Overwatch League takes heat for deciding Stage One playoff seeds with coin flip
The Overwatch League’s announcement that the third and fourth-place seeds in the Stage One playoffs would be determined by coin flip has a lot of people wondering about the Leagues reasoning behind the decision.
On Monday, March 18, the Overwatch League announced that the Seoul Dynasty would be playing the San Francisco Shock in an unbroadcast standard match to determine the sixth and seventh seeds in the stage playoffs.
The league also announced that the third and fourth seed spots up for grabs between the Toronto Defiant and the Philadelphia Fusion would be decided with a coin flip.
Tomorrow at 2PM PT @SeoulDynasty plays @SFShock in a non-broadcast standard match to determine 6th/7th seeds in the Stage 1 Playoffs.
Immediately after, @TorontoDefiant and @Fusion will settle 3rd/4th seeds via a mutually agreed-upon coin flip. #OWL2019
— Overwatch League (@overwatchleague) March 18, 2019
The decision to rely entirely on a coin flip for the decision instead of a match has left a number of fans scratching their heads.
Fans are also upset with the League’s decision not to broadcast either the Seoul v. San Francisco match or the Toronto v. Philadelphia coin flip.
My feelings regarding Defiant and Fusion… pic.twitter.com/v9gOvz3KED
— rKaic (@billyisarabbit) March 18, 2019
Looking at the teams that Toronto and Philadelphia have to face, if they were the third seed (NYXL) versus if they were the fourth seed (Atlanta Reign), some fans said there wasn’t much incentive for either team to give their best effort, were there actually a match.
Hahaha this probably means both Philly and Toronto want to play against Atlanta. Wouldn’t make sense for them to play a tie breaker match… they’d both throw.
— WunderShark (@WunderShark) March 18, 2019
So, along with the arrival of Baptiste and a load of hero updates in the March 19 patch, Fusion and Defiant fans will also be eagerly awaiting the results of a coin flip.
The Overwatch League Stage One playoffs start on Thursday, March 21 at 6 PM PDT.