OWL: Dragons get phase victory

Contrary to all expectations, the Shanghai Dragons will win the third phase and defeat the top teams of the league on their way there.

After the first season of the Overwatch League, no one would have expected it, but now they have done it: More than one year after the end of the opening season, which was without a win for them, the Shanghai Dragons were crowned champions of the third phase of the Overwatch League season 2019 yesterday.

The previous eighth-placed Dragons won a decisive 7th card to overthrow San Francisco Shock, 2nd Phase champions, 4-3 and win the Phase 3 final at the Blizzard Arena in Los Angeles. Shanghai takes home the lion’s share of a $500,000 prize pool.

The Dragons’ way to the final was via the top-ranked New York Excelsior and the second-ranked Vancouver Titans, who will lead the regular-season standings in 2019.

San Francisco, who defeated the Titans in the final of Phase 2 in May, defeated Los Angeles Valiant and Seoul Dynasty to advance to the final before Shanghai defeated them. The shock had been in the final at the end of each phase of this season.

Previously, Shock had usually forced their opponents to adapt, but now the Dragons managed to turn the tables on their opponents.

“Their coordination on three DPS heroes is crazy,” Shock Support player Grant praises “Moth” Espe Shanghai after the final, “We couldn’t even beat them with our more unusual team compositions.

A fantastic achievement, considering that Shanghai was originally only the eighth seed to get into the playoff bracket.

In total, eight teams are now allowed to share the prize pool of 500,000 US dollars:

– FIRST place: Shanghai Dragons, 200,000 USD
– Second place: San Francisco Shock, US$100,000
– 3rd and 4th place: Los Angeles Valiant, Vancouver Titans, US$50,000
– 5th to 8th place: Hangzhou Spark, Houston Outlaws, New York Excelsior, Seoul Dynasty, 25,000 USD

After the playoffs, the teams are given a keline break for the time being before moving on to the next phase.

The Overwatch League returns on Thursday, July 25th with Phase 4.