The Vancouver Titans have had themselves a strong Season 2 of the Overwatch League (OWL), winning Stage 1 and going undefeated for 19 consecutive games.
Although newcomers to the league, the Titans are currently sitting as the top team with 25 wins and only 3 losses – though most recently with a loss against the San Francisco Shock during Kit Kat Rivalry Weekend in Los Angeles). Not bad for a team that when the roster was first announced, some speculated to be a middle-of-the-pack team.
Instead, the Titans enter the playoffs as one of the favourites. The Overwatch League playoffs are a faceoff between
the top eight teams beginning with a double-elimination bracket on Thursday, Sept. 5 at the Blizzard Arena in LA. The final two teams will go head-to-head in Philadelphia on Sept. 29 in the OWL Grand Finals. The winning team takes home $1.1-million in prize money and the Overwatch League championship trophy.
One major change coming to the playoffs is the introduction of the newest playable character, Sigma, an eccentric astrophysicist tank who obtained his power to wield gravity in an orbital experiment gone wrong. Sigma was playable during the play-ins and was a regular pick as main tank for other OWL teams.
Sigma’s skillset, which includes deploying a versatile shield and converting projectiles into personal shields, has shown promise in the few professional games of OWL he has appeared in. Whether the Titans have practiced enough as Sigma to make the swap, and whether JJANU or Bumper would take the role, are open questions.
One player who certainly has practiced Sigma is Marve1 (pronounced as Marvel) of Seoul Dynasty, the Titans’ first playoff opponent. In a game against the Guangzhou Charge, Marve1 looked like a natural as Sigma, and could be a challenge if the Titans are not prepared.
In a postgame interview following Seoul’s win against Guangzhou, Marve1 told OWL Korean Insider Danny Lim that the Dynasty “will definitely win” against the Titans in their upcoming playoff match.
However, my prediction for the game will be a 4-1 victory for Vancouver, as the team has a much higher success rate, especially on the maps in the pool for playoffs.
The Vancouver Titans face off against Seoul Dynasty on Thursday, Sept. 5 at 4:00 p.m. PST. and the game can be streamed live at twitch.tv/overwatchleague, Disney XD, or on overwatchleague.com.
Jonathan is a video game enthusiast and fan of the Overwatch League esports scene. By day, he’s a graphic designer and communications specialist in Burnaby, but at night he plays main tank as Orisa in Overwatch.
SWIM ON:
- The Titans were supposed to be handicapped by a midseason rule change, but seem to have managed okay.
- New to eSports? Jonathan's introduction to the Overwatch League and Vancouver's team are a great primer.
- What else are the kids doing these days? According to Ada Slivinski - and a run of closures - they're not going to nightclubs much these days.
