Spitfire’s schedule

At first glance, it’s encouraging that London’s remaining matches don’t seem too difficult overall, with only one team that seems capable of challenging them even at their best, the Seoul Dynasty. The other 3 matches the Stage 1 winners are against the Shock, the Dragons, and the Fuel, three of the worst 4 teams in the League thus far.

In addition, earlier in Week 4, Seoul will have to face New York, the #1 team after Stage 1, who have continued their demonstration of being the team to beat in the Overwatch League. Depending on which match alwaysoov and his staff focus their preparation on, it could leave Dynasty vulnerable against the Spitfire.

However, a more in-depth look at London’s schedule reveals more difficulty than the list of their opponents would suggest. For both Week 4 and Week 5, the Aces will play on consecutive days, the Friday and Saturday in fact. As a result, they will enter their second match each week with less than 24h of recuperation and final preparation. For a team that seemed fatigued in the second half of their match against the Gladiators, this is a worrying issue.

In particular, their most dangerous opponent, Seoul will have 2 days to recover from their series with New York, while London will only have approximately 18 hours.

Week 4. Timezone shown is Central European Time

While Week 5’s opponents Shanghai and Dallas have both been lesser teams than the San Francisco Shock or Seoul Dynasty, the same scheduling pattern repeats itself. In fact, the time allowed for rest is even shorter!

Week 5. Timezone shown is Central European Time

Worse, if London qualifies for the playoffs, they’ll be forced to play again less than 24h after their last match, particularly if they aren’t in the 1st overall seed, a fairly likely scenario given how much would have to break their way to finish ahead of Gladiators, New York and Seoul.