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Los Angeles Gladiators win OWL 2022 Midseason Madness

After almost a week of intense competition, the Overwatch League crowned the winner of the Midseason Madness tournament. In... Fragster | 24. July 2022

After almost a week of intense competition, the Overwatch League crowned the winner of the Midseason Madness tournament. In yesterday’s Grand Final series, Los Angeles Gladiators defeated San Francisco Shock 4-2, narrowly preventing a sweep from the former two-time champions. this marks Gladiators’ second tournament victory this season, following the win of last month’s West Region Kickoff Clash tournament.

Although Los Angeles seemed unbeatable at Kickoff Clash, the team struggled a little more at Midseason Madness. After being relegated to the lower bracket by the San Francisco Shock — their eventual finals opponents — the Gladiators had to defeat Atlanta Reign to secure a place in the finals. They defeated Reign 3-1 and had only half an hour to recover before taking on San Francisco Shock.

Grand Final

As winners of the upper bracket, the Shocks got to choose the first map of the Grand Final. They made their way to Ilios, one of their most successful maps, and big plays from Daniel “FunnyAstro” Hathaway and Kevin “kevster” Persson gave the purple team victory.

Eichenwalde was a boon for the Shocks, but a string of critical errors resulted in another loss for San Francisco. The Gladiators conducted an aggressive and successful dive; Tank Corey “Reiner” Scoda’s attacks matched his DPS perfectly, and the Shocks’ backline didn’t stand a chance.

Next, San Francisco made the decision to head to Watchpoint: Gibraltar, one of the most advantageous arenas for sniper heroes. Despite Jung “kilo” Jin Woo being the Shocks’ ace sniper, he was no match for Lee “ANS” Seon-chang. It was the tightest map of the series, but more big mistakes resulted in another loss for the Shocks.

A head-to-head race

Trying to avoid the victorious Colosseo Arena, a strong map for the Gladiators, the Shocks took the series to New Queen Street where the tide turned. For the first time in the series, San Francisco looked very strong, and DPS Kim “Proper” Dong-hyun nearly completed the Fleta deadlift on the streets of Toronto.

Next, the Gladiators dragged San Francisco to the Lijiang Tower in hopes that their aggressive play of Doomfist would pay off at the map’s trapped points. Unfortunately, these walls only enclosed them from Proper. He drew circles around the gladiators, who had to find another way to win.

The final map of the series, Dorado, was the most competitive. Snipers were the absolute highlight of the Escort map, with Kilo playing arguably the best Overwatch of his career against ANS. However, ANS hit back, wiping out his opponent’s DPS and backline when it mattered the most.

Gladiators take home $500,000

Just as fans were anticipating an epic showdown as the Gladiators rounded the corner of Point B on their second attack, none of the San Francisco Shock were able to touch the wagon. Ultimately, the Gladiators were too strong for their opponents and managed to win the tournament.

The Los Angeles Gladiators return to Hawaii with the tournament’s top prize — $500,000 and four League Points, which will determine the postseason placement. As runners-up, the San Francisco Shock received $250,000 and three league points.

Header: Los Angeles Gladiators