Overwatch League Preseason Day 1: Seoul Dynasty Dominate
The Overwatch League kicks off on January 10 next year, but, to whet everyone's appetites for [/sport/esports/index.html esports] competition, the preseason has begun.
The first matches aired last night, and there will be more over the next couple of days.
Since the Philadelphia Fusion pulled out of the tournament earlier this week, San Francisco Shock were up on stage twice on opening night.
The very first Overwatch League match was a preseason bout between the Mayhem and Shock
Seoul Dynasty are expected to be the best team in the OWL, and they got off to a strong start
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The first match saw Florida Mayhem take on San Francisco Shock in what ended up being a surprising opener.
Despite their lack of players - the Mayhem only have a six-man roster, while other teams have multiple substitutes - people expected them to come out on top given their players' previous successes.
It was quite the opposite though, as San Francisco Shock came out to play hard, winning the series 3-1.
Andrej 'babybay' Francisty, one of Shock's DPS players, particularly impressed, picking up kills left, right, and centre on the likes of Genji and Tracer.
San Francisco Shock surprised people by knocking off Florida Mayhem in their first match
The first three maps of the series, Dorado, Anubis, and Oasis, all went in Shock's favour.
It seemed like the ult synergy and communication was off for Mayhem, especially between the supports, as we saw ultimates being wasted at inopportune times.
Even on Oasis, a map which on paper should favour Mayhem due to their hero selection and playstyle, the team was unable to secure the win, despite coming close.
Florida fans need not fret just yet though.
The team definitely grew into the match, nearly taking Oasis, and coming out with a good win on Eichenwalde in the final game.
San Francisco fans would have been buoyed by their team's performance, but that feeling would have deflated slightly after the second match against Los Angeles Valiant.
LA took the first map on Junkertown, but Shock equalised the map after a good attack on Horizon. They then extended that lead on Ilios.
Los Angeles Valiant took Shock all the way to a tiebreaker, and tour shangrila eventually won on Lijiang Tower
Valiant came back strong on Numbani in the fourth game though, and forced the match into a tiebreaking fifth.
It took place on Lijiang Tower, and Shock managed to take the point first and start increasing the capture percentage.
Valiant quickly took the point off them though, and built a big lead, as well as a lead in ultimate charge across a number of their players.
It eventually got to 99 / 99 though, and after a lengthy overtime period, Valiant took the lead in the game.
It was much the same story on map two, tour Lệ Giang giá rẻ but this time Valiant managed to defend their lead once they reached 99%, and took the tiebreaker.
The result of the third preseason match of the night was a surprise to no one.
Seoul Dynasty's Lunatic Hai roster is expected to dominate the Overwatch League as much as it did in Korea, and they started as they mean to go on against the Shanghai Dragons.
The Shanghai Dragons roster could do well, but it's a relatively unknown group of players
The Dragons roster is full of relatively unknown players on the international stage, and the only Chinese team didn't manage to pick up any of the Miraculous Youngster roster, the best team in China pre-OWL.
Dynasty won every single game of the match, securing an impressive 4-0 victory.
Most will look to them as favourites in preseason, and indeed, in the inaugural regular season.
More matches will take place tonight, with the London Spitfire up against the LA Gladiators, Dallas Fuel against the Houston Outlaws, and New York Excelsior against the Boston Uprising.
By the end of tonight 11 of the 12 OWL teams will have played their first match.
It's all good practice ahead of the regular season start date of January 10.
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