By Blizzard Entertainment

PHILADELPHIA FUSION

Joined Overwatch League: September 2017

Division: Atlantic

Academy Team: Fusion University

2018 RECAP

Boasting the league’s most diverse roster—with players from nine countries—the Fusion were one of the Overwatch League’s most surprising teams throughout the 2018 season. The Fusion finished Stage 1 with a serviceable 6-4 record and really started to gel in Stage 2, when they qualified for the Stage Playoffs behind a 7-3 mark. During the Stage 2 Playoffs, Philadelphia defeated the Stage 1 champion, London, before falling in a tight match to the New York Excelsior. The Fusion then went 5-5 in Stage 3 and 6-4 in Stage 4, missing the Stage Playoffs both times and landing the sixth and final seed for the Season Playoffs. In the postseason, the Fusion were firing on all cylinders, knocking off Boston 2-1 in the quarterfinals to set up a semifinal showdown against the top-seeded NYXL. Despite losing to New York in four of their five previous meetings, the Fusion pulled off the upset to advance. Their impressive run came to a sudden end during the Grand Finals, as the Fusion had no answers to the Spitfire’s efficient mechanics and talented roster.

2018 TEAM STATS AND LEAGUE RANKINGS

ROSTER ANALYSIS

Find out what the casting team thinks about the Fusion’s lineup.

More: 2019 Roster

KEYS TO SUCCESS

Overwatch League analyst Josh “Sideshow” Wilkinson offers his thoughts on what Philadelphia needs to focus on this season:

• The Philadelphia Fusion had a superb finish to the 2018 season, making a miracle run through the playoffs from sixth seed to the Grand Finals. The gulf between their starting point and finish in this run speaks to their primary key to success in 2019: fixing their inconsistency. The Fusion were the only team to be taken to five maps by the winless Shanghai Dragons twice, and consistently finished with mediocre records in stages by underperforming in streaks. The roster was emotional and played a chaotic style, but this inconsistency is fixable if work is done on mentality and discipline.
• If they manage to fix these issues, the Fusion should not lose games to teams in the lower half of the table. As a top team in the Atlantic Division, they should beat everyone below them except the NYXL and London Spitfire, leading to an easy 14 wins. They have been fortunate in terms of their strength of schedule this season and must capitalize on this golden opportunity.
• During the offseason, the Fusion released or traded many of the players that did not see regular game time in 2018. The coaches can now put 100 percent of their focus on the main Fusion roster. One specific key to success is getting the most out of main tank Su-Min “Sado” Kim, who participated in just one stage due to suspension, but put forth consistently strong performances when he did play. Alongside D.Va player Gael “Poko” Gouzerch, this should be the duo around which the Fusion are anchored.
• Outside of their struggles with intangibles, the core roster is a beast. Philadelphia’s DPS duo of Jae-Hyeok “Carpe” Lee and Josue “Eqo” Corona were, pound for pound, the best in the Overwatch League at their peaks. Once Philadelphia sort out their mentality and core teamwork, the team can lean on Carpe and Eqo and watch them chew up the competition.

Catch the Philadelphia Fusion in action in their season opener against the London Spitfire on Thursday, February 14, at 4 p.m. PST. All 2019 season matches will be available live and on demand on overwatchleague.com, the Overwatch League app, our Twitch channel, MLG.com, and the MLG app.