Seoul Dynasty, Houston Outlaws Eliminated from OWL Playoff Race

Sydney Olmstead 6 years ago
Overwatch League playoffs
Overwatch League playoffs
Sydney Olmstead 6 years ago

The Overwatch League’s playoffs are closing in and two teams were eliminated from the race on Friday: Seoul Dynasty and Houston Outlaws.

Houston needed a win Friday in order to have a chance of making it to postseason. This was going to be a challenge, since they were set to face off against the top team in the OWL, New York Excelsior. But there was a chance for the Outlaws; Excelsior was 1-3 in their past four matches heading into Friday’s game.

That turned out not to be enough to tip the odds in Houston’s favor, though.

Overwatch League playoffs

The Outlaws started strong and even gained an early 2-1 lead in the series, but New York proved too much for them to handle. Houston will finish with a 6-4 record in Stage Four and will likely make the stage title matches thanks to their positive four-map differential above Philadelphia Fusion and Dallas Fuel.

But even the possibility of Stage Four’s six figure top prize is little consolation for a team that showed a lot of promise at the beginning of the season.

Seoul needed a win against one of the League’s top teams right now, the Los Angeles Gladiators, in order to have a shot at playoffs. The Gladiators even kept their MVP candidate, main tank Baek “Fissure” Chan-hyung, on the bench for the day due to illness, but that didn’t seem to help Dynasty much.

The Gladiators took the series 3-1, demonstrating some creative strategies against Seoul. Dynasty came out strong with a win on King’s Row, but after that it seemed to fall apart for them as the series went on.

Overwatch League playoffs

Seoul also struck quickly on Hanamura, taking the first point on their first attack, but ended up falling to a Gladiators defense that utilized Mei to boost Bastion above the final point. There, he was able to deal some heavy damage in his turret form due to Dynasty’s split support and tank composition. Even after Seoul adjusted, Lane “Surefour” Roberts just switched to Widowmaker and took them out with the sniper.

On Oasis, Seoul had some good chances, but blew them by wasting some key ultimates. Then, Dynasty almost full held the Gladiators on Gibraltor until Joao Pedro “Hydration” Goes Telles pulled out Doomfist and made quick work of his opponents.

Seoul Dynasty was expected to challenge for the title at the beginning of the season, but has ultimately come up short. They haven’t managed to make the stage title matches in any of the four stages and have consistently put out below-average play. Their loss on Friday means the Philadelphia Fusion will take the final spot in the OWL playoffs by default, no matter who wins on Saturday against the London Spitfire.