OWL Power Rankings: March 12

This article is part of our OWL Power Rankings series.

1. New York Excelsior (Last Week: 1)

Still the dominant team in the OWL, the NYXL proved that, once again, they cannot be stopped by top Western teams, taking out the Philly Fusion 3-1. Nowadays, the NYXL win with a cohesive mindset, not needing massive carry performances from any particular role. That's easy to say, since the NYXL might just have the best tank/support duos in the league and top 3 talent in terms of DPS, but even the coaching staff has been on point. NYXL's ability to counter strat teams is impressive, and will be put to the test when New York takes on Seoul Dynasty to kick off their week. --Noah Waltzer

2. Seoul Dynasty (Last Week: 2)

Seoul split its entire lineup into an A and B squad this week to prep for two different teams. Subbing out no players out of both squads (other than sharing Yang "tobi" Jin-Mo amongst both), they managed to secure two series victories without too much hassle, showing the effectiveness of having a huge player roster on hand. The only concern is that both lineups dropped a map on King's Row. This shows that the support staff needs to redefine its approach to the map or it could spell out troubling things for the future matches and for playoffs if teams are just going to be able to get a free win off of King's Row. -- Steven Nguyen

3. London Spitfire (Last Week: 3)

The London Spitfire still look to be on top despite their lackluster loss to the Los Angeles Gladiators this week. While their A-Team of Kim "birdring" Ji-Hyeok, Park "Profit" Jun-Young and Choi "Bdosin" Seung-Tai continue to smash teams apart, their off-roster is where Spitfire is struggling. Without birdring and Profit, Spitfire just don't have enough firepower to play the slow and methodical game they want. This was the case in their loss to Los Angeles Gladiators this week as London started the series without birdring or Bdosin. Thankfully for London fans, rarely do we see the team without birdring and this week was likely just a special case. -- Christiaan Kutlik

4. Philadelphia Fusion (Last Week: 5)

The Fusion's stock has been steadily rising for the entirety of Stage 2. This week may not have been their best week, having gone 0-2, but taking a single map off both the Excelsior and Dynasty is nothing at all to scoff at. Those teams are steadily looking like the best in the league on a daily basis, making this one hell of a rough week for Philadelphia. It's not as if they were blown out by those teams, either. They were close to forcing a Game 5 against Seoul and pushed New York to the brink on every map. While Stage 2 playoffs is likely out of reach for this team, they are well on their way to the Season 1 playoffs in July on the back of the stellar DPS play from both mainstay Lee "Carpe" Jae-Hyeok and newcomer Josue "Eqo" Corona. -- Wyatt Donigan

5. Los Angeles Gladiators (Last Week: 8)

The Los Angeles Gladiators are finally finding their groove. Not only did they beat their hometown rivals, the Los Angeles Valiant, but they also took down one of the best teams in OWL, London Spitfire. It was a tough week for them and they emerged stronger for it. Playing a far more aggressive style than their Stage 1 tactics, the Gladiators stuck to a pseudo-dive composition that was still flexible enough to take on niche heroes when needed. It helps that one of their support slots is no longer being baggaged by Mercy, allowing this team to flip between Lucio, Zenyatta, Moira and even Mei, in some cases, with ease. -- Christiaan Kutlik

6. Los Angeles Valiant (Last Week: 6)

The Great Kariv Experiment ™ is still ongoing for LAV, who got smacked around in the Battle of LA before crushing the Houston Outlaws 4-0. Some things to note going forward, main tank Koo "Fate" Pan-seung hasn't been as effective as Winston as he was last season, flex superstar Park "KariV" Young-seo is still growing into his new DPS role (but his Widowmaker might be top of the league), and the Valiant still seems like a team that looks good due to other mid-tier teams floundering at the moment. --Noah Waltzer

7. Houston Outlaws (Last Week: 4)

How the mighty have fallen. After being a playoff team back in Stage 1 just a few weeks ago, the Outlaws have had one of their worst weeks ever in the OWL. They were first stomped by the Los Angeles Valiant in a 4-0 sweep, and then it took a reverse sweep to handle the Florida Mayhem, who at that point had only won a single game all season long. Couple that with their pair of losses in Week 2 and this team is now 1-3 over the last two weeks. It simply seems as if the new meta has completely neutered this team, and if they can't get on their feet in a hurry, back-to-back playoff appearances will be but a pipe dream. -- Wyatt Donigan

8. Boston Uprising (Last Week: 10)

In case you've not seen the Boston Uprising play since Stage 1, they've been struggling to find themselves again after the disruptive meta change. This continued this week, but the team also displayed a little more confidence with themselves. Even against the London Spitfire, one of the top teams, they played aggressively and pushed back to the best of their ability. This wasn't enough to beat out the Spitfire, but the Shanghai Dragons stood no chance. Boston has the potential to bounce back to the top, yet it's still up in the air if they will accomplish this by playoffs. -- Liam Craffey

9. San Francisco Shock (Last Week: 9)

The Shock are in the mix to break into the middle of the pack. Sitting at the same ranking as last week, the Shock are still in the hunt. The Outlaws have been on an unbelievable skid and the Boston Uprising are still working out the kinks. Despite their sloppy play, the Shock can hang with the top dogs for a short time, which is more than some of the teams above them in the rankings can boast. Look for this team to start creeping upward in the ranks. -- Travis Elliott

10. Florida Mayhem (Last Week: 11)

The Mayhem finally got their second win of the season! Unfortunately, it was against the Dallas Fuel, which has recently seemed to forget how to play Overwatch. However, this victory solidifies that the Mayhem is the baseline of the League. Their coordination and strategy may be sloppy, but at least it's present and can be used somewhat effectively. If Florida ever wants to be more than king of the bottom they'll need to figure out how to perform more consistently. -- Liam Craffey

11. Dallas Fuel (Last Week: 7)

Dallas Fuel is an unmitigated disaster. This week the team jettisoned Felix "xQc" Lengyel, added Son "OGE" Min-seok, and dropped a series to the Florida Mayhem. With all of the role changes and roster instability, Dallas had no business trying to Bastion cheese the Mayhem like they did in their loss. The implementation of this strategy also calls the coaching into question. Every inch of the Dallas Fuel organization should be under scrutiny, as the only thing keeping the team from last place is that Shanghai has still yet to notch a win. -- Travis Elliott

12. Shanghai Dragons (Last Week 12)

Another week without wins, but the Shanghai Dragons look more organized together against the Seoul Dynasty especially with the performance of Wu "MG" Dongjian. His Roadhog was suburb and the rest of the team were prepared to take Seoul out on King's Row, and if the squad keeps it up they might finally be able to take a series and throw a wrench in playoff plans for Stages 3 and 4, if they're not ready to do so in the next two weeks already. -- Steven Nguyen