Hi, first time posting here ^^
So i've been following the overwatch league quite closely and noticed that although all teams played 10 games for the entirety of stage one, each team will have at least one other whom they will miss out playing in this stage. With playoff just around the corner, I can't help but ponder what impact these unplayed games would have on the standings. Keep in note this is only for stage one and will probably will be redundant later on in the stages when player pickups and so on happens. So the following is a list of all 6 of the games unplayed by each team and my personal opinion on their effect on the overall standing just for stage one. Keep in mind that this thread is pure speculation and may come to a more of an accurate understanding if i had access to any form of statistics but i'm too lazy to browse every single player and mostly just giving a part of my own biased opinion.
New York Excelsior vs. San Francisco Shock
Going to start off the the top of the standing as of the moment with NYXL and this match would surely put them fruther into that number 1 spot. While Sinatraa has been off in the bench and Danteh has pulled an amazing tracer it is nothing comparable to the amazing tracer play of Saebyeolbe. I find the tank line in NYXL to be vastly superior to SFS as both Mano and Mek0 challenge the No.1 spot in the league with their reapective roles, while Nomy and Nevix played quite well it just doesn't compare. Same could be said for the support line (JJonak is such a joy to watch). I think this game could push SFS further down the leader board into that 10th position as labels in the weekly power ranking, it just doesn't show in the map score line.
London Spitfire vs. Los Angeles Gladiators
This one is pretty difficult to predict but i would have to give this to although i would support the LAG all the way (huge fan). I storngly believe this would be a really close match (depending how on point LAG performs) but it would only push LDN closer towards that No.2 spot depending on how LDNvNYXL turns out. The largely complete roster of LDN would give them the specialist advantage over the LAG who by far are more consistent on their heroes and contain that large selection of players to choose from. On the gladiators side, it just comes down to their performance on the day. Previously I found that Asher was seriously underperforming on his roles and his tracer in no way match up with that of profit and birdring. The lack of clarity between Surefour and Hydration on their overlapping hero pools of pharah and genji leaves me confused as to where to play what when, i guess credit that to their coaches but i believe it would be better if they could clarify their roles a bit (maybe is just Surefour being a unicorn of all trades, yet compared to the specialists, master of none, except probably soldier).
Seoul Dynasty vs. Philadelphia Fusion
Finally we're getting to the difficult predictions where the teams are so close together on the map standings and the upset potential is insane. With one more game until the playoffs, I think it's pretty normal to assume that Philly would be out of the running for the playoff spot, but what if amirite? For the seoul dynasty, it's pretty easy to assume that they're going to win the next match against FLA, so it just depends on the map score of other and train so they get that 4-0 if the FLA are as hopeless as they are (sorry!). Now between the two teams its really hard to predict unless you go in depth with the specific playstyles of each core member. Interestingly enough i'll have to give this one to PHL simply because Neptuno is the better mercy. Seoul in my opinion has always struggles with mercy in the currrent meta although Tobi is trying is absolute best has moments of glory, it just pains me internally seeing RJH on the mercy role when eh's such a god on that Zen. On the otherhand, neptuno has pulled a better mercy than tobi (imo) and also boombox has his moments on zen as well. Keep in mind that this isn't focused on the support players. Fragi and Poko has insane dive potential and with that core and the DPS working together, it does look ever so slightly better than SD but that doesn't counter the God Zunba is in his role. However Miro just seems a little out of touch in my opinion and I have the same opinion as the caster in saying that we should see Kuki more. With the DPS, Although Fleta is the unicorn that everyone seeks, it's hard for him to compare with the aggressive playstyle of both ShadowBurn and Carpe, both legends on their own right. This match up is something I am really interested in watching and i pray that the other dps in SD can match up to fleta's carry.
Houstan Outlaws vs. Los Angeles Valiant
Another extremely hard one to predict as both teams are on the same level and equal on the standings, such that if this match up was played in stage one it would have serious implications in whoever makes it into playoffs. As both teams are equally matched i can't help but base this on their most recent results where HOU played london and LAV played Seoul, both teams winning their respective matches. Assuming both teams are playing their players in their best roles and best form i have finally decided that it's impossible to decide who's going to come out on top between the two teams and can't help but blame my lack of comprehension of high level OW gameplay. Starting from their tank line, Fate has been playing a more aggressive style compared to muma usually constantly found on the killfeed /popping off targets and finishing off squishies. With Envy close behind him they make serious space for So0n and silkthread of conquer their opponents and punish the slightest of mistakes. On the otherhand the combination of Muma and Coolmatt69 is the dream tankline if you're a support as most of the time you go absolutely untouched and don't have to worry about them dying all the time. the dps is hard to match up as you have your distinct carries in So0n and linkzr as well as Jake and Silkthread who are hard to match up, though i would slightly favour linkzr over So0n and Silkthread over Jake but it's all hard to tell. the support line up is also equally close but in this matter i believe that LAV have the better supports in Unk0e and KariV but the supports in HOU are not to be ignored.
Boston Uprising vs. Shanghai Dragons
Both teams had a lot of questions surrounding them at the beginning of the league and although I see SHD getting their first win sometime in future, the meteoric rise of the Uprising leaves SHD a tiny worm in the ground. I feel as if Boston is so strong right now that I seriously hope they make it to playoff and play off once again against the korean overlords NYXL who took on the uprising in the start of Stage 1 while BOS was getting their shit together. Not much else needed to say there.
Dallas Fuel vs. Florida Mayhem
the match up of 2017's best in NA vs. 2017's best in EU, both teams finding it difficult to stay relevent in OWL. this is a matchup just to see who rules the bottem end of the OWL standings (not really, that's happening in a few hours between LAG and DAL imo). i still think this would be difficult game to follow with all the random skirmishes going around but i believe Dallas will out skirmish the Mayhem.
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