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The fourth season of one of the biggest events on the Overwatch esports landscape, the Overwatch League 2021 Season 4, has come to its end. The final match of the Overwatch championship was played tonight.
In the fourth season of the tournament run by Activision Blizzard, a North American video game developer and publisher, twenty teams played it out through the regular season of west and also east play-ins and the subsequent playoffs phase.
The Overwatch tournament is a part of the regular Overwatch League season, or the OVL series, and it was the one with the solid total $4,250,000 prize fund.
The playoffs of the event began on September 21, when 8 of one of the top Overwatch teams faced each other in Bo5 matches in the quarterfinals phase of the tournament’s double elimination bracket.
The previous coverage of the Overwatch League 2021 Season 4 included playoffs details, matchups announcements, and some of the actual games, such as the upper bracket finals and some of the hot lower bracket action.
The penultimate game day of the Overwatch League featured some of the interesting matches in the lower brackets of Blizzard’s online event.
Atlanta Reign vs San Francisco Shock
The lower bracket fight for survival in the tournament between the two Overwatch organizations from the United States took four maps to decide the winner.
The first map of the series was Nepal. The 6v6 battle between the two squads was quite spectacular. The team San Francisco Shock clinched the victory in a very close first round, where in the end they came ahead of their opponents by only one percent. The second round looked like a more confident performance from the Shock team, but still a very tight matchup. 2:0 on the first map.
As it turns out, this was the first and the last map that the San Francisco-based Overwatch squad managed to win, as the next set of maps was fully dominated by the Atlanta Reign team.
The close second map, which was Hanamura, finished with the 2:3 score in favor of Atlanta’s Overwatch team. On King’s Row, Atlanta were quite stronger than their opponents, showcasing a confident 1:3 win on the third map of the match.
Team San Francisco Shock fought well on the last map, which was Havana, but Atalanta’s team managed to close the map and the series with a 2:3 in their favor.
The map score in the match became 3:1 and Atlanta Reign moved on in the lower bracket of the Overwatch League Season 4 series.
Blake “Gator” Scott was named as the MVP of the series. Gator joined the Atlanta Reign team in 2018. Scott mains tank characters for the Atlanta squad. He also managed to compete for the American esports organization’s academy team throughout one year period in 2018-2019.
Dallas Fuel vs Atlanta Reign
The second series of the playoffs day once again featured two North American Overwatch teams, which were Dallas Fuel and Atlanta Reign.
Atlanta earned their spot earlier, by defeating San Francisco Shock squad, and the Dallas team were coming to this stage from the upper bracket 1:3 loss against the mighty Chinese organization of Shanghai Dragons, who continued their progress through the upper bracket straight to the grand finals of the Overwatch League event.
The nearly two hour long match between the two US teams happened on four maps. The first one played was Lijiang Tower. Here, the Dallas team managed to quickly overcome the opposition and finished the game with the 2:1 score in their favor.
On the second Hanamura map, the opposing Atlanta team came back in the game, winning the set with the 1:2 score against Dallas. Both teams had checkpoints, but the Atalanta Reign squad had much more remaining time left to spend than their opponents during this map.
King’s Row was played as the third map of the series, where in a close fight the Atlanta team managed to pull ahead in the match, winning the map with the 4:3 score.
Team Atlanta Reign continued to push forward, as the America’s Overwatch squad managed to overcome their opponents on the last map of the match, which was Dorado. In the end, it was a close 2:3 score in favor of the Atlanta team, as they moved on to the grand finals of the Overwatch League 2021 Season 4.
The MVP of the match was given to Seung-hyun Kim, who is better known in the competitive Overwatch community as Ir1s. Kim is from South Korea, and he has played flex support for Atlanta team since July 2020.
Before the OVL Season 4 event, the 21-year-old Korean Overwatch player’s biggest professional achievement was earning $75,000 at the Overwatch League 2020 — North America Playoffs, where his Atlanta Reign squad finished 5-6th place, losing to Florida Mayhem with the 0:3 score in the second round of the tournament’s lower bracket brawl.
Shanghai Dragons vs Atlanta Reign
The last and concluding day of the Blizzard’s online tournament featured only one final match, which was the grand finals of the Overwatch League 2021 Season 4 championship.
Specifically, US’ team Atlanta Reign, who fought their way hard through the lower bracket of the event, faced against the strong Overwatch team Shanghai Dragons, originating from China.
Two Overwatch teams made their way to the finals in a very different manner. Atlanta’s team came a really long path to these finals. The American Overwatch team was unlucky to instantly drop to the lower brackets, after losing 2:3 to the Chinese from Chengdu Hunters in the first playoffs round, the quarterfinals stage of the OVL.
Instead, the Chinese team from Shanghai never lost a match in the playoffs series, as they moved flawlessly through the upper bracket of the event, not giving more than one map in any of the series to their opponents.
These series of events looked like clear prerequisites coming to the finals, and they definitely affected the outcome of the league’s last match.
The quite confident first map’s performance on Ilios finished with the 2:0 in favor of the Korean team from China. All other maps looked like close games. For example, the second one, which was Hanamura, finished with a 3:2 score.
King’s Row was the third map, and here, the viewers witnessed the spectacular 6:5 performance, which finished in favor of the Chinese organization.
The last and final map of the match and the Season 4 OVL tournament was Havana. The game finished with the 3:2 score in favor of the Chinese.
The Shanghai Dragons Overwatch team never looked quite vulnerable and never gave a chance to the opposing organization from the United States in the final series, as the final map score of the match was a convincing 4:0 in favor of the Korean players representing the Chinese esports team.
The MVP title of the final series was earned by Jae-won “LIP” Lee, a 19-year-old Korean DPS player, who joined the Shanghai squad in November 2019. Before winning the Season 4 OVL event, LIP managed to place third and grab $450,000 during the Overwatch League 2020 Season 3 Grand Finals.
In the 2020 playoffs finals, Lee’s Shanghai Dragons team lost 2:3 in a close match against the likes of team Seoul Dynasty, representing South Korea and owned by Gen.G Esports organization.
The final standings
The Shanghai Dragons Overwatch team defeated the Atlanta Reign squad, as they became the champions of the Overwatch League 2021 Season 4 finals.
The fully Korean roster placed first in the Overwatch League 2021 Season 4 tournament and earned $1,500,000 for their Chinese esports organization. Team Atlanta Reign finished second and grabbed $700,000 for the silver medal finish.
The Dallas Fuel team dropped out of the tournament earlier. The Overwatch squad from the United States placed third in the final standings of the event, bringing home $350,000.
US’ San Francisco Shock team placed 4th place in the Season 4 of the OVL league, earning $250,000 prize money for their efforts.
Chengdu Hunters and Los Angeles Gladiators placed 5th-6th, earning $150,000.
The other Overwatch teams, such as Philadelphia Fusion and Washington Justice, won $50,000. Both teams were 7th-8th in the final standings of the league.
Fifth season and Overwatch 2 prospects
The esports competition continues, as the Overwatch League Season 5 is set to start shortly. The incoming online championship was already confirmed by Blizzard.
It was reported earlier that the fifth season of the OVL league is planned to begin in April 2022. It will also be played on an early build of the new Overwatch 2 game.