LA Gladiators and Seoul Dynasty crowned OWL Kickoff Clash champions

The first event of the 2022 Overwatch League season has concluded with an outright victory of Los Angeles Gladiators in the West division and Seoul Dynasty in the East. 

Following four straight Grand Final wins against Dallas Fuel in Arlington, Texas, LA Gladiators secured the Kickoff Clash title, along with the $75,000 main prize. Meanwhile, Seoul Dynasty defeated Philadelphia Fusion 4-0 in the Grand Final of the tournament’s Eastern division, which was played online. The Korean team took home $50,000 in prize money. 

LA Gladiators win Kickoff Clash West

Despite the fact that LA Gladiators didn’t enter the Kickoff Clash as favourites to win the event, they quickly asserted dominance, dropping only one map throughout their run in the bracket. Following the 3-0 quarter-final victory against Houston Outlaws, LA Gladiators continued by sweeping Dallas Fuel 3-1 in the semi-final and by another decisive 3-0 win against Atlanta Reign before landing in the Grand Final. 

The Grand Final match started on Ilios, with Dallas Fuel struggling to succeed in advances against LA Gladiators. Several Nano Boosts from Jin-seo “Shu” Kim ensured the team’s first map win before moving on to the King’s Row. Despite Dallas Fuel winning two fights at the point, it wasn’t enough to compete against LA Gladiators’ spawn camps. The third match on Route 66 saw Dallas Fuel change their hero composition in order to deal with the pressure from Gladiators. They even tried LA Gladiators’ tactic of spawn-camping, however, that didn’t work out well for them and the map ended up with another win for LA Gladiators. 

The series wrapped up with LA Gladiators’ fourth win on Colosseo. The two teams showed somewhat contradictory performances during the finals match, with LA Gladiators showing remarkable focus and teamwork, and Dallas Fuel showing disarrangement which led the team to lose the last chance to reverse the situation. With the clean, 4-0 score, LA Gladiators became the champions of the OWL 2022 Kickoff Clash for the Western region. 

Seoul Dynasty conquer Kickoff Clash East

Seoul Dynasty had to fight their way to the Grand Final through the lower bracket after the 3-2 loss against Shanghai Dragons. Following the 3-0 win against Hangzhou Spark, they met Shanghai Dragons again in the lower bracket final, this time with a 3-2 reverse sweep that secured them a spot in the Grand Final. 

The Grand Final match against Philadelphia Fusion was dominated by Seoul Dynasty and their DPS Joon-yeong “Profit” Park, who was, thanks to his performance on Genji and Tracer, named the Grand Final MVP. With a 4-0 sweep over Philadelphia Fusion, Seoul Dynasty claimed their first-ever Overwatch League title.

Header: Los Angeles Gladiators