With another competitive stage of the Overwatch League completed, the regular season now halfway over, I’ve had ample time to re-watch, reflect, and collect some thoughts on the Stage 2 playoffs. This is the first part of a two-part ensemble I am doing on the Fusion’s wild playoff ride! After some background, let’s dive right into how the they were able to atomize the London Spitfire to the ends and show some highlights from one of the best series we have seen in Overwatch League thus far.

The Fusion’s Stage 2 regular season games went very well for them relative to Stage 1. The head coach of the team, Kirby, along with assistant coaches NamedHwi and Hayes, made the decision to start EQO (did not play the entirety of Stage 1) over Shadowburn against the Boston Uprising. His first official match could not have gone better. The Fusion rose to a level much higher than their play in Stage 1. EQO played his Genji with an element of team unity that Shadowburn simply did not have. Fragi’s dives were looking better, supports were dying less, and all around team cohesion looked great. The Fusion were dismantling one of the best Western teams from Stage 1. After winning the match 4–0, and the same against the Mayhem, Shadowburn was back in the lineup for week 2. Squeaking out with a victory against Houston and getting absolutely shutdown by the Spitfire did not convince Kirby and the staff that Shadowburn was the better option. EQO had cemented himself as one of the better DPS players in the league, with a diverse pool and top tier game knowledge. Fast forward to the end of Stage 2, Philadelphia was able to maneuver their way into 3rd place in the standings, giving them a shot at the Stage title. Their first barricade: the London Spitfire.

Fusion vs. Spitfire

Map 1: Watchpoint Gibraltar

London really displayed their dominance on Gibraltar; Nus, Fury, and Profit in particular. The Spitfire played a suffocation game right outside the server room and it worked phenomenally. They had every scenario covered. If Philly could come away with a pick off on to Bdosin or Profit, Gesture and/or Fury would execute a deep dive, which would allow Nus to resurrect the fallen player or allow enough time for them to run back.

Carpe lost almost every Tracer duel to Profit, highly uncharacteristic of the specialist. With Birdring and Fury keeping the long distance sight lines and chokes guarded, it was hell for Fragi and Poko. Fury was jetting all over the place, utilizing his Defense Matrix to keep his supports alive while also helping out his Tracer. All in all, London has Gibraltar down to a tee.

Map 2: Nepal

The Fusion came out strong on Nepal, showing the strength and patience of their dive. They started the round poking and prodding, trying to find a crack in the Spitfire defense. Gesture eventually is bursted down and Boombox finds a nice pick on to Profit. The Fusion continue to leverage their ultimate advantage effectively until they hit 99%-0%, where the Spitfire were finally able to overwhelm them. However, the team fight to retake the point really highlighted the difference in play between Shadowburn and EQO. EQO acknowledges a call from his Zenyatta, that a Tracer is on him, peeling all the way back to kill Profit and uses his dash reset to leverage himself into a superb position to pull out his Dragonblade and clean up the rest of players.

Round 2 was much more back and forth and included a variety of strategy and composition switches. Philly opened up with a surprise triple tank composition of Reinhardt, D.Va, Road Hog, Tracer, Moira, and Lucio. This caught the Spitfire off guard and they wasted no time in making switches of their own, going with a point-centric composition having their star DPS players, Profit and Birdring, flex on to Zarya and Reaper (One glaring weakness for this comp: minimal ranged damage). London immediately sped in and forced Philly on to the point where they were predictably torn apart by Birdring. Philly makes their switch by putting Poko on his signature hero, Zarya, and moving Boombox to his Zen. The most unexpected switch: EQO on D.Va. A very risky move running a triple tank set up with Lucio and Zenyatta as healers. There is not much healing available for such a large health pool, however once Poko gets charged up, the offensive capabilities of this composition really shines. The Fusion come to contest the Spitfire on the high ground while Carpe contests the point. This splits the Spitfire’s positioning, forcing them to keep a middle ground between the point and the other 5 Fusion members. Birdring takes a small flank in an unsuccessful attempt to kill Fragi. The Fusion take this opportunity to heal their main tank while Boombox and Carpe pick apart Birdring and Profit from range.

The Spitfire lose another fight and Birdring realizes that the Reaper will not work, moving over to the Junkrat. A huge earth-shatter from Gesture allows the team to take back the point and set up for the final team fight with a 2 support ultimate advantage. Birdring gets baited early by some Fusion members entering the point and EQO is able to rush him down and quickly dispose of him. This causes Bdosin to prematurely pull out his Coalescence and Nus to use his Sound Barrier, which allows Poko makes an incredibly intelligent play with his Graviton Surge. He tosses it on the left side of the point, isolating the tanks from the supports. Knowing the supports cannot heal the tanks in this position, Boombox triggers his Coalescence and the tanks melt away like popsicles left out in the sun. After some clean up, the Fusion win the point and the map! This becomes huge for their confidence, as Control was statistically their worst map type coming in, as stated by MonteCristo.

Poko with a big brain Grav play

Map 3: Hanamura

Boombox has been stellar for the Fusion so far, and he does not slow down in the least here. Opening up a Hanamura point A attack, he gets the first pick on to Birdring as Tracer and Profit as Genji (as he is pulling his blade out!). This allows for a relatively easy point A take. After 6+ minutes of stable defenses from the Spitfire, the Fusion are finally able to break through point B. The Spitfire put many of their resources into nano-boosting and supporting Profit’s Dragonblade to fend off Philly’s final push. The Fusion countered this extremely well. As soon as Boombox hears that Profit’s blade is out, he activates his Transcendence. Profit is able to take out Neptuno through the healing, BUT: Neptuno was able to chip Profit down to about 15 HP before falling. Profit then moves towards the fight on the point after getting healed up to 115 HP. That damage Neptuno did was key to the Fusion’s team fight victory, allowing EQO to administer a classic Genji dash reset opening. After winning what is presumably a 1v1 against Nus off camera, EQO swoops in, landing a a few shurikens and dashing through his counterpart.

On the flip side, London opens with a Mercy and McCree to attack point A. Neptuno capitalizes on this decision, using London’s lack of mobility to his advantage. He tosses opportune biotic grenades, anti-healing key players, all while his fellow support frags out on the Zenyatta. Boombox gets the better of Profit in multiple flanking situations, showing flashes of his Season 1 Contenders dominance. Birdring switches over to the Genji for the second half of the attack. The next dive from London is successful, with a pick off on to Boombox to start, a few more kills stave off the Fusion. But in the middle of all the fighting, Nus, Bdosin, and Profit fall. This provides a window of opportunity for the Fusion. Carpe and Poko are the first to enter the point, followed by a nano-boosted Fragi. Another top tier play is made by Neptuno here, a sleep dart on to Gesture. Carpe tosses his pulse bomb on to the snoozing monkey and initiates a man advantage situation for the Fusion. To counter this, Birdring pulls out a Dragonblade and dashes straight at Neptuno. Neptuno reacts quickly and is able to slam his biotic grenade on the ground which puts an anti-heal on the enemy Genji. Carpe and his top flight positioning are right there to clean him up. The Fusion win Hanamura with revised position reads and incredible individual plays from Boombox, EQO, Neptuno, and Carpe.

Map 4: King’s Row

Philadelphia carried their violent momentum straight into their first attack on King’s Row. Carpe as Hanzo makes a beeline to the backside of halls overlooking the point. This is the correct read from the Hanzo, poking against an Orisa/Junkrat composition is a recipe for disaster. Also, let it be known this is one of the riskiest flanks on King’s Row; if the flanker does not hit his shots, it is almost certain death. Carpe races up the wall and immediately activates his scatter-arrow and brings down Birdring and Bdosin effortlessly with a little help from Poko. This leads to Doa delivering one of the best lines of the match. The rest of the fight is standard clean up for Philly as they get rolling on the streets phase.

After a couple of team fights, the Fusion arrive close to the first checkpoint, where the ultimate apocalypse occurs: Profit uses his Riptire, Carpe uses his Dragonstrike, Poko uses his Graviton (eaten by Fury), Nus and Neptuno both use their Sound Barrier, Boombox and Bdosin both use their Coalescence, EQO and Fury use their Self-Destruct, and Birdring uses his Whole Hog. Ten ults, and the fight isn’t over. The 2 stand-out players in this team fight: Carpe and Poko. Carpe is furiously rebuilding his ultimate, while Poko is constantly applying pressure at 80+ charge, which ends up being too much for London. Carpe launches another Dragonstrike into the heart of the Spitfire to cap off the first checkpoint. The last phase of Philadelphia’s attack = Carpe’s Widowmaker. The Korean sharpshooter completely turned the tables on what was seemingly a lost fight for Philly. A headshot on to Birdring and Nus catalyzed and propelled the Fusion to the finish line.

This fierce attack from the Fusion seemed to have set something off in the minds of the Spitfire players, especially Gesture. These guys came out aggressive. Gesture leading the way, stomping right onto the point as Reinhardt, taking out Neptuno, and forcing the Fusion back. As the Spitfire take point A, Gesture has a full head of steam swiftly building his Earth-Shatter by swinging his hammer with multiple connections on each swing. The main tank does not slow down in the middle of the streets phase, as Fragi meekly walks up to meet him. He catches the enemy Reinhardt off-guard and slams his hammer on the ground, knocking down multiple members of the Fusion, plus a bonus Monte quip. A couple of ults nets them the first checkpoint, allotting themselves a time bank of 6:07 for the last phase of King’s Row, an unprecedentedly fast time. London looks to keep the momentum going, but the Fusion stabilize behind the valor and courage of Fragi’s Reformed Reinhardt. One can only imagine the amount of mind games that go through Reinhardt players heads when both of them have Earth-Shatter. He lands a charge onto Gesture and his team is right behind him to follow up. The Spitfire come straight back on their next push, Fury casually eats Poko’s Graviton (again), and Profit lands his own, which propels the team to the end. We’re going to extra innings!

Come on now, Poko! Fury eating Gravitons like candy on King’s Row

The Fusion’s second attack was all but competent, a complete flip from the first. Both teams came out with a triple tank composition, with Carpe on the Hanzo and Birdring on the Junkrat. Gesture initiated early fights, which caught Fragi off-guard, again. London kept on the pressure, up until Poko came through the hotel which was one of the most obvious and telegraphed Zarya flanks I have ever seen. He shoots his Graviton Surge on point and Fury stares straight into his face with his Defense Matrix activated. Birdring then kills 3 with his Riptire and ends the round for the Fusion, not able to take a single tick. This sets up London for an easy take and map win, tying up the series 2–2!

Map 5: Route 66

Before the map begins, the Fusion coaching staff make one of the smartest/riskiest moves I have seen in OWL so far. Kirby subs in Snillo, the Tracer specialist. The idea behind this substitution is that this allows Carpe to run Widowmaker, while also having a top flight Tracer on the battlefield as well. Route 66 makes for long sight lines and elaborate flanking routes, so running Widow/Tracer is a great strategy. On the London side of things, once they saw Snillo come in, they must have immediately knew the Fusion would be running the Widow/Tracer combination. In spite of that, did they prepare for it? Let’s find out.

London decides to mirror the Fusion’s projected composition, bringing out the Widow/Tracer as well. Running a Widowmaker also allows room for a Mercy on both sides, she can fly back to her as an escape route and damage boost for lethal damage on the sniper shots. For the first 2 points of the Fusion attack, the teams seem to go back and forth with the Fusion slowly grinding out wins. Just about halfway through the 3rd point is where things get interesting. That’s when Snillo went crazy. The tracer was running circles around the Spitfire to end the map, showing off his magnificent mechanics and stunning survivability. Doa mentions: “He was doing so much damage to Bdosin and Nus, they had to keep healing each other. Ending with 27% of team damage.” That says it all.

With the Fusion on the defense, it’s more Carpe Widow domination. Birdring realizes he cannot win the duel against him and makes a switch to the Genji after 3 minutes of unsuccessful pushes. Carpe makes a counter-switch to the McCree. London’s last push on point A begins with a pick onto Carpe. Once this happens, Fragi decides to dive deep into the Spitfire when his team is down 5v6. This was a fatal mistake by the Winston, had the Fusion retreated and given some payload space, Carpe would have returned and they could have re-contested as a team before the checkpoint was taken. Instead the Fusion are wiped and have to set up a defense for 2nd point.

Classic Fragi!

The positive side for the Fusion, they allow minimal time for the Spitfire to get through the 2nd point. After another grueling overtime push, the Spitfire reach the checkpoint and only have 1:10 to push the payload through the entirety of the 3rd point. This is where Carpe makes a very intuitive hero switch to the Widowmaker. He realizes with just over a minute left, the Spitfire will have to be glued to the payload for the rest of map. With no D.Va or Winston in his face, he gets free sniper shots as Widow. With Birdring and Profit separated from their tanks for their final push, London’s haphazard push falls apart all too quickly and Philadelphia wins the map and the series! A very perceptive switch from Carpe pushed the Fusion over the top and allowed them to take the series from the Stage 1 champions. Overall, a competitive and fiercely fought series between the two teams.

Final Thoughts

Firstly, London put up a fantastic fight and played well. After Gibraltar, I thought every single member of the Fusion had a great moment in this series where they shined. This is what team competition is all about, every member contributing to something greater than themselves and taking a victory that seemed out of their hands before it started. This can only be achieved when all members are in sync with the same mentality. Credit to the coaching staff of the Fusion for implementing new strategies, compositions, and reviewing their earlier matches against London. It is clear EQO and Snillo have elevated the Fusion to the upper echelon of the teams in the league and they are to be feared moving into Stage 3.

Some interesting statistics from this match:

The average Final Blows/10 min for Tracers during Stage 2: 8. Snillo’s Final Blows/10 min on Route 66? 21.

Teams Fights Won - Fusion: 34, London: 32

Carpe led all players in % of team’s eliminations at 38%

Kill count was 204–159 in favor of Fusion.

The Spitfire were led in Kills/10 min by Gesture, showing the level of focus the Fusion put on the enemy DPS.

This is the first part of my Fusion playoff recap, the second part against the NYXL will be out before the start of Stage 3!