London Spitfire continue to soar in the Overwatch League
The London team remain unbeaten in Overwatch League with victory over Dallas Fuel.
Last Updated: 23/01/18 11:07am
The London Spitfire continued their unbeaten run in Overwatch League this weekend. Dallas Fuel stood in the way of Spitfire in the first match of week two with Junkertown, Lunar Horizon Colony, Oasis and Numbani the predetermined maps in the rotation.
Junkertown as a map is not one that many are particularly enamoured with. There are a few chokepoints in the design that can make it incredibly difficult to push and complete the objective.
London, however, made short work of the attack. The first two points were made to look easy before Dallas put up some resistance come the third and final.
A three tank lineup from the Fuel looked fairly limited, with star DPS player Birdring nipping in and out and wreaking havoc on his Tracer. When attack turned to defence, better ultimate management and perfect execution in late team fights meant that the Fuel could not quite make it to equalise the scores.
Gesture, Profit and Birdring were impeccable in their counter-dive play and made short work of the two Fuel supports, halting pushes at crucial moments. The man of the map was Jun-Young "Profit" Park who managed a whopping 37 eliminations with just three deaths, dishing out 11,894 hero damage in the process.
Second up was Lunar Horizon Colony and Spitfire decided to rest the man of the previous map Profit, electing Rascal in his place. Rascal and Birdring were known as the best damage-per-second duo in Korea, which goes to show the strength in depth that London possess. The Fuel never really got into their groove and Spitfire took the second map handily, rarely looking threatened.
The third game would see the Fuel bring in Brandon "Seagull" Larned, one of the best known DPS players in the Overwatch League. The educational streamer is a fan favourite and his appearance seemed to galvanise the Fuel. Despite Profit dropping a beautifully improvised Riptyre on Junkrat that decimated three, it never felt like London had total control and alas, they dropped a rare map.
Up last was Numbani, where the Spitfire would effectively seal victory. It was not particularly pretty, though - with the game coming down to a nail-biting overtime finish. It was Profit again who came up big, with an average ultimate charge time on his Tracer of just 61 seconds - and again dealing 12,736 damage and dying just five times.
The second match of the weekend saw the Spitfire taking on a big challenge in the Los Angeles Valiant. Given that the inaugural season of the Overwatch League is being played at the Blizzard Arena in Los Angeles, it was unsurprising to hear the fans vocal in their support of the Valiant.
Both Dorado and Horizon Lunar Colony were fairly comfortable for the London Spitfire, and led to an early two-map lead in the series. The third map would again see Oasis be the thorn in London's side.
The map they lost to Dallas would again see the Spitfire found wanting and they fell comfortably to a Valiant side gaining in momentum. The fourth map was Eichenwalde, and Spitfire disappointingly could not push past the second point leading to a fifth and final map - a decider, to see who would go to 4-0 in the league.
Lijiang Tower, another control point map, would play host for the tie breaker. The Valiant never managed to get into a stride, with Birdring's Widowmaker keeping them penned in their base. He was in rampant form and guided the Spitfire to win the fifth and final map and preserve their 100 per cent record going into next week.
Spitfire will play twice on Thursday against the San Francisco Shock and the Boston Uprising before sterner tests against the New York Excelsior and Seoul Dynasty await down the line. On this form though, no one is writing the Spitfire off.
