Shanghai Dragons finished the OWL 2023 Summer Stage Knockouts in last place after losing to Sin Prisa Gaming twice, but that was hardly surprising. The Dragons have not looked good this season, and while they had a relatively solid 6-6 run through the Summer Stage Qualifiers, they have been uncompetitive against stronger teams.

Dallas Fuel, meanwhile, are among the best-performing OWL esports teams in the East region. Last month, the Fuel won the Summer Stage Qualifiers and made it to the Summer Stage Knockouts final, where they lost against Hangzhou Spark.

Dallas Fuel might not be as good as the Spark, but they’re up there with the top OWL East teams, and we expect that to show on Friday.

Guangzhou Charge didn’t look amazing a few weeks back when they exited the Summer Stage Knockouts in the first round. In their defence, the Charge only lost against the two Group B finalists, 02 Blast and Seoul Dynasty, but it’s not like they’ve shown much in the 2023 Overwatch season.

Since winning the Spring Stage Qualifiers in May, Guangzhou have not produced anything even remotely as impressive. What’s worse, the Charge have been losing traction since the start of the summer and enter this match on a nine-game slide.

Seoul Dynasty defied all the odds and won OWL 2023 Summer Stage Knockouts. They’ve had very high highs but also low lows, making them an exciting team to watch but also a bit of a risky pick due to their inconsistencies.

Even though the Dynasty can be hit-or-miss, based on what we’ve seen from the two teams, Seoul should beat the Charge, just as they did at the start of September.

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Hangzhou Spark entered OWL 2023 Summer Stage Qualifiers as the best team from the East, but Seoul Infernal quickly took that tag from them. The Infernal crushed Hangzhou (2-0, 1-0, 3-0) in their opening match, adding a commanding 3-1 win over Poker Face on Sunday.

It looks like Seoul Infernal are on the bounce-back following a disappointing showing at the OWL Midseason Madness (5th-6th), but they still have a long way to go before we see a repeat run from the Spring Stage.

Guangzhou Charge are still on a bit of a downward trend. They started the qualifiers with a 3-1 victory against 02 Blast but then lost to Hangzhou Spark (0-3), where the Charge showed that they hadn’t improved during the break and still can’t play Sombra.

As the latest Overwatch betting odd suggests, Seoul Infernal are much stronger than the Charge, who have not shown enough for us to believe they can compete against the top teams. This could easily be a 3-0, but we’re happy with the price on the handicap market.

Dreamers started off the Overwatch League Summer Stage with wins against Shanghai Dragons (3-1) and PANTHERA (3-1). Their success early into the qualifiers is even more impressive if we consider that Dreamers recently lost Park “D0nghun” Dong-hun and Lee “Ezhan” Ji-han, but it also shows that this is a well-coached team and more than the sum of its parts.

The newest signings Jeong “TOPDRAGON” Seung-yong and Seo “ssaadd” Kang-min looked great and played a significant role in Dreamers’ dominant victory over the Shanghai Dragons. With how good the DPS duo are performing, Dreamer seems to have never lost any firepower with the recent departures.

Poker Face weren’t nearly as successful in the first week of action, with two defeats against Dallas Fuel (1-3) and Seoul Infernal (1-3). Poker Face had moments over the two series, but they were not good enough to compete against established rosters.

The price gap in this match isn’t as big as it should be, mainly because these are still two Contenders teams. However, Dreamers have shown a lot more and shouldn’t struggle to get the win on Friday.

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Los Angeles Valiant are a team no one expects to shine this season, which to some degree holds true for Guangzhou Charge as well. Both sides enter this match with a 0-2 record, but the Valiant hold a slightly better map differential due to their four-map series against Chengdu Hunters (1-3).

LA have not looked as bad as we thought they would, but that doesn’t mean we believe they’re a good team. The Charge are in the same boat, but they have as higher ceiling despite going 0-6 on the season.

We would have sided with the Charge at more appealing odds, but at this price, it makes more sense to take the Valiant with a map handicap.

New York Excelsior looked awful in their 0-3 loss against Chengdu Hunters, but they seemed much improved in their 3-1 win against the Spark. Seoul Dynasty, on the other side, had a solid performance against Guangzhou Charge (3-0) but disappointed in their 1-3 loss against Philadelphia Fusion.

What might make the Dynasty a more appealing pick is that they forced the Fusion to match point on all four maps. However, there is something about their playstyle that leads us to believe this one could end in favour of the Excelsior.

At the offered OWL betting odds, you have to take a shot with the outsiders.

The OWL betting odds suggest this will be an extremely one-sided affair, but we have reason to doubt that. On paper, Hangzhou Spark look extremely weak, but they did not perform too poorly in their bout with Philadelphia Fusion last week.

Even though the Spark lost 1-3, they still took the series lead and held the Fusion to match point on all maps. They followed that up with a very poor showing against New York Excelsior (1-3), so they might not be a very consistent team.

It will all depend on which version of Hangzhou we get here. Shanghai Dragons aren’t as good as last year, so there is a world where the Spark steal at least two maps.

Boston Uprising are priced as -188.68 favourites for this match, which may seem fair, but we weren’t convinced with their recent performances.

Both of these teams faced Los Angeles Gladiators last week, and they both lost 0-3. Boston won four rounds (4-7), whereas London Spitfire won only two (2-7).

Regardless of what those results might suggest, it’s the performances these two sides have shown on the final day of the week that makes us trust the Spitfire more. This could be a close one, but there is no denying London are more consistent.

Florida Mayhem are a weird team. Even though they are winning games (2-0), they are also showing weaknesses – most notably in their 3-1 win against Vancouver Titans.

San Francisco Shock are an entirely different story. They played well in their 2-3 loss against Houston Outlaws, and it was ultimately a poor coaching decision that lost them the game.

Florida might steal one map, but they seem far too shaky for us to believe they can achieve much more. Expect a straightforward win for the reigning OWL champions.

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The series kicked off on Monday, June 29 with 20 teams divided into two regional brackets. The North American region featured 13 teams, including Paris, while only seven Overwatch squads fought in the Asian bracket. London Spitfire and New York Excelsior appeared in the Asian tournament, as both have moved their training facilities to South Korea.

The Asian bracket matches began on Saturday, July 4 with the quarter-final fixtures. Shanghai Dragons were excluded from that stage since they received a direct bye into the semi-finals, whereas the remaining six teams had to battle it out for a place in the last four.

Chengdu Hunters were the first team out of the tournament after they have suffered a 0-3 loss to Guangzhou Charge, while London Spitfire and Hangzhou Spark followed suit after they fell flat against Seoul Dynasty (1-3) and New York Excelsior (0-3) respectively.

In the semi-finals, we saw Shanghai Dragons stomp the Dynasty (3-0), while the Charge showed no mercy to Excelsior (0-3). Even though it was somewhat shocking to see such one-sided affairs in the semi-finals, the dominant performances from the Dragons and Charge set the scene for dramatic and exciting grand finals.

Shanghai entered the OWL Summer Showdown finals as favourites after winning the May Melee, but Guangzhou had other plans. Jungyeon “Chara” Kim and co. got off to a flying start and won the opening three maps on Ilios (2-0), Hollywood (3-2) and Temple of Anubis (2-1). They stumbled a bit on Watchpoint: Gibraltar (1-3) and Busan (1-2), however, which allowed the Dragons to reduce the gap to 2-3.

With the title slipping between their fingers, the Charge switched into a higher gear and eked out a 2-1 win on Blizzard World to seal the series and claim the US $65,000 grand prize.

On the other side of the Pacific Ocean, there were upsets aplenty as 13 teams battled for the North American Overwatch Summer Showdown title.

Los Angeles Valiant, Los Angeles Gladiators, Florida Mayhem and Dallas Fuel all suffered early elimination and failed to reach the quarter-finals, where the top-seeded San Francisco Shock, Vancouver Titans, Philadelphia Fusion and Atlanta Reign awaited their opponents.

There was no shortage of exciting games to watch, it was Toronto Defiant who took all spotlight with their performances. Reaching the quarter-finals was a huge achievement on its own, but they went above and beyond everyone’s expectations when they edged out a 3-2 win against Atlanta to punch a ticket for the semi-finals.

There, Jooseong “RoKy” Park and his crew met with Philadelphia Fusion, who advanced with a 3-0 win. However, the final score does not tell the whole story. All three maps went down to the wire (2-1, 4-3 and 1-0), so Defiant will have regained some confidence after their disappointing ninth-12th finish at the May Melee.

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The second semi-final saw Paris Eternal claim a stunning win against the reigning Overwatch League champions, San Francisco Shock (3-2). A lot of Eternal’s success came down to a phenomenal performance from Yeong-han “SP9RK1E” Kim, who picked up the MVP award.

Thus, it was Paris Eternal and Philadelphia Fusion in the grand finals of the North American OWL Summer Showdown. Fusion started as favourites after two dominant displays in the knockout rounds, but the underdogs made it clear from the off that they would not go down without a fight.

Paris took an early lead on Lijiang Tower (2-0), only to drop two maps on King’s Row (3-4) and Volskaya Industries (2-3). Trailing 1-2, Eternal picked up the pace and won on Watchpoint: Gibraltar (3-1) and Nepal (2-0) to go within one map of winning the whole thing.

Fusion managed to win on Blizzard World (4-3) to tie the series at 3-3, but that only delayed the inevitable. Eternal put the final nail in the coffin on Rialto (2-1) to claim the title and $70,000 in tournament winnings.

The series was hyped as a must-watch duel between SP9RK1E and Fusion’s Josh “Eqo” Corona, but it was Eternal’s 18-year-old DPS, Ki-hyo “Xzi” Jung, who stole the show and snagged the MVP award for the OWL Summer Showdown grand finals.

The Overwatch League will now take a short break and return on Friday, July 17. The next scheduled regional tournament is the OWL Countdown Cup, which will run from August 7-9 with a $275,000 prize pool.

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