This article is part of our OWL Power Rankings series.
For the first time all season, the Los Angeles Valiant have surged into the No. 1 spot in our power rankings, unseating the New York Excelsior (who have dropped "all the way" to third). With only a week left to play in Stage 4, the Valiant are hands-down looking like the best team in the league and could be on their way to a Stage Title. Whether that contiunes on into the season playoffs this July remains to be seen, but for now, Los Angeles is king.
1. Los Angeles Valiant (Last Week: 2)
They finally did it! For the first time this season, the Valiant have claimed the number one spot in our power rankings after another 2-0 week. Now sitting at 8-0 in Stage 4, the team looks poised to rolle into the Stage 4 playoffs with the No. 1 overall seed in hand. As for who's powering the Valiant along at this moment, you can basically take your pick. Just about every member of this team is playing the best Overwatch we've ever seen, which has the Valiant peaking at the perfect time as we get ready to kick off the season playoffs. -- Wyatt Donigan
2. Los Angeles Gladiators (Last Week: 4)
Sitting with only one loss under their belt in Stage 4, it's undeniable that the Los Angeles Gladiators deserve second place. They did the unthinkable this week and were able to pull an upset against the crippled New York Excelsior and London Spitfire. This was thanks largely to the Gladiators' extraordinary tank line-up bullying their opponents around maps. This left Los Angeles' DPS free to perform with very few obstacles. The only team to puzzle out the so far impenetrable tanks were the Los Angeles Valiant, further fueling the now classic Los Angeles rivalry. -- Christiaan Kutlik
3. New York Excelsior (Last Week: 1)
Well, this is a first. The New York Excelsior has dropped out of the top two for the first time since the beginning of the league. The drop is warranted, however. After losing two games, one to the Los Angeles Gladiators and another to the Los Angeles Valiant, the New York Excelsior have looked out of sorts. Their stubborness in running double-snipers has put the team in awkward positions in multiple series, despite having shown they can run other compositions. While some have argued this a case of the Excelsior purposely sacking in order to wring tactics out of their opponents, it's more likely that New York is simply coasting a bit too much. One can only hope they will rebound by the time of Season Playoffs. -- Christiaan Kutlik
4. Philadelphia Fusion (Last Week: 7)
With Josh "Eqo" Corona returning to the fold, the Fusion look to be back on track as the season begin its final week. While Georgii "ShaDowBurn" Gushcha did his best in Eqo's stead, he's a strict downgrade at this point and it showed this week with Eqo returning to the lineup. Not only did they take down the suddenly strong San Francisco Shock, but they pulled off a nice reverse sweep against the (admittedly struggling) Seoul Dynasty later in the week. The second half adjustments made in both series were sparks of the Fusion of old, giving hope to Fusion fans for this team in the postseason. -- Wyatt Donigan
5. San Francisco Shock (Last Week: 3)
Despite the team's hot start, the San Francisco Shock are all but eliminated from Stage 4 playoffs after an 0-2 week. The team is still struggling to work in all of its players but still performs at a high level regardless of who is in the lineup. The Shock have also been the beneficiaries of many teams working themselves into a rut this stage. The Shock can still make it to the stage playoffs, but their fate is in the hands of others now. -- Travis Elliott
6. Houston Outlaws (Last Week: 6)
The Houston Outlaws started the week off on the right foot by walloping their in-state rival, the Dallas Fuel, but then came crashing back down to earth after getting swept by the Los Angeles Valiant. The Outlaws remain in the top half only by beating the Fuel. The rest of the teams are performing poorly and the Outlaws are just consistent enough to break into the top half. With a little luck the Outlaws could find themselves in the Stage 4 playoffs. -- Travis Elliott
7. Dallas Fuel (Last Week: 5)
The Dallas Fuel start off the week weakened by another match against their Texas rival: the Houston Outlaws. This was their heavily weighted of the week, going up against the Florida Mayhem later in the week, so it was a bummer to see them in such disarray. Dallas definitely looks to have found a strategy they can use, but have yet to unlock its full potential. -- Liam Craffey
8. Boston Uprising (Last Week: 10)
The Uprising started to turn it around, picking up two wins this week! Unfortunately, both of those wins were to teams lower on our current power rankings than Boston. While this outcome should be expected, it was nice to see the Uprising continuing to push themselves within the latest meta. The team seems more coordinated around Brigitte-centric team compositions, and move around in unison. However, at times it looked like individual members got overconfident, and against better teams they wouldn't have this luxury. Hopefully Boston can stay afloat through this last week! -- Liam Craffey
9. London Spitfire (Last Week: 8)
With this team locked into a season playoff spot, it doesn't matter as much what it looks like in Stage 4, as it will be focusing all of its effort there and not so much on these weekly matches. Good thing that it can afford to do so, because the Spitfire seems to be under some minor reconstruction efforts. DPS Park "Profit" Joon-yeong is still the driving force behind the team, playing the best on his team on a plethora of heroes, but the supports and tank line have room to grow to catch up to Profit's proficiency. If fellow DPS Kim "birdring" Ji-hyeok can recapture his Stage 1 form, then expect the Spitfire to make a splash in the playoffs. Otherwise, though, it's safe to sleep on the Spitfire for now. -- Noah Waltzer
10. Seoul Dynasty (Last Week: 9)
Seoul's fall from glory has been sad to watch, but somewhat expected. The situation surrounding main tank Gong "Miro" Jin-hyuk has been similar to the Dallas Fuel's handling of former main tank Christian "cocco" Jonsson, except the Fuel was better at recognizing that the passive playstyles of the past were no longer viable. With the Dynasty looking like a different team from week to week in terms of identity and playstyle, and new main tank Kim "KuKi" Dae-kuk struggling to adjust to his new starting role, Seoul is lucky that it still has superstars like flex support Ryu "ryujehong" Je-hong, or else this team would likely be worse than Florida. -- Noah Waltzer
11. Florida Mayhem (Last Week: 11)
While they got a win against the Shanghai Dragons (to no one's surprise), how close they came to losing that series is extremely telling of what might happen to the future of the team before next season happens. If Shanghai is in need of a roster change, then so is Florida. What was promised to be a good roster became a bunch of players unable to organize an assault or defense without a lot of fumbling. If it wasn't for Ha "Sayaplayer" Jeong-woo or Andreas "Logix" Berghmans carrying the team back from the brink of defeat, as what happens in all of their very few victories. While pure speculation, it would come to be nobody's surprise if a major roster overhaul happened when the season was over. -- Steven Nguyen
12. Shanghai Dragons (Last Week: 12)
The Shanghai may finally have its fate sealed with a 0-40 season as it lost 3-2 to the Florida Mayhem this past week, which was their best chance at getting a win for the remainder of the season. They could have won 3-0 if they didn't choke on Blizzard World but results are results, and they let the chance slip through their fingers. Their 4-0 loss to Boston later in the week showed an even less inspired attempt to even win a single map. Teams are often forged through fire but this team is going nowhere until it can replace the supports on the team, or if they let He "Sky" Junjian in more often and train him up instead of relying on the futile efforts of Xu "Freefeel" Peixuan. -- Steven Nguyen
