The Overwatch League format includes four stages for Season 1. Each stage will have five weeks of gameplay which will see the twelve teams compete for the top spot. Judging by the results in the initial stage, the teams are much closer than many anticipated.

There were several key takeaways from Week 4, Stage 1 of Overwatch League. With only one week left to go, the rankings are slowly beginning to take shape. Still dominated by Korean teams, Week 4 saw a reshuffle yet again of the top ranks.

The Shuffle at the Top

The Korean teams are more evenly matched than many anticipated. But it’s still difficult to judge which team is the dominant team amongst the three.

The current rankings place London at the top but it’s only a game difference of One that differentiates London from New York. London have a game difference of +18, while New York Excelsior hhasa game difference of +17.

London Spitfire do not have any weaknesses

Ryujehong

The most important match for Week 4 was the London vs Seoul matchup. London is considered the team with the highest skill ceiling. Comprising of the G C Busan and the Kongdoo roster, this team’s bench itself could make a team worthy of an Overwatch League spot.

Mind Games

The mind games had started hours before the actual match. Seoul Dynasty tweeted mentioned Ryujehong as being the dominant force who will defeat London in their match. However, when the actual match started, Ryujehong was surprisingly absent. The coach mentioned later that they believed Gido’s style would be much more efficient against London Spitfire.

The Spitfire had plans of their own. Their starting roster included four members of the G C Busan roster. They had a dominant defense on the first three maps and Seoul were able to score their first point only on the fourth and final map.

Spitfire Dominated the Match

London Spitfire never looked in danger of potentially losing the match. Once the DPS duo were able to match Fleta’s game, it was a lot of the supports and the tanks. It is evident enough that London has the better support duo. This might seem unreasonable especially since Seoul have Ryujehong, one of the best Ana in the world. His Zenyatta play has also seen a significant improvement over the past few weeks.

However, the current meta does not require an Ana. With Seoul specifically lacking a good Mercy player, Tobi’s Valkyrie usage was very out of sync with the London DPS ultimates. Often times, Tobi would preemptively use his Valkyrie and would not be able to get full usage of one of the most effective hero ultimates in the game.

London top the charts

London’s 4-0 over Seoul means that they are now the best team in the Overwatch League. Ofcourse it is by a very slim margin; one that can easily be overcome by New York.

Week 5 will see the top two OWL teams compete against each other. Both London and New York are on Atlantic Division of the table. The winner of their match in week 5 will get a free pass to the finals of the Title Matches on Saturday.

The Silent Uprising

Amidst all the movement at the top of the table, we have had a silent mover in the middle of the pack. Boston Uprising are a team with no superstars at the start of the season. This is a team that has been put together by Huks from amongst the lesser known teams in the Overwatch Scene.

However, as the League progresses, they are making themselves known as a contender for the playoffs. They are definitely one of the better Western teams in the current scenario. They are currently ranked 5th in the Overall table and are the second best Western team behind Houston Outlaws. Ofcourse they still have two matches remaining for next week which will truly put them to test.

Week 4 saw Boston Uprising face off against the Valiant and the Gladiators. The two Los Angeles teams were unable to score a single map win against Boston. Dreamkazper and Strike have had amazing individual plays on the roster. There is a synergy that is clearly evident amongst the players. While Dreamkazper has had the flashiest plays on the team, his plays would never have been able if not for the remainder of the team.

They have been using Note on the D’va role a lot more than before. The significant uptick in their results is from the extra damage that an aggressive Note provides them. Note is constantly on the lookout to help his DPS in their battles against their counterparts. He will frequently matrix during a Pharah vs Pharah battle, providing an advantage to Dreamkazper.

Dreamkazper – A True Revelation

Dreamkazper’s flexibility on the variety of DPS heroes is what makes this team very strong. Throughout Overwatch League, there are very few teams which can boast of a player who plays a variety of heroes. Dreamkazper can play the hitscan as well as projectile type DPS with almost equal efficiency. This makes him a threat as it’s difficult to judge the player’s hero pool.

In their match against LA Valiant, Dreamkazper played ten different heroes. His performance and effectiveness have not diminished with the hero that he plays. With help from Striker and Gamsu, he has been able to shut down the enemy DPS players. Boston Uprising has some of the best Ultimate usage amongst the OWL teams. They hold onto support ultimates and have a true estimate of how the team fight is progressing. We saw an example in their Horizon Lunar Colony match, where they were able to save their Zenyatta Transcendence for the B point attack.

Boston Uprising is a team which has silently risen through the ranks. Next week they face off against Houston Outlaws and Philadelphia Fusion. They are the only team to be able to defeat London Spitfire. It will be interesting to see if they can continue to have such performances to become the best Western team in OWL.

Still at the Bottom

The bottom of the table in Overwatch league has remained the same for most of the season. Shanghai Dragons are yet to win a single match. Despite some decent performances against the stronger teams, Shanghai remains the only team to have yet won a match. Their roster looks incomplete and uncoordinated in a way that will require a lot of time and efforts to fix.

However, they have had stronger performances against Seoul Dynasty and were able to take a map off them in previous weeks. This week, however, Shanghai had the toughest week so far. They faced off against New York Excelsior and London Spitfire, the top teams in the League. Results went along expectations with Shanghai losing both the matches 0-4.

Florida Mayhem and Dallas Fuel comprise the other teams near the bottom of the table. While Florida has been plagued with roster issues and lack of performances on part of their DPS, Dallas has been the most surprising admission to the bottom of the table. Considered to be one of the strongest teams coming into the Overwatch League, Dallas has struggled against every team so far. Their only chance at victory this week was against Philadelphia Fusion, which they lost 0-4. They did manage to secure a map victory against New York, but that is a small consolation prize.

With Stage 1 coming to an end in a week, we don’t expect the bottom of the league to change much. However, Shanghai might have a chance at securing their first series win against Dallas Fuel next week.

Week 4 Power Rankings

We present our Power rankings at the end of Week 4. There have been shuffles at the top and the middle of the table, but the bottom looks very similar

London Spitfire New York Excelsior Seoul Dynasty Boston Uprising Houston Outlaws Philadelphia Fusion Los Angeles Valiant Los Angeles Gladiators San Francisco Shock Dallas Duel Florida Mayhem Shanghai Dragons

Does this match your rankings? Also will Shanghai be able to score their first win against Dallas next week? What do you think?