After getting shut out during the first match of their Overwatch League quarterfinals series on Wednesday, the London Spitfire won six consecutive maps across two best-of-five matches to beat the Los Angeles Gladiators 2-1 on Saturday at Blizzard Arena in Burbank, California, and advance to the semifinals.
The Spitfire evened up the series with relative ease, taking the first match of the day in a 3-0 sweep. Not only was this London's first win against the LA Gladiators, but it also avenged London's previous sweep at LA's hands on Wednesday.
Coming into Saturday, London looked like a completely different team, holding the Gladiators to just one point over the three maps played. Star DPS player Park "Profit" Joon-yeong helped the Spitfire get started on a high note by spending the majority of time on the first map, Dorado, on fire with outstanding Brigitte plays.
The Spitfire's dominance continued in the second series thanks to hitscan DPS Kim "birdring" Ji-hyeok's sniper plays. On Junkertown, birdring sealed the victory with a perfectly timed Dragonstrike as Hanzo, catching out three players as the clock expired. On Lijiang Tower, it was birdring again starting off the fight with a pick on Gladiators DPS and Widowmaker specialist Lane "Surefour" Roberts, which started a trend: birdring routinely found Surefour throughout the map to keep the Gladiators at a deficit. On the final map, King's Row, it was Profit's turn to play the sniper hero as Hanzo. Despite taking some losses, Profit popped off, taking down three Gladiators to secure a fast Point A and kick off the momentum that would carry London to the overtime victory.
Los Angeles once again refused to play main tank and MVP runner-up Baek "Fissure" Chan-hyung, begging questions from fans and analysts alike as to what's going on behind the scenes, and for good reason. With Fissure, the Gladiators have a map win percentage of 58, but without Fissure, the Gladiators' win percentage drops to 46 percent. The Gladiators also shied away from playing off-tank Aaron "Bischu" Kim, who is usually a roster staple and the team's in-game translator, opting instead for Korean off-tank Kang "Void" Jun-woo, who speaks limited English.
Los Angeles did show brief glimpses of its true potential, taking the first point on Lijiang Tower to 99 percent and then rolling through King's Row to force overtime on the final map, but it wasn't enough to stop the Spitfire.
London will move on to face the Los Angeles Valiant in the semifinals with the first match of the series kicking off on Wednesday at 10 p.m. ET.