Robert Paul for Blizzard Entertainment JJoNak is one of the top Zenyatta players in OWL.
As Overwatch League moves deeper into Stage Two, this fourth week of action will be one of the most pivotal yet. The top three teams, who have separated themselves in the league, will all see action against each other.
Wednesday night, NYXL will take on Seoul in their second meeting of the season. NYXL won the first matchup 3-2 en route to becoming the top seed in the Stage One playoff. On Saturday, London and Seoul clash. Spitfire suffered their first loss of the stage last week against the Gladiators, but are still contending for one of three Stage playoff spots.
NYXL are comfortably ahead in the overall Overwatch League standings, to the point that the only thing that could drop them out of first is an 0-2 mark this week. They only lead Seoul Dynasty by one match in the standings, but have a massive 13-map lead for a tiebreaker. Things are much tighter for the upcoming Stage Two playoffs, as Seoul lead with NYXL and London trailing by one and two matches respectively.
Seoul are unbeaten in Stage Two, and have thus far avoided the mid-stage slump that sunk their playoff chances in Stage One. Whereas fans were dazzled by Fleta early on, Munchkin has cemented himself as the team’s second DPS. His play has frustrated some of the top tanks in Overwatch League, including this former player:
The meetings of these teams will reinforce the current “Rock, Paper, Scissors” comparisons the league has drawn. Each team has strengths and weaknesses, and no single squad matches up well against every top team. New York have been able to handle the likes of Seoul and Houston to this point, but have had issues with London. The Spitfire have won each of the previous two meetings against NYXL, with both matches coming down to a fifth map. After their most recent loss to London, NYXL have won four straight matches and 15 of 16 maps.
In each of their meetings, London has taken advantage of NYXL’s aggressive nature. They’ve beaten them thoroughly on payload-related maps, beating NYXL on Numbani, Dorado, and Watchpoint: Gibraltar in previous meetings. London has applied the pressure to keep NYXL staggered, especially with elite Tracer play from Birdring and Profit.
Regardless of result, these two matchups headline what could be the biggest week ever for the young Overwatch League. And when that week is finished, we could have a different look atop the league standings.