New York Excelsior Goes Back-to-Back With Overwatch League Stage 3 Playoff Victory
Robert Paul for Blizzard EntertainmentNew York Excelsior are the Overwatch League Stage 3 Champions.
The Excelsior beat Boston Uprising in the finals to claim back-to-back stage titles, having also won the Stage 2 playoffs.
NYXL had a third consecutive stage with a 9-1 record in the regular season matches, but this time it wasn’t enough to take the top seed as Boston Uprising finished undefeated at 10-0.
New York consequently face LA Valiant in the semi-finals, while Boston Uprising had their pick of the playoff teams and chose LA Gladiators for their own semi-final match-up. Both teams won their semi-final matches with convincing 3-0 sweeps.
In the end, the final was another 3-0 for New York, although the score-line is a little deceptive as it included a draw in the third map, Volskaya, forcing a fourth map in the series before the Excelsior claimed the victory, also taking revenge for their loss to Boston in the regular season.
As well as the stage title, New York Excelsior claimed a $100,000 bonus prize for the win, while Boston Uprising will receive $25,000 for their second-place finish.
New York and Boston are also the first- and second-place teams in the overall regular season standings, which will determine the qualifying teams and seeding for the $1.5million season playoffs after Stage 4 of the regular season.
The Stage 3 playoff placements:
- 1st – New York Excelsior – $100,000
- 2nd – Boston Uprising – $25,000
- 3rd/4th – LA Valiant
- 3rd/4th – LA Gladiators
Stage 4 of the Overwatch League begins on May 16th, the last five-week stage offering teams the final chance to lock in a spot in the end-of-season playoffs.