Mary Altaffer/Associated Press

Overwatch League 2019 Stage 1 Week 1: Fusion's Top Plays, Prize Money

Rob Goldberg

The first week of the 2019 Overwatch Season is in the books, and the Philadelphia Fusion look like one of the best teams in the competition.

They are one of three teams off to a 2-0 start with a three-win map differential, along with Hangzhou Spark and New York Excelsior. This puts each of them in great shape at the start of Stage 1 with $500,000 on the line.

        

Sunday Results

Boston Uprising 3, Houston Outlaws 2

Philadelphia Fusion 3, Atlanta Reign 2

Los Angeles Gladiators 3, San Francisco Shock 2

Dallas Fuel 3, Seoul Dynasty 1

Full scores and standings available at the league's official site.

         

The week began with some top teams showcasing their abilities in the first few days of competition. New York was one of the best groups in the 2018 season and kept it going with a 2-1 win Thursday and 3-1 win Saturday.

Hangzhou, which is one of eight expansion teams for the league's second season, also won its first two games. The 3-2 win over the Los Angeles Valiant came in come-from-behind fashion Saturday to remain undefeated, and it showed that this squad can be a real threat going forward.

The London Spitfire surprising suffered losses in each of their first two games as the defending champions put themselves in an early hole in Stage 1.

This led to the final day of action Sunday, with just about every matchup being as close as possible. This began with Boston Uprising and the Houston Outlaws coming in with a lot of pressure after each lost their first match.

Boston ended up pulling out the win in the fifth game in Ilios, with four of five games decided by just one point.

AimGod was one of several players who came up big for Uprising down the stretch:

The next matchup between the Philadelphia Fusion and Atlanta Reign also went to a fifth game, with the Fusion coming out on top 3-2.

Carpe helped make a difference in each game with Philadelphia getting by on the slimmest of margins:

Each victory for the Fusion was by a 2-1 score, but it was enough for the team to improve to 2-0 on the year.

The Los Angeles Gladiators also needed five games to win their match over the San Francisco Shock, getting wins at Hollywood, Horizon Lunar Colony and finally Busan.

BigGoose was a key part of the team's success with his support:

The Seoul Dynasty and the Dallas Fuel battled in the final matchup of the week, and for the first time all day, it didn't go to a fifth map.

Instead, Dallas went up 2-0, which ended up being enough of an advantage to clinch the 3-1 win.

This moved both teams to 1-1 on the week, keeping the tournament wide open going forward.

The league will return for Week 2 on Thursday with the Washington Justice and London Spitfire battling in the first match of the week.

   

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