The Philadelphia Fusion have done what many thought to be impossible by upsetting the No. 1-seeded team in the Overwatch League, denying New York Excelsior the chance for a grand finals homecoming.

The two-time Stage champions have been widely considered as the world’s best Overwatch League team for a majority of the regular season, but NYXL have fallen under the feet of the rapidly rising Fusion, who look stronger than ever in this playoffs meta. On paper, no one had expected this result, including the entirety of the casting desk and analysts panel who had anticipated an NYXL victory against the Fusion.

This once “underdog” team has developed itself over the course of the season into one of the best rosters the league has to offer. The group boasts the All-Star DPS duo of Carpe and Eqo, backed up by the flexible tank trio of Poko, Sado and Hotba, whose health bars were topped off by the aggressive support duo of Boombox and Neptuno.

The Fusion steamrolled over the NYXL in their first clash and followed it up with a five-map series that had fans around the world on the edge of their seats, as they pulled off one of the greatest OWL upsets to date, finishing the semifinals with a hard-fought, 2-0 victory.

While the series was close throughout its duration, there were vital plays and decisions made that turned the odds to the Fusion's favor. So let's break down the five most impactful moments in the explosive second series between the New York Excelsior and the Philadelphia Fusion.

5. Macro Play matters

It's always a gamble to swap team compositions mid-game, especially at this high of a level, as you face the penalty of an ultimate charge reset. For professional teams, such a hindrance can easily be overlooked when considering the vast differences in strengths, weaknesses and utility that can be taken advantage of with different hero choices.

Given how each player has a specific pool of heroes they’ve dedicated their time to mastering, it is not uncommon for teams to substitute their members on a map-to-map basis. For this pivotal semifinals series, the coaching staff's decision to implement semi-frequent player swaps proved to be instrumental in the following Fusion offense on Junkertown (watch here).

Although the fight initially appears to be evenly matched with eliminations coming in for both sides, the key to victory was in the superior mobility of the Fusion tanks. With each kill, the tank duo was able to push forward and generate an increasing amount of space for the Fusion, effectively enabling them to expand their area of control.

As the fight progresses, the Fusion are able to take control of the pace of the match and re-engage at a higher rate from spawn thanks to the mobility of their composition. NYXL with its slower composition fail to retreat fast enough, and as a result, the fight begins to snowball in Philadelphia's favor. The Fusion eventually take the map due to their high mobility aggression. This is Overwatch macro play at its finest.

4. Life on the razor's edge

During Fusion’s Junkertown defense, we saw the second decisive play of the match featuring the Overwatch League’s infamous battle Mercy, Neptuno. In the midst of a high-pressure situation, the Fusion support player was able to pull off a high-value resurrection play that most would consider being far too risky to even attempt, especially in such a crucial series, but it's plays like these that separate the good Mercy mains from the best.

Losing the main tank on a retake can be crippling, especially when the corpse is in clear sight of an entire enemy team, making it near impossible to pull off the resurrection. Even without a D.Va to provide him with a protective Defense Matrix, Neptuno manages to pull off the game-saving hero revival followed by a high-value Valkyrie to help his team clean up the ensuing fight (watch here).

3. Kicking down the door

Coming into the series, King's Row was, statistically speaking, a favored map for NYXL. The Excelsior had an impressive 10-1 win rate on it, a map that famously has had many full holds by this dominant Korean roster. However, Overwatch League is a gathering of the most exceptional players available, and one pick is enough for a carefully structured defense to completely collapse.

Here we can see Janus, the main tank of NYXL, separate himself from his team, heading for cover under the statue of Mondatta. However, Janus gets intercepted and taken down by EQO, ending NYXL’s first-point defenses right at the start of the map, which effectively enabled the Fusion to take a win on of NYXL’s best maps (watch here).

2. Poko's anti-support Poko-Bomb

NYXL’s support duo is world famous, especially the League's first MVP, Jjonak, who can wipe out an entire team if left unchecked. During the Fusion’s final push on Dorado, Jjonak was in the midst of a rampage when Poko turned the fight in the Fusion’s favor. With a well-timed D.Va bomb, followed by rushing down the lone Jjonak, Poko managed to take out all three of NYXL’s supports, swinging a lost fight into a match-winning situation (watch here).

1. Carpe leaping through the Dragon Gate

As one of the candidates favored to win the MVP award, Carpe, as most Overwatch League fans will know, is one of the most fearsome players when it comes to his immaculate DPS play.

Despite the abundance of highlight-reel worthy plays throughout the season, this single moment may have been one of his greatest moments of brilliance to date. In a series of duels, Carpe takes on all three of the damage threats from NYXL, sending them all straight back to spawn. In the event that the Fusion tanks fall victim to an Earthshatter combo, if the enemy loses all three of their damage dealers, then it is definitely a winnable fight (watch here).