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Throughout Stage 2 of the Overwatch League, as evidenced by the Philadelphia Fusion's appearance in the finals against the New York Excelsior, Western teams have been closing in on South Korean squads in terms of results. Beating them in big moments? Until Sunday, that was another story. But the Fusion took a five-game series from the London Spitfire and pushed New York Excelsior into a 2-0 hole before succumbing to the team that's widely considered the best in the world. The individual talent gap might remain for some teams -- few players, if any, can match the Tracer skill of Kim "Saebyeolbe" Jong-yeol or the Zenyatta prowess of Bang "JJoNaK" Sung-hyeon. But be it players like Josue "Eqo" Corona and Simon "snillo" Ekström becoming eligible to play for Philadelphia, familiarity with the strategies of certain teams, or a bit of both, Sunday proved that a non-South Korean squad could contend in the Overwatch League. The next step is proving it consistently. The Fusion shut down London Spitfire to prevent a seemingly inevitable rematch of the Stage 1 finals but couldn't stop the NYXL from a reverse-sweep that gave the team its first Overwatch League title. "The biggest thing this stage was that the weaker teams absorbed the strengths and the basics from the stronger teams and were able to become a lot stronger," London Spitfire player Hong "Gesture" Jae-hee said. Raw talent propelled each of the South Korean rosters, the Seoul Dynasty, London Spitfire and NYXL, to the top of the Overwatch League power rankings at the very start of the league, and for the most part those teams have stayed there. But through two stages, though the teams remain atop the overall standings, Seoul hasn't made a stage playoff, and teams like Houston Outlaws in Stage 1 and Philadelphia in Stage 2 have proven to be tougher-than-expected foes. The Fusion only lost to South Korean teams during this stage, and the NYXL cited teams like San Francisco Shock and Dallas Fuel as potential sleepers going into Stage 3 because of roster additions. When the stage starts up April 4, there will be no element of surprise like there was Sunday. NYXL's players admitted they had prepared to face London Spitfire, not Philadelphia, and took some time to adjust against the Fusion. "I think the first two games, we couldn't adapt to the style of Philadelphia because they were playing differently than before in Stage 2," NYXL's Hong "ArK" Yeon-joon said. "Their frontline was hiding a lot more than before, and they were playing really more defensively than before." To hear ArK tell it, at halftime, his team decided to just stick with what it was best at and throw adjusting to Philadelphia out the window. "In this stage, we lost to only Korean teams, and I think everyone underestimated us. No one expected us to come into this match," Philadelphia's Eqo said. "Going into Stage 3, I think people are going to start to realize that there is a lot of talent on this team and we can not only be a strong contender against the Korean teams but we can also beat them and eventually even become the best team and win Overwatch League." That confidence is admirable, but a Western team's only gotten over the hump, not the mountain. Winning a stage, or breaking into the top three teams in the league, will still take some work. Nonetheless, as much as it's been a question of South Korean teams vs. Western ones, the conversation might shift following Sunday's results. NYXL coach Kim "WizardHyeong" Hyeong-seok thinks so, too -- although the rest of the league might not like his answer. "I see no gaps between the Korean teams and the Western teams," he said. "I think there's only a gap between Excelsior and non-Excelsior teams."
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