The first day of the Overwatch League playoffs was as expected, filled with stories on and off the competition floor. Philadelphia Fusion and Los Angeles Gladiators were victorious in their first day of playoff competition however the big focus was the absence of LAG’s main tank, Fissure from the starting lineup. Before we delve any deeper on that, let’s get on to the action first:

 Fusion Strikes First

As we predicted, the Fusion were dominant in their first match, defeating the Boston Uprising 3-1.  They started the game strong with a convincing win on Dorado. With Carpe winning the Widowmaker battle, the Fusion’s overall decisiveness and a better performance from their DPS ensured that they started on the right foot. The Uprising caught up with a 2-1 win on Oasis before the Fusion regained the upperhand following a timebank win on Eichenwalde.

In the fourth decisive match, the Fusion defeated the Uprising convincingly on Volskaya – a map which the boys in blue were unbeaten on to secure a 1-0 lead in the playoffs, and a step closer to the semi-finals.

No Fissure, No Problem

The news of Fissure’s absence from the starting lineup dropped about two hours prior to the match Gladiators – Spitfire which sent Twitch chat to meltdown. Regarded by many as the team’s talisman following their change of fortunes since his recruitment in Stage 2, Fissure almost single-handedly lifted the Gladiators out of their disappointing Stage 1 performances. According to self-proclaimed ‘Rank 1 esports consultant, insider and competitive gaming leader’, Rod ‘Slasher’ Breslau, it wasn’t all rosy on the Gladiators’ side as we all were led to believe.

LA Gladiators Fissure is not playing tonight. Source: Fissure was unhappy with players on the team not trying hard enough in scrims as preparation for the playoffs and stopped communicating in the scrims. Gladiators chose to play iRemiix instead.

— Rod Breslau (@Slasher) July 12, 2018

Source: Fissure has been unhappy on the Gladiators since joining and his own commitment/practice to the team has waned going into playoffs, prompting his benching by LAG not that his teammates aren’t trying. Wants out of LAG to an all-Korean team.https://t.co/S0DZ26Y1j7

— Rod Breslau (@Slasher) July 12, 2018

Filling in for Fissure was iRemiix who proved that even without the allegedly troublesome Korean, the Gladiators are still a force to be reckoned with as they crushed the team that traded out Fissure, London Spitfire 3-0.

Responding to the whole drama, Fissure went live a couple hours ago stating that Éveryone’s good’ and that the story reported by Slasher as ‘F****ng rumor’.

https://t.co/eGjJYG8JgL

— rA9 (@munchiescc) July 12, 2018

Oh the drama.

The Overwatch League playoffs resume this Saturday with the Philadelphia Fusion again going against Boston Uprising aiming to secure a spot in the semi-finals.