In between the latest drama in the Overwatch League, the Widowmaker highlight reels and the stellar Uber commentary lines, Los Angeles Gladiators have been grabbing a lot of attention for Stage Two. There is no doubting the improvement in the team from Stage One and this is in no small part down to the great signing of Fissure from London Spitfire. He was sitting on the bench there and while a few teams could have used his excellent tank play, Los Angeles Gladiators came out on top and are now reaping the rewards. I wanted to take a look at some of the changes and improvements that have come over the Gladiators from Stage One to Stage Two and see where it might lead them in the future.

In Control of their Results

The Gladiators finished the first stage with a disappointing record of 4-6, sitting at 8th in the standings. While people may have said this result was about right there were times when the team seemed like they could achieve more. With one week to go in Stage two they have already improved on their record. They sit in third place with a very nice 6-2 record. With still some work to do they could grab a Stage Two play off place (7-3 was good enough in Stage One). And while still sitting outside the overall playoff places, they are trending upwards while some of the other teams are dropping off.

You can see just how strong this improvement has been, broken down by map types in the chart below. For Stage One they had no positive win percentage on any map type, their worst being Escort, only picking up 3 wins in the 10 matches. And while this has been their weakest again in Stage Two (they have one draw on Assault), they have really improved on every map type. This is best shown in the improvement on Control matches. Improving by 47.5% and only losing once to Seoul in week 2 with an overall record of 7-1 (8-1 including an extra map win).

Their points difference on control maps for Stage Two tells a similar story. Improving from 9-14 (12-15 with extra map) in Stage One to a very impressive 14-5 (16-5). If they can get this improvement into their Escort and Assault maps they should be able to compete at the top for the rest of the season and potentially make a playoff run.

No Mercy For the Opposition

Another big change that hit the Overwatch League in between stages was the Mercy nerf and I think its important to take note of that here too. Here’s a quick breakdown of the top 10 compositions by play times for the Los Angeles Gladiators.

In Stage One only one of their compositions was not Mercy-Zenyatta. However in Stage Two you can see a much larger amount of diversity since the reliance on Mercy was dropped. I think this has favoured a lot of teams in the league, JJoNak and Ark come to mind. But in regards to the Gladiators, BigGoose was seen as a decent Lucio player back in Contenders for Giganti. In Stage One he only played 1hr 30mins hours on Lucio putting in 6hr 30 mins on Mercy. He still had a 53.93% win rate on Lucio in Stage One it just wasn’t a viable pick for most matches. However for Stage two he has been able to go back to his Lucio play, while still pulling out Mercy when its needed. He has 3 hrs 50 mins so far on Lucio and only just over 2 hours on Mercy.

When a Hero Comes Along

And now the undeniable change to the Los Angeles Gladiators has been the signing of Fissure. Anyone who followed Apex remembers how good he was with Kongdoo Panthera. Only playing for just over an hour it seemed like such a waste to have him on the bench but he was sitting behind Gesture who seemed like the best Tank in Stage One. Gladiators played Stage One with iRemiix in the tank role and struggled behind him. Below you can see a quick comparison of win rate and fight win percentage between the two players on the core three tanks. They are winning more fights with Fissure which is leading to map and match wins.

I have picked out a few of stats that show the impact Fissure is having to the team. He is getting more first kills with Winston which is huge considering how much play time is on Winston. Getting that opening kill can lead the way for everyone else to follow in behind and win a fight. While he is dying less overall I think the drop in first death is a significant advantage. Losing the main tank in a team fight is hard to come back from. Of course in Stage One first death meant a lot less due to Mercy but it means even more now that Fissure is not dying first in the team. PLUW stands for winning a fight when using an ult with x less players than the opposition. These percentages are much higher proving the impact he can have on an individual basis to a team and a team fight. Hes also just generating more Ults as shown by the Ults per 10 minutes.

You can also see how he ranks versus the rest of the league. I have compared players via their Winston stats due to the overwhelming amount of play time on the hero for Main Tank players. He sits second in most core statistics, behind Gesture in most cases. Showing why he wasn’t starting in Stage One but also demonstrating why he needs to be starting for some other team.

And at the end of the day stats cannot capture impressive moments such as split second timing on a shield which you can only see by watching him play. Stats can only go so far in analysing these players.

Gladiators… I salute you

I have been thoroughly enjoying this improved Gladiators in Stage two. They have mixed up their compositions, played with some style and added one of the best tanks in the game to the roster. They have worked nice rotations through the DPS players each bringing something a little different to a game. They will be fighting for their Stage Two playoff place with games against Boston and Philadelphia this week. To make the playoffs would be a just reward for the resurgence in stage two. If they were to win both it could also land them into play off places in the overall standings as well. With some of the other mid tier teams form dipping recently the Gladiators are in prime position to rise up and prove their worth at the top of the Overwatch League.