Who’s in and who’s out for the Overwatch League playoffs

While the Stage 4 playoffs are right around the corner for the Overwatch League it’s the League’s Season One playoffs that are looming large on the horizon for most teams. With just two weeks left in the regular season, it’s time to check in with where teams are at in their race for the playoffs.

What we know for sure

So far, the only team to lock in their playoff spot, and the number one seed overall, is the New York Excelsior. Thanks to their stellar 32-4 record on the season, NYXL will come out of the group stage leaps and bounds ahead of the competition. On the other side, there are three teams that have been eliminated from the playoff hunt entirely, the Shanghai Dragons, the Florida Mayhem and the Dallas Fuel. The San Francisco Shock aren’t far ahead of those three and would need nothing short of a miracle to reach the playoffs. With five teams more or less locked in, that leaves the other seven teams to battle it out for just five other playoff spots.

Who might make it

Of the seven teams that remain in competition, the Valiant are likely the safest with a record of 24-12, the London Spitfire and the Boston Uprising aren’t far behind sitting at 23-13 and 23-14 respectively. There are four teams currently tied for wins at 21: the Los Angeles Gladiators, the Philadelphia Fusion, the Houston Outlaws and the Seoul Dynasty. With just four, or three for some teams, games remaining in the season, a lot can change for these four teams.

Chances are, the teams sitting above the 21 win line are probably pretty safe in their playoff spots. As for everyone else, well, that’s when things get complicated. Without boring you with the details of every possible outcome — and there are a lot of them — here’s most of what you need to know: with these teams packed together, they are going to want to win as many games as possible.

As for map differential, what will be used in the event of a tie, every single team is within just a few maps of everyone else, the one stand out is the Philadelphia Fusion, who have the lowest map score at +11. This means that even if the Fusion win their remaining games, if they don’t do it convincingly, it’s likely they could lose their spot to another team with equal wins.

Fortunately, none of these teams have a particularly easy or difficult schedule remaining. Each of the teams stuck together at 21 wins will have to play both difficult and weaker competition, which should make the race for playoffs in the last two weeks a lot of fun.