2018 London Spitfire season

The 2018 London Spitfire season was the first season of the London Spitfire's existence in the Overwatch League. The team finished with a regular season record of 24–16, which was the fifth best in the Overwatch League.

2018 London Spitfire season
Overwatch League champions
Spitfire after winning the 2018 Grand Finals
Head coach	Lee Beom-joon (rel. 7 Mar)
Owner	Jack Etienne
Division	Pacific
Results
Record	24–16 (.600)
Place	Pacific: 3rd League: 5th
Stage 1 Playoffs	Champions
Stage 2 Playoffs	Semifinals
Stage 3 Playoffs	Did not qualify
Stage 4 Playoffs	Did not qualify
Season Playoffs	Champions
Total Earnings	$1,200,000
London Spitfire 2019 →

London qualified for the Stage 1 and Stage 2 Playoffs. In the stage 1 playoffs, London defeated the Houston Outlaws in the semifinals and New York Excelsior in the finals. The team lost in the Stage 2 semifinals to the Philadelphia Fusion. The team also qualified for the Season Playoffs, in which they won in the Grand Finals against the Philadelphia Fusion.

Preceding offseason

Cloud9 was awarded the London slot for an OWL franchise on 10 August 2017 and was later named the London Spitfire.^[1][2] Shortly afterwards, they disclosed their 12-player inaugural season roster, the maximum permitted, which would be entirely composed of the following South Korean players:^[3]

• Kim "birdring" Ji-hyeok
• Park "Profit" Joon-yeong
• Kim "Rascal" Dong-jun
• Lee "Hooreg" Dong-eun
• Hong "Gesture" Jae-hui
• Baek "Fissure" Chan-hyung
• Choi "Bdosin" Seung-tae
• Kim "NUS" Jong-seok
• Jung "Closer" Won-sik
• Jo "HaGoPeun" Hyeon-woo
• Kim "Fury" Jun-ho
• Seong "WooHyaL" Seung-hyun

The roster would mainly be an amalgamation of their current Cloud9 KONGDOO core and OGN's Overwatch APEX Season 4 champions GC Busan.^[4]

Review

The Spitfire won the 2018 Grand Finals.

Regular season

On 11 January, the Spitfire played their first regular season Overwatch League match in a 3–1 victory over the Florida Mayhem.^[5][6] They would end Stage 1 of the 2018 Season with a 7–3 record, earning them the third and final spot in the Stage 1 Playoffs. The team then became the first-ever stage playoffs champions, after achieving victories over the Houston Outlaws (3–1) and the New York Excelsior (3–2) in a reverse sweep.^[7]

On 7 March 2018, midway through Stage 2, the Spitfire parted ways with head coach Lee "Bishop" Beom-joon for undisclosed reasons.^[8] The team finished Stage 2 with an improved 8–2 record and attained another stage playoffs berth. However, they fell short to the Philadelphia Fusion in a thrilling 2–3 semi-finals series.^[9]

However, after stage 2, the Spitfire failed to make another stage playoffs, going 5–5 in stage 3 and 4–6 in stage 4. They had to bank on their earlier results to edge them over the finish line. They would end the season with a 24–16 record, good for 5th place and a spot in the postseason where they would face the Los Angeles Gladiators.

Playoffs

London lost their first postseason matchup against the Gladiators on 11 July by a score of 0–3 in the quarterfinals. The Spitfire turned it around the next two games against the Gladiators, winning in 3–0 sweeps in matches two and three and advancing the team to the semifinals.^[10] London won both games against the Los Angeles Valiant in the semifinals, winning 3–0 in match one and 3–1 in match two.^[11] London claimed the 2018 Overwatch League championship after defeating the Philadelphia Fusion on 27 and 28 July by scores of 3–1 and 3–0, respectively.^[12][13]

Final roster

2018 London Spitfire roster
Players	Coaches
Role No. Handle Name Nationality Damage 13 Profit Park Jun-yeung South Korea Damage 20 birdring Kim Ji-hyeok South Korea Tank 7 Gesture Hong Jae-hee South Korea Support 4 Closer Jung Won-sik South Korea Support 8 NUS Kim Jong-seok South Korea Support 22 Bdosin Choi Seung-tae South Korea Flex 19 Fury Kim Jun-ho South Korea	Head coach Vacant
Legend: (I) Inactive (S) Suspended (2W) Two-way player Substitute Injury / Illness	Latest roster transaction: 18 June 2018.

Transactions

Transactions of/for players on the roster during the 2018 regular season:

• On 20 February, Spitfire transferred Baek "Fissure" Chan-hyung to Los Angeles Gladiators.^[14]
• On 21 February, Spitfire released Kim "Rascal" Dong-jun.^[15]
• On 8 March, Spitfire signed Hwang "TiZi" Jang-hyeon.^[16]
• On 18 June, Spitfire released Jo "HaGoPeun" Hyeon-woo, Hwang "TiZi" Jang-hyeon, Seong "WooHyaL" Seung-hyun, and Lee "Hooreg" Dong-eun.^[17]

Standings

Record by stage

Stage	Pld	W	L	Pct	MW	ML	MT	MD	Pos
1	10	7	3	.700	29	14	0	+15	3
2	10	8	2	.800	31	11	0	+20	2
3	10	5	5	.500	24	21	1	+3	6
4	10	4	6	.400	18	23	2	-5	9
Overall	40	24	16	.600	102	69	3	+33	5
Qualified for playoffs

League

Pos	Div	Team v t e	Pld	W	L	PCT	MW	ML	MT	MD	Qualification
1	ATL	New York Excelsior	40	34	6	0.850	126	43	4	+83	Advance to season playoffs semifinals
2	PAC	Los Angeles Valiant	40	27	13	0.675	100	64	7	+36
3	ATL	Boston Uprising	40	26	14	0.650	99	71	3	+28	Advance to season playoffs quarterfinals
4	PAC	Los Angeles Gladiators	40	25	15	0.625	96	72	3	+24
5	ATL	London Spitfire	40	24	16	0.600	102	69	3	+33
6	ATL	Philadelphia Fusion	40	24	16	0.600	93	80	2	+13
7	ATL	Houston Outlaws	40	22	18	0.550	94	77	2	+17
8	PAC	Seoul Dynasty	40	22	18	0.550	91	78	3	+13
9	PAC	San Francisco Shock	40	17	23	0.425	77	84	5	−7
10	PAC	Dallas Fuel	40	12	28	0.300	58	100	7	−42
11	ATL	Florida Mayhem	40	7	33	0.175	42	120	5	−78
12	PAC	Shanghai Dragons	40	0	40	0.000	21	141	2	−120

Source: The Overwatch League
Rules for classification: 1) winning percentage; 2) map differential; 3) head-to-head map differential; 4) head-to-head record

Game log

Preseason

2018 preseason game log
Preseason (1–1) 1 7 December Los Angeles Gladiators 3 – 2 London Spitfire Burbank, CA 2 8 December San Francisco Shock 0 – 4 London Spitfire Burbank, CA

Regular season

2018 game log (Regular season record: 24–16)
Stage 1 (7–3) 1 11 January London Spitfire 3 – 1 Florida Mayhem Burbank, CA 2 13 January London Spitfire 4 – 0 Philadelphia Fusion Burbank, CA 3 19 January London Spitfire 3 – 1 Dallas Fuel Burbank, CA 4 20 January Los Angeles Valiant 2 – 3 London Spitfire Burbank, CA 5 24 January San Francisco Shock 1 – 3 London Spitfire Burbank, CA 6 25 January Boston Uprising 3 – 2 London Spitfire Burbank, CA 7 1 February London Spitfire 4 – 0 Seoul Dynasty Burbank, CA 8 3 February Shanghai Dragons 0 – 4 London Spitfire Burbank, CA 9 8 February London Spitfire 1 – 3 Houston Outlaws Burbank, CA 10 10 February New York Excelsior 3 – 2 London Spitfire Burbank, CA
Stage 2 (8–2) 11 22 February Houston Outlaws 3 – 2 London Spitfire Burbank, CA 12 23 February London Spitfire 3 – 2 New York Excelsior Burbank, CA 13 1 March Florida Mayhem 1 – 3 London Spitfire Burbank, CA 14 3 March Philadelphia Fusion 0 – 4 London Spitfire Burbank, CA 15 9 March London Spitfire 4 – 0 Boston Uprising Burbank, CA 16 10 March London Spitfire 1 – 3 Los Angeles Gladiators Burbank, CA 17 16 March London Spitfire 3 – 1 San Francisco Shock Burbank, CA 18 17 March Seoul Dynasty 0 – 4 London Spitfire Burbank, CA 19 24 March London Spitfire 4 – 0 Shanghai Dragons Burbank, CA 20 24 March Dallas Fuel 1 – 3 London Spitfire Burbank, CA
Stage 3 (5–5) 21 5 April London Spitfire 2 – 3 Houston Outlaws Burbank, CA 22 7 April New York Excelsior 4 – 0 London Spitfire Burbank, CA 23 12 April London Spitfire 3 – 0 Florida Mayhem Burbank, CA 24 14 April London Spitfire 2 – 3 Philadelphia Fusion Burbank, CA 25 19 April Boston Uprising 3 – 2 London Spitfire Burbank, CA 26 21 April London Spitfire 3 – 2 Los Angeles Valiant Burbank, CA 27 26 April Los Angeles Gladiators 3 – 2 London Spitfire Burbank, CA 28 28 April San Francisco Shock 0 – 4 London Spitfire Burbank, CA 29 4 May London Spitfire 3 – 2 Seoul Dynasty Burbank, CA 30 5 May Shanghai Dragons 1 – 3 London Spitfire Burbank, CA
Stage 4 (4–6) 31 17 May Houston Outlaws 4 – 0 London Spitfire Burbank, CA 32 19 May London Spitfire 1 – 3 New York Excelsior Burbank, CA 33 24 May London Spitfire 3 – 2 San Francisco Shock Burbank, CA 34 26 May Seoul Dynasty 2 – 3 London Spitfire Burbank, CA 35 31 May London Spitfire 2 – 1 Boston Uprising Burbank, CA 36 2 June London Spitfire 1 – 3 Dallas Fuel Burbank, CA 37 7 June Los Angeles Valiant 2 – 1 London Spitfire Burbank, CA 38 9 June London Spitfire 2 – 3 Los Angeles Gladiators Burbank, CA 39 14 June Florida Mayhem 0 – 4 London Spitfire Burbank, CA 40 16 June Philadelphia Fusion 3 – 1 London Spitfire Burbank, CA

Playoffs

2018 playoff game log
Stage 1 Playoffs (2–0) Semifinals 10 February London Spitfire 3 – 1 Houston Outlaws Burbank, CA Finals 10 February London Spitfire 3 – 2 New York Excelsior Burbank, CA
Stage 2 Playoffs (0–1) Semifinals 25 March Philadelphia Fusion 3 – 2 London Spitfire Burbank, CA
Season Playoffs (6–1) Quarterfinals Match 1 11 July London Spitfire 0 – 3 Los Angeles Gladiators Burbank, CA Quarterfinals Match 2 14 July London Spitfire 3 – 0 Los Angeles Gladiators Burbank, CA Quarterfinals Match 3 14 July London Spitfire 3 – 0 Los Angeles Gladiators Burbank, CA Semifinals Match 1 18 July London Spitfire 3 – 1 Los Angeles Valiant Burbank, CA Semifinals Match 2 20 July London Spitfire 3 – 0 Los Angeles Valiant Burbank, CA Grand Finals Match 1 27 July Philadelphia Fusion 1 – 3 London Spitfire Brooklyn, NY Grand Finals Match 2 28 July Philadelphia Fusion 0 – 3 London Spitfire Brooklyn, NY