league. On a bad day, however, same team might be getting dangerously close to gifting the Shanghai Dragons their first series. Akin to any team in the league, T2 squads are still experimenting with rosters and playstyles, trying to figure out their team's color, as Koreans call it. More than any other tier though, the teams listed here seem like they're having identity crisis at times. Best example for this, as well as a team representative of the whole tier, is the Fusion. Last week, we saw them attempt a slower-pace game in a match against an uNKOE-less Valiant, which, if they had won it, could have pushed them within the reach of stage 1 title matches. Instead, they lost 0-4 and, even if the set was closer than the score suggests, that put them out of the current top6.

 

5. Boston Uprising, 5-3

Notable results: 4-0 win over Los Angeles Valiant 3-2 win over London Spitfire 2-3 loss to San Francisco Shock

"Wow!" -- that's all I had to say after Uprising's last week.

After the losses during week 2 and the two close wins during week 3, it was hard to get a read on them. In the 3-2 against the Spitfire, they impressed even if the fully-Korean squad itself didn't look nearly as good as they did last week. Conversely, the 3-2 against the Fuel raised some eyebrows, as Dallas has been struggling mightily to get map wins on their record, even if they almost never lose one without showing promise.

This week, however, they came out strong and delivered two series after which is hard to rank them below Valiant and Philadelphia, as much as I believe next week we'll see Boston's level go down a notch. While the win over the Gladiators was expected and not as convincing as the score suggests, the one against the Valiant sealed their ranking of fifth for this week. Lead by the increasingly impressive DreamKazper, they swept the green-and-gold L.A. team. Admittedly the latter missed two of their better players in uNKOE and silkthread, but it's hard to believe that the two would have made much of a difference with how hot Boston was. Uprising always looked one step ahead of their Valiant, be it the overall strategy, approach to the current fight or just the ability to do more in the clutch. Unless SoOn and co. had been working on something completely different in practice and they couldn't hope to execute it due to Agilities' limitations, the results wouldn't have been much different with uNKOE and silkthread. However, this is all guesswork and that's neither here nor there.

What isn't an assumption is that next week's games for Philadelphia and Houston look quite a bit tougher than presumed prior to week 4. The Outlaws in particular are suddenly finding themselves in a very real danger of dropping down to 5-5 match score, which would be unpleasant for them, to put it mildly, after going on a 16 maps winning streak.

 

6. Los Angeles Valiant, 5-3

Notable results: 4-0 win over Philadelphia Fusion 0-4 loss to Boston Uprising 2-3 loss to London Spitfire

 

7. Philadelphia Fusion, 5-3

Notable results: 3-2 win over New York Excelsior 3-2 win over Shanghai Dragons 0-4 loss to Los Angeles Valiant

Tier 3, don't let go of hope ... yet -- it's been a tough going for the teams below. Each of them lacks in certain aspect of the game. For Dallas Fuel, the fact that the metagame doesn't fit them has been exacerbated by xQc's suspension. The Gladiators have had poor teamwork in addition to a questionable level of star-power; the roster features strong individual performers, but the level of skill is far from enough to beat playoff teams off of it alone. As for the Shock, I bet they really wish they could be using their under-eighteen players right now. Regardless, each of the squads has also shown promise to a varying degree and their fans shouldn't lose hope ... for the time being.

 

8. Dallas Fuel, 1-7

Notable results: 3-0 win over San Francisco Shock 1-3 loss to New York Excelsior 0-4 loss to Philadelphia Fusion

 

10. Los Angeles Gladiators, 3-5

Notable results: 2-3 loss to Los Angeles Valiant 0-4 loss to Boston Uprising 3-2 win over Philadelphia Fusion

 

9. San Francisco Shock, 3-5

Notable results: 1-3 loss to Houston Outlaws 1-3 loss to London Spitfire 3-2 win over Boston Uprising

Tier 4, don't ask, don't tell -- I've adopted a new policy when it comes to the Florida Mayhem. Unless someone asks me specifically whether I thought they'd be doing much better, I don't talk about it.

If Fuel's start to the season was disappointing, then Mayhem's was completely baffling. It's clear that the metagame has a lot to do with their headache, but they've been uncharacteristically lacking in terms of teamplay as well. The individual skill is still there, ripe for the picking. A shift in the meta could easily put them back in the playoffs race. However, if the squad has lost faith in its shot calling, even a patch changes that favor them might not be enough to turn the team around, without severe roster changes.

11. Florida Mayhem, 1-7

Notable results: 1-3 loss to Los Angeles Gladiators 0-4 loss to San Francisco Shock 1-3 loss to Los Angeles Valiant

 

Tier 5, the team is in the Overwatch League ... and it features no relegation system of any sort -- unfortunately, there's not much to be said about the Dragons. They've been showing incremental improvements over time and scored some maps, but the fact that they haven't won a series and lost 0-4 to the Mayhem say enough on their own. Learning basic positioning within the current metagame and improving their teamplay is good for the team, but it will not get a team too far when they're competing against the best teams in the world. Shanghai has picked up some maps, but, as much as I don't want to take the importance of those away from the team, three of the maps they won were taken off of teams who were facing NYXL in the same week. As a result, both of them likely spent little to no time preparing for the Dragons match.

12. Shanghai Dragons, 0-8

Notable results: 2-3 loss to Philadelphia Fusion 1-3 loss to Seoul Dynasty 0-4 loss to Florida Mayhem

 

What do you think of the rankings? Do you agree with them? Where did we rank your favorite team? Let us know on Twitter at @EsportsHeaven and @RadoNonfire!

Photo credits: Activision Blizzard

About the author: Hello, readers! I go by the ID RadoN and I’ve been watching different esports since I found out about the industry in 2009. The titles I follow closely for the time being are Overwatch, CS:GO and Quake, while occasionally dabbling in some other games as well. If you wish to reach out, follow future content, or simply know more about my thoughts on esports and gaming, you can find me on Twitter at @RadoNonfire.

 

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