OWL 2022 Kickoff Clash Playoffs – Match of the Week and What to Expect

The Overwatch League has had an exciting run so far this year. The League is playing OW 2 for the first time with teams, and teams have been quick to make an impression with this new version of the game. We’re now approaching the playoffs for the first stage of the league, the Kickoff Clash Playoffs. This is what you can expect at the bracket. Which teams to watch out for, what the biggest matches will be, and what to expect for Overwatch betting.

OWL Kickoff Clash 2022

The Kickoff Clash Playoffs are a bracket tournament that’s going to find a winner for the first stage of the OWL 2022. These tournaments are a great way of gauging who stands where in the OWL power rankings and which teams are looking strong for the season. There’s been some unexpected results so far in the qualifiers.

West Qualifiers

The qualifiers have seen San Francisco Shock rise back up to the top of the rankings. They haven’t dropped a single game so far in the Kickoff Clash. With a new team of younger players, it seems they’re back to being the strongest team in the League. Coming up below them in the standings is Dallas Fuel, repeating some of their earlier successes.

The other teams to move through in the west standings are all tied in terms of matches won. LA Gladiators, Florida Mayhem, Houston Outlaws, and Toronto Defiant are all heading into the bracket having won 4 games and only lost 2. Rounding out the western teams to move into the Kickoff Clash are Atlanta Reign and Washington Justice. These teams haven’t had the strongest runs in the qualifiers. Atlanta Reign had a stronger start, but both are looker weaker heading into the bracket.

Source: Overwatch League

East Qualifiers

In the Eastern side of the League things are a bit different.  Shanghai Dragons and Hangzhou Spark have both had good runs in the early matches. Neither has managed to recreate the success of Shock in the other side of the League, but they’re definitely at the higher end of things. Seoul Dynasty and Philadelphia Fusion have also both made it through to the bracket.

Source: Overwatch League

Hot Kickoff Clash Matches

The Overwatch League 2022 Kickoff Clash is going to be kicking off with some exciting matches. The opening round is going to be between San Francisco Shock and Washington Justice. With the way that Shock have played this year, no one expects a surprise here. This will be followed by Florida Mayhem and Atlanta Reign. This one is quite a bit closer; it might be a good chance for Atlanta Reign to make up for the recent drift in their performance.

The next match up is Dallas v Toronto. Dallas haven’t had quite the curb stomp of a qualifying run that Shock has, but they still look like a clearly stronger team. They faced each other back in Week 3 where Dallas swept Toronto. The final match on that side of the League is going to be Houston Outlaws v LA Gladiators. This might be one of the more interesting teams, with neither of them really having an advantage heading in.

You can see our full OWL Pick’em Below:

The East side of the league is a bit simpler for the Kickoff Clash. The two teams with a stronger history so far are facing the two weaker ones. Shanghai are up against Seoul, they had this same match pretty recently where Shanghai won 3-1. Similarly, Hangzhou Spark are also facing Philadelphia Fusion. This is another match that was ran at the last qualifiers, with Hangzhou winning 3-2. There probably won’t be as much room for upset in the East for the first round, but things will get interesting in the final of his side.

For this part of the pick-em, just go Philadelphia all the way.

Those are the more exciting of the early matches. However, after this round is done things will really get interesting. One of the big narratives heading in is if Shock can their amazing run going into the playoffs. By the time we get through to the full finals though, the standings could look pretty different.