Overwatch League 2022 season becomes top heavy – Week 3 Preview

The Overwatch League just concluded its second week, coming fresh off more changes to the OW 2 beta.

The first two weeks have been tumultuous so far. We’ve had heroes removed the game, big changes implemented, and even a team forced to replay matches. There’s been plenty of shocking results. The rankings for teams is currently looking different to what players may have expected.

This is what you might have missed at the OWL 2022 Week 2, and what to look for heading into Week 3.

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OWL 2022 Week 2 Recap

The OPWL 2022 Week 2 matches kicked off with Florida Mayhem sweeping Vancouver 3-0. Washington also managed that result against Atlanta on the first day of matches. San Francisco Shock finished up winning their match against Houston 3-1 Most of these are in-line with the OWL power rankings and what we can expect from the teams.

In terms of the standings though this puts Shock fully on top with 4 matches played and 4 won. They went into the season with a pretty new squad from contenders.  Their success so far could be the start of a great run for Shock. On the other end of the spectrum, Vancouver has now lost four games. This puts them pretty firmly at the bottom of the rankings.

The second day kicked off with a bit of an unexpected result as London Spitfire took Boston Uprising 3-1. Spitfire isn’t the strongest team in the League but they’ve been showing some good performances this year. The other matches weren’t the most surprising, with Dallas beating Gladiators Although, with more resistance than a lot probably expected.

The third day of the event was a bit more eventful, kicking off with Houston Outlaws just edging ahead of Florida Mayhem. This was followed by another strong performance from Shock, taking another win against New York. Paris Eternal v Toronto was the final match of the week. This looked like a closer match-up heading in, but Toronto rolled over Paris 3-0 in the end.

OWL 2022 Week 2 Standings

There’s been quite a bit of movement in the overall standings thanks to these matches though. The main takeaway isn’t much of a change, but San Francisco Shock remain at the top spot in the standings. They’re followed though by LA Gladiators and Atalanta Reign. Dallas Fuel might have beaten out Gladiators, but they’re still sat fairly low in the rankings for the cup overall. They have time to turn things around, having only played 3 matches so far. Although, this doesn’t look too promising for them. Houston, Dallas, and Boston all fell down in the rankings for this week.

The main takeaway from OWL 2022 Week 2 might be the continued dominance of Shock, along with Gladiators, Mayhem, and Spitfire making jumps up. Spitfire in particular has the showings of a real comeback this time around. Along with Toronto they’ve leaped up the table so far and have a real shot at making it through to the bracket.

Due to the league being cut into two once again, we are having some odd pacing up in the western region. So far things are looking equal, but we might end up with a really top heavy standings table within a few weeks of play.

Shock and Dragons might make early leads and a statement for season, but also kill all the fun.

Kickoff Clash Week 3

We’re heading into Week 3 for the Overwatch League’s 2022 season. There might only be two more weeks left before the Kickoff Clash gets to its bracket, but it looks set to be a busy week. This is where the Eastern matches are going to be starting off, so there’s a bit of an unknown heading into their season start.

Some of the key matches in that side of the League include Shanghai against Philadelphia, Guangzhou Charge against Chengdu Hunters, and Seoul Dynasty against Shanghai. There are a lot of unknowns heading into the season starting off in this side, and we can likely expect some upsets as teams adjust to the new game.

In the western side of the League, there are still some close matches to come. Gladiators against Spitfire should be an interesting match-up as both are pushing towards the top of the rankings so far. Shock v Vancouver will probably only go one way, but if you’re looking for an extreme upset then this might be a match to skip. Boston against Dallas along with Gladiators against Atlanta will also give these teams a chance to recover a bit after the mistakes of the early rounds.

So far, the OWL 2022 season has been a lot of fun, and pretty unpredictable in places. With a whole side of the League only starting up in the coming week, the next set of matches are looking like ones to watch.