Last Saturday, the Los Angeles Gladiators, one of the most inconsistent teams of the league, managed to take a 3–1 upset victory over the London Spitfire, the reigning Stage 1 champions. It was an absolute cracker of a game — competitive, engaging and entertaining. But it was also a match that showed off all of the unique elements of the league structure. If Blizzard wanted one match to sell people on their shiny new esports league, this was it.

Aaron ‘Bischu’ Kim, Chan-hyung ‘Fissure’ Baek and Lane ‘Surefour’ Roberts enter the arena.

Before the match started, the desk laid out the context — in between stages, London Spitfire had traded Fissure, one of their two main tank players, over to the Los Angeles Gladiators. This came after Fissure had voiced concerns that he wasn’t getting enough play time over the Spitfire’s other main tank, Gesture. The Gladiators vs Spitfire match was not just the first time Fissure would go up against his former teammates, but also the first time the two teams had played each other at all (due to the league’s schedules, where teams play every other team bar one in each stage). The Gladiators came into the Spitfire game with a 3–2 record in Stage 2 and Fissure had been instrumental in each of those three victories. It was a great setup for the match and an great example of the storylines we were promised when Blizzard advocated for the American league system.

Fissure had a fantastic performance throughout the match and his Stage 2 performance has clearly had a trickle-down effect to the rest of the team. Bischu looks comfortable with Fissure despite the absence of his longtime tank partner iRemiix. The DPS were on fire — Asher was landing pulse bomb after pulse bomb, Surefour performed well on multiple heroes and Hydration played out of his mind on Pharah. The support duo of Shaz and BigGoose showed depth in their healer picks, whilst Shaz also flexed off to Genji and Mei on Volskaya Industries whilst Surefour played Sombra. The team looked coordinated, flexible and confident, as any good Overwatch team should. They also used unconventional hero picks and team compositions, which keeps games refreshing and exciting for viewers.

Fissure jokes and celebrates on his stream after the match.

This isn’t to take away from the London Spitfire, who were just as fun to watch. With one of the larger player rosters in the league, London split up their players across their two games this week. For the first two maps against the Gladiators, London played their ‘B-team’ (so to speak) who hadn’t played against the Boston Uprising the day before, with the exception of Profit and Gesture who played all maps in both games. When things started to go south for London, they swapped out the four B-team players for the rest of the A-team. Subbing out four players in between maps rarely happens in competitive Overwatch and it’s exciting to see a team field two almost entirely different rosters in one match. When they came in, the Spitfire A-team looked shaky to start on King’s Row and lost the map (and therefore the series) to the Gladiators.

They did manage to pull things back together and win map four, Route 66. If anything, the fourth map was the only frustrating part of the series — the much-lamented OWL Best of 4 format meant there were no short-term stakes during map four, as the series had already been won (as has been the case in many other matches so far). Despite the casters constant reminders that map score will matter come stage or season playoffs, it doesn’t help the pace of the games in the short term.

“You know what Hydration in the sky is called Matt? Rain.”

It wasn’t just the gameplay itself that was fantastic in this series though. The production was at a season high during the match. The desk provided good context and analysis. The casters, Uber and Mr X, were electric throughout the series. Uber’s play-by-play casting was at its best, remaining exciting, ingenious and incredibly natural. After each of Uber’s play-by-plays, Mr X followed up perfectly with great analysis and further clarification. The casting was really on another level for this game and the Overwatch League is lucky to have such great talent. It felt like we were listening to seasoned professionals who had been casting Overwatch for much longer than just a few years.

Statistics were also used excellently throughout the series. Mr X and Uber created a fantastic stats narrative as the series progressed, first giving statistics to show Shaz’s domination on Zenyatta over Hagopuen, then showing how the tables turned once Bdosin had been subbed in for map three. It was the perfect use of statistics, an area in which the OWL has struggled to extract full potential from in its first season.

Statistics were used to highlight Bdosin’s impact once he was subbed in for map three.

The spectating was also a highlight of the match. Criticised by the community during Stage 1, the spectating team have made visible improvements in the last few weeks according to community feedback and all of those changes were on display in this week’s match. Whilst still not perfect, the spectating has made leaps and bound from Stage 1 and was generally on point in the Gladiators vs Spitfire match. There was also an instance between rounds on Volskaya Industries where Uber and Mr X were discussing the outcome Shaz’s Mei ultimate, at which point the spectating team rolled a highlight to show that ultimate had been swallowed by Whooyal’s D.Va. It was a seamless transition that worked so well to address the unavoidable problems with Overwatch spectating, as well as the difficulties faced by casters in being able to catch all the plays in any given match.

The OWL spectating team follow up Uber and Mr X’s analysis with a replay for further clarification.

The series was truly a highlight of the Overwatch League’s first season thus far. There have probably been better, longer and more thrilling matches and other people probably have their own personal favourites. However, this was a match that truly encompassed the unique elements that the OWL brings to the Overwatch esports scene. From the top tier production to the team storylines to the constantly competitive gameplay — this was everything that the Overwatch League had promised to be and so much more. If you want to see the OWL at its very best, look no further than the Gladiators vs the Spitfire.

Photos by Robert Paul and released for publication by Blizzard Entertainment.

An earlier version of this article claimed Surefour had a great performance on Hanzo on King’s Row, which was statistically erroneous. This has since been amended.