Overwatch League 2019 Stage 3 Finals: Shanghai Dragons' Top Plays, Prize Money

The Shanghai Dragons had zero wins and 40 losses last season. This season, with a retooled roster, they have made consecutive stage playoffs, redefined the meta and won the Stage 3 Finals. Thanks to diem's Widowmaker and DDing's Pharah, GOATS is finally dead. 

The New York Excelsior, Vancouver Titans and San Francisco Shock are the top three teams in the league and boast a cumulative plus-148 map differential. The Dragons, whose map differential sits at plus-1, just beat all three of those teams consecutively to win Stage 3's $200,000 prize money. Here's how it all went down.

Thursday, July 11

Quarterfinals

Houston Outlaws 0 - 3 Vancouver Titans

Shanghai Dragons 3 - 1 New York Excelsior

Friday, July 12

Quarterfinals

Seoul Dynasty 1 - 3 San Francisco Shock

Los Angeles Valiant 3 - 2 Hangzhou Spark

Saturday, July 13

Semifinals

Shanghai Dragons 4 - 1 Vancouver Titans

Los Angeles Valiant 0 - 4 San Francisco Shock

Sunday, July 14

Finals

Shanghai Dragons 4 - 3 San Francisco Shock

Quarterfinals

With two major upsets and two expected stomps, the quarterfinals were an eclectic start to these playoffs. First, despite their recent resurgence, the Outlaws were, unsurprisingly, casually rolled by the Titans.

On the plus side, we did get to see the return of Dinkzr, as LiNkzr got to land some classic Widowmaker headshots during his team's eventual loss.

The strangest coaching decision in Overwatch League history came next, as NYXL subbed Saebyeolbe out for MekO and got absolutely rolled by the Dragons. After going undefeated all stage by running a flexible, Sombra-GOATS based composition led by SBB, New York benched him and persistently banged a head of standard GOATS into the door of Shanghai's versatile DPS lineups. 

It was absolutely bizarre coaching, and the inability to adapt left the Dragons free to dominate behind YOUNGJIN's Doomfist, diem's Widowmaker and DDing's nano-boosted, Mercy-pocketed Pharah.

Picking up on Shanghai's success, the Dynasty also tried some Pharah-based DPS lineups in their loss to the Shock. Unfortunately, despite some wild highlights from a nano-boosted Fleta, Seoul was comfortably dismissed in four maps by the Shock. 

The last quarterfinal needed all five maps, though, as the upstart Valiant pulled off an underdog win against the surging Spark in Hangzhou's first-ever loss on a tiebreaker map.

Semifinals

The Excelsior and Titans had one loss combined in Stage 3. After dismantling the Excelsior, the Dragons continued demonstrating the dominance of their DPS duo by effortlessly handling the Titans. 

DDing went uncontested and laid into Vancouver. The artist behind Pharah's renaissance put down 87,219 damage and an obnoxious 4.5 K/D ratio in the match. 

On the other side of the bracket, the Valiant's fairytale run concluded with a brutal 4-0 bashing at the hands of the Shock. 

Finals

Like the Excelsior, the Shock tried a new lineup against the Dragons, giving Striker, Architect and smurf some of their first minutes of the season in Map 1. Unlike New York, San Francisco did so to counter Shanghai's DPS composition. 

The return of Striker's Tracer was short-lived, as he immediately swapped off of the fan-favorite hero to (unsuccessfully) mirror diem's Widowmaker. That didn't last either, with the Shock losing Map 1 and returning to their traditional lineup for the rest of the game.

After falling to 0-3, San Francisco found its groove by relying on their Sombra-GOATS comp with Rascal's ability to flex onto Baptiste and Pharah. The Shock tied things up and sent the match to Map 7.

As diem sniped into San Francisco's spawn and DDing built up a light, 20-elim kill streak in a stellar Dorado defense, the Shock's hopes for a reverse sweep were dashed. DDing was rightfully crowned Player of the Match, but Luffy, CoMa, Gamsu, YOUNGJIN and diem all deserve credit for producing the most exciting meta we've seen in professional Overwatch since "Dive."