At the conclusion of Stage 1, the Excelsior led the standings by two games, but the Spitfire walked away with a Stage 1 championship.
To do so, the Spitfire had to play three matches (14 maps in total), with their first match starting at 11 a.m. Pacific time and the final starting at 8:40 p.m.
New York came in a favorite
Prior to the start of the Stage 1 playoffs, the Excelsior seemed like a favorite. They were 5-0 against the other teams that finished in the top 6 of the Stage 1 standings. No other team had more than two such wins. The Excelsior had a plus-nine map differential against those teams. The only other team with a positive differential against that group was the Spitfire (plus-one).
Even more, they defeated the Spitfire 3-2 earlier in the day, including sweeps on Ilios and Lijiang Tower. The start of the final matched that thinking, as New York jumped out to a 2-0 lead after taking Junkertown and then dominating on Oasis.
The Spitfire bounced back and came away with a win. Overall, the two teams were shockingly close on Saturday. Over the course of the two matches, New York won more team fights (85-83), London had two more kills (449 to 447) and they each won five maps.
Profit and Birdring ran wild
London won its two playoff matches on the back of its offense, as its two DPS (damage per second) players put up wild numbers against Houston and New York. According to Winston's lab, Joon-yeong "Profit" Park and Ji-hyuk "bridring" Kim put up four of the seven best player ratings by any players on Saturday, including the four best ratings of any players in the playoffs.
Profit in particular had an incredible performance on Junkrat. Against the Excelsior in the Stage 1 final, he participated in 38.2 percent of his team's kills, according to Winston's Lab. Against the Outlaws, that number was 36.5 percent (first and second respectively among characters played at least 15 minutes Saturday).
Where the two performed their best was in getting first kills in team fights. The two tied for the best first kill percentage Saturday according to Winston's Lab, as birdring's Mccree (against Excelsior) and profit's Junkrat (against Outlaws) drew 28 percent of first blood.