The London Spitfire could have locked in a playoff position in the inaugural season of the Overwatch League earlier today with a win over Los Angeles Gladiators and a Houston Outlaws loss—but the Gladiators took the win in a close five-game series.
Los Angeles Gladiators are playing great Overwatch recently, and this win pushes them to 7-1 on the stage. But it wasn’t easy against a Spitifre team that looked much improved after a disappointing performance last week.
London Spitfire looked great to open the series, using judicious hero swaps to keep Los Angeles Gladiators at bay on Blizzard World and Horizon Lunar Colony. Hero swapping—or lack thereof—has been a problem for Spitfire all season long, so it was encouraging to see them make the right moves, like when Park “Profit” Jun-young swapped to Pharah on Horizon’s last point defense to counter Gladiators’ grounded team composition. But that wasn’t enough to beat Gladiators.
The Los Angeles side followed that up with a convincing win on Oasis and then pulled out a close one on Watchpoint: Gibraltar, leading to a crazy finish on Nepal where they showcased why they’re one of the most flexible teams in the league. João Pedro “Hydration” Goes Telles in particular put on a show, fielding Doomfist, Brigitte, and even Mei on the road to Gladiators’ victory.
The win is huge for Gladiators, putting them at 23-15 on the season—they’re in fifth place and two games ahead of the Houston Outlaws and Seoul Dynasty with just two games to play. Gladiators open the final week of the regular season with a match against the winless Shanghai Dragons, a game that should clinch them a playoff spot thanks to their win over Spitfire. Dynasty have hopes that their final match, against Gladiators, will decide which team makes the playoffs, but the LA side likely took Dynasty’s fate out of their own hands tonight.
London Spitfire should be encouraged by their improved performance after their dismal form through most of this stage, but the bottom line is they didn’t get the win. Their playoff position is likely safe thanks to their 23-15 record and stellar positive 31 map differential—over 10 maps better than the rest of the playoff field. But making playoffs isn’t the goal for a team of Spitfire’s caliber. They have a roster that should be capable of winning the league, and while they were improved today, they still aren’t playing like champions.
