Write-Ups for reasoning - OWL poll

"1) Seoul have a lot of experience and skill under their belt and feature some of the best players from the OWWC (Ryujehong, Tobi and Zumba). They looked very strong to me but I know they can, and probably will do better, and they pulled off some really successful curevball strategies in the pre season.
2) LS are almost (if not as) skilled and creative as SD, had great teamwork and co-ordination (the Rascal/Birdring defence on Horizon B during the pre-season was a joy to watch).
3) NYXL have the other half of the Korean squad that impressed pretty much everyone in the OWWC but don't look as cohesive as LS or SD.
4) LAV have clearly put a lot of effort to practice together and adapted very well to Dallas' curveball strategies but more than that, the match with DF showed me that they could go the distance without breaking like DF did (Soon backcapping on Numbani clearly broke DF's spirit).
5) DF are a very stacked roster with some great OWWC players and a willingness to get creative, but, as evident in the game vs LAV, they need to work on their teamwork a bit, but I expect they'll recover so I'm keeping them high in my ranks.
6) SFS haven't actually impressed me much because they're so built around Babybay - that said Sleepy is a real unsung hero and I think Sinatraa and Super could add a lot to the team going forward.
7) PF are still a bit of a wildcard but they have some incredible raw talent  - I just question how much teamwork they can build during the first stage given they're from so many different backgrounds with so little time to prepare.
8) HO would have been 6 if you'd asked me a week ago but I have to question how they lost to PF with so much more practice under their belt, some great members of the US OWWC team and a great DPS like Linkzer. I still think they have the raw talent to come back but maybe they got complacent.
9) LAG have been hyped by people in the scene but as a newbie I haven't really seen it - they seem to have the same problem that SFS have: they seem to lean on a DPS to carry them (Surefour) - although Shaz and Biggosse have impressed me a lot.
10) BU still loon a bit green to me, both in performance and their histories, but they have improved a lot since the preseason and seem very confident in the coaching staff to get the best out of them. A little bit of me is rooting for them.
11) FM... oh dear. I'm new to this and I know that Misfits were a good team and the Swedish OWWC team played well but a lot of their play, especially from Logix was sloppy. BU smashing them on Oasis was a real flag that they'd gotten predictable and their coache's Lassie-Faire attitude in interview hasn't inspired any confidence. They could shoot up the ranks with some new blood but they need it soon.
12) SD just look sloppy at an individual and team level. Undead and Fiveking were on a very strong OWWC squad but look very outclassed here. Again, I think they need new players and a better emphasis on teamwork. Watching them has been much less fun because they have just got rolled for the most part. "

"Seoul, NYXL, London, Valiant- Very strong performances in Week 1, rosters have sustained success since well before OWL started.

Dallas Fuel- Weak performances, lack of cohesion with new roster additions (Seagull, xQc). Still good but not top 4.

Gladiators- Strong roster, but haven't seen them against strong opposition yet.

Boston Uprising- Very strong performance against NYXL and Florida. Consistently underrated team. Standout players in Striker, NotE, and Gamsu.

Houston- Horrific underperformance. Clockwork is, based on Winston's Lab data, the worst DPS player in the OWL so far. Very bad decisions from management in terms of roster moves. Weak support core.

Florida Mayhem- ""The TviQ Show"". Logix is known to underperform on LAN (see TaKeOver 2), and the lack of subs means the roster has no depth. Still better than many teams.

Philly Fusion- Carpe + SDB vs the world. PoKo performs well, but the rest of the team has shit the bed. When one of the DPS isn't performing, the team looks beyond weak.

San Fran Shock- Team is missing two key components due to age eligibility rules. Not enough flexibility within the current DPS core to run proper dive comps or be flexible mid-game.

Shanghai Dragons- Not even the 5th best team in China. Disgraceful roster choices, drama amongst coaches and players, and the absolute weakest performance so far."

“Seoul is Lunatic-Hai (Ryujehong), with more people who are also insane (Fleta). Do they even have a weakness? London is a bunch more crazy good Koreans who haven't quite 100% gelled yet. Dallas is full of very good people who will hopefully start working together and win. They seriously lacked communication and teamwork, but if they can get over that...The Valiant are the already great Immortals (with Korean tanks), now with 20% more Rogue. New York has Pine to win every control map, SBB not making any mistakes, and great supports. Houston has a theoretically great DPS pair, a theoretically great tank pair, and a theoretically great support pair. Eventually they're bound to be as good as they are in theory. I'm just not sold on Philadelphia. SDB can be good or bad, and their supports don't seem to do as good as they should. Their tank synergy is pretty good though. The Gladiators have good people, but that's just it...just good people. Not great people. Maybe Boston should be higher, I just don't know. No one jumps out. By the time the Shock get their two best players, the season is going to be half over. Florida lacks depth. Shanghai...I feel really sorry for those players.”

"Seoul - Number one because they just have the best structure combined with the best players. They will remain number one unless London beats them
London - Phenomenal players, but their support staff cause doubts in their ability to strategize and adapt as good as Seoul
NYXL - Pine. Jjonak. SBB. Nuff said
Dallas - Recent results are not indicative of the actual quality of this team
LAV - Strong potential, have the pieces to climb higher in the future
Boston - This is my unusual pick. They are growing so fast, every map they seem to get better. Mechanically gifted, and their team synergy is only getting better.
Philly - Carpe and SDB are the best DPS duo in the game IMO
Houston - Has the pieces like LAV, but they seem to be failing to put them together
SF Shock - I have doubts about the versatility of this team outside the DPS lineup. Sleepy and Nomy have underwhelmed.
LAG - I think their match against Shanghai is causing people to overestimate this team. They'll be competitive with the SF and Houstons of the League, will get handled  by Philly+
Florida - Sign some damn Tank and support players, already. Taking DPS players and putting them on Supp and Tank is proving to be a failing strategy.
Shanghai - Not enough Leave and Eileen. Will struggle to win a series all year, even against Florida. "

"1. Seoul has seemed to be the most consistently dominating team that I've watched, and contains two top-tier support players, the best DPS in the league (with supplemental top-tier DPS), and highly capable tanks.

2. New York, much like Seoul, has two incredible support players (Jjonak arguably even acting as a third DPS), two of the league's best DPS players (Saebyeolbe and Pine, arguably second only to Fleta), and very capable tanks. I have yet to be as impressed by the Spitfire as I have New York, who took down both Boston and Houston, two mid-tier teams, whereas the Spitfire have beaten a highly uncoordinated Philadelphia, and the obviously struggling Florida Mayhem.

3. London does however seem to be impressive with their victories, and aside from a first-round lack of proper coordination, leading to Florida Mayhem taking a round, they have been rather consistent and focused. Bdosin is an impressive support, Gesture and Fury good tanks, and Profit/Birdring are very good DPS, but to me it almost feels as though they haven't faced a difficult enough task to rate me higher.

4. Los Angeles Valiant showed how a very communicative and coordinated team, even when their talent is only ""phenomenal"" and not ""robotic"", can eviscerate another talented team. Soon is also a world-class DPS, easily one of the best in OWL, with a talented supplemental DPS in Silkthread, and tanks in Fate/Envy.

5. Boston is a much more capable team than people give them credit for, and I believe that they will impress. Sure, their only victories are against the admittedly poor Mayhem, and a single map taken from NYXL, but each of them have the raw skill to make it work, and their teamwork is already miles above every other ""amalgamation"" team. Striker is a world-class Tracer, DreamKazper a very talented supplemental DPS, and Neko who seems to be the third-best Zenyatta in the league, behind Jjonak and Shaz. Gamsu is also a fantastic tank, though Kalios/Note have yet to impress.

6. Los Angeles Gladiators are a team with talent that has yet to reach their peaks (with maybe the exception of Shaz, a Zenyatta second only to Jjonak it seems), and seem to be ever-evolving. They got shut out by Seoul, sure, but they managed to easily destroy a bottom-tier team. To me, this places them squarely in the center, where they have the coordination and teamwork desired of a strong team, but the raw talent isn't quite there for everybody, and can lead to them being outclassed.

7. Philadelphia consists of what could very well be the best DPS duo in the OWL, but is admittedly dragged down by not synergizing at the level that they need to be. Poko has also proved to be a D.Va worth their salt, with huge play-making abilities we've yet to see from other D.Vas in the league. Carpe and ShadowBurn speak for themselves, with raw yet untapped talent. Fragi is a fantastic Reinhardt, and quite a good Orisa, but he definitely struggles when running in a dive composition, which is unfortunately what Philly does best as they struggle to coordinate. In fact, they seem like they may be a one-trick currently, as they don't seem to know how to beat anti-dive compositions, as displayed on Horizon against the Spitfire. Neptuno and Boombox only seem to be serviceable supports so far, and Dayfly seemed to be incredibly out of his element against the Spitfire, but I think that even with these shortcomings, they can learn and exceed many expectations.

8. Dallas is a team of inconsistent coordination and skill level, particularly in their flex Taimou. It seems that the team struggles to work together in a satisfactory manner, and the individuals on the team display a large degree of ability, but only at seemingly random times. If Dallas can learn to be a MUCH more cohesive and consistent unit, I think that they will be a real force, but to me they don't have quite as much raw talent as certain other teams, with the exception of Effect and HarryHook.

9. Houston is a team with a few sub-par talents, and only decent teamwork. Jake, although pushed as a star DPS, only seems to contribute as Junkrat, a hero not necessarily widely applicable. Linkzr, on the other hand, is a very talented McCree and Widowmaker, with a serviceable Tracer and Genji. It seems like he's often forced to attempt to pick up the slack from his supplemental DPS, but he isn't quite that talented yet. I think that Linkzr, Coolmatt, Muma, and Rawkus are are decent in their roles, and have yet to really hit their stride. Jake has phenomenal gamesense, but isn't at the same level as his team. Clockwork is noted to be the team's Tracer, and he performed terribly against Philadelphia. However, against New York, he massively stepped up. If Clockwork can become much more consistent, I think he may be able to one day shine, but until then he's another weak link.

10. San Fransisco is suffering heavily due to the need to wait for two of their star players to turn 18. Until then, they're stuck with what the casters have called ""The Babybay Show"", and it really feels like it. Babybay is an above-average talent on a team of subpar performers. It's unclear if it's a lack of adaptation, a lack of talent, or a lack of coordination coming from most of the Shock, but it looks like they'll continue to coast along until two more star performers are able to step up.

11. Florida downright confuses me. Tviq and Logix may be one of the most ""meh"" DPS duos in all of the OWL, and it really showed in their game against Boston. Logix honestly just seems to be a Tracer one-trick, leaving Tviq to try and pick up every other role necessary. But, neither are big enough playmakers to carry a team that does not have much versatility. Cwoosh's Winston is somewhere between subpar and decent, and Manneten, while the more talented of the two tanks it seems, can't make up for that. Combine that with two serviceable to lackluster supports, and no possible substitutions, and you've got a squad that just isn't OWL material, it seems.

12. Shanghai is a team two inconsistent DPS in Undead and Diya, and basically nothing else. None of them have yet to make any impression on me, no matter how many times I watch their games. Do I think that they need a better roster, however? No. I think that they need better leadership, someone who can whip them into shape. If I had to say who to replace, I would probably say ""everybody that isn't Diya and Undead"", and even then I would keep both as substitutes for whoever else they get. "

"Seoul is clearly the best team, even though they are not unbeatable. I think other korean teams can win against them, maybe the Valiants too.
New York definitely has one of the most interesting rosters in the League, they all seem to work really well together, Pine is obviously an awesome McCree and having Fl0w3r in the team is great, even if he currently can't play in the League. I think they might be a bit underrated because the other korean teams are better known.
LA Valiant is probably the only team that doesn't have a full korean roster that can currently threaten the full korean squads. They've been really impressive both in the first week of the League and in the preseason and look really strong. I wouldn't be surprised to see them be contestant for the podium of the League.
London is a great team but currently only half of their full roster has performed at OWL level. Their results might seem good, but they didn't face the best teams in the League and even lost a map to the Florida Mayhem, who didn't show great things in their other match. I fear they will pretty quickly fall behind the other top teams if they don't work on their problems. But if they do, they might even end up winning the League, so it's still a bit early to actually know where they stand in the rankings.
Dallas Fuel didn't have the best performance of the first week, but the strength of their schedule was probably the biggest of all teams and I really think they shouldn't be judged on these results. They did show some worrying signs for the rest of the season though, but I'm pretty sure they will overcome them. They still are a clear playoffs contender and if they work on their problems they might even get a win against some of the best teams in the League.
Houston Outlaws, while they didn't win a match this week, showed great signs for the rest of the League in their match against NYXL and they barely lost against Philadelphia, mostly because they gave the control maps to their opponents. They have work to do, but they can make playoffs pretty easily if they stop giving maps to their opponents.
LA Gladiators had a weird schedule, so it's a bit hard to place them currently. They obviously destroyed the worst team of the field, but they got destroyed by the best one too. Their match against Shanghai looked promising, but against Seoul they didn't show good signs, especially on their first defense on Lunar Colony which was pretty abysmal. They probably are a playoffs contender, but the next weeks will be better to actually gauge their real level after they face other middle-of-the-pack teams.
Philadelphia had a pretty good showing against Houston, after missing the preseason. Noone really expected them to look that good and it was great to see. However, they still actually only barely win, mostly thanks to Houston giving them the two control maps, and their other match of the week against London looked really bad for them. Half of their starting roster seems to be great, with Carpe, ShaDowBurn and Poko having impressing performances, but the other half will have to be better if they want to keep up with the other teams. I think it will be hard for them to get to playoffs, unless they get really better during the season.
Boston, much like the Gladiators, had a weird schedule on the first week. Their match against NYXL wasn't too bad, but they still got outclassed pretty easily by their opponents, and their match against Florida Mayhem wasn't the best one to tell us where they stand in the rankings. Currently, I don't think they will be in playoffs, but they can still get some maps off the bigger teams, which could be important for the tiebreakers.
SF was pretty disappointing. Even though they ended the week with a 1-1 record, their only win was against the worst team in the League, and it wasn't a pretty one. Their coordination wasn't great, their ult economy needs a lot of practice and their roster currently lacks depth. They might get better with Sinatraa and Super coming during the season when they will be old enough to play, but currently the team doesn't look great and it will be hard for them to show good things if they stay at this level.
Florida is in a rough spot. Their team doesn't look too bad, with pretty great names in it, but they lost pretty badly against a team that probably won't even make it to playoffs. Their roster lacks depth, with only 6 players, and it showed pretty quickly even in preseason. I really hope for them things will get better, but currently this will be a long season for them.
Shanghai clearly is the weakest team of the field. It will be hard for them to even win a map against other teams, let alone win a match. They currently look really out of place in the Overwatch League and they need to get better fast if they don't want to be a free win for every other team. Diya and MG look like the only players to even remotely have the Overwatch League level, but the rest of the team is currently in a very poor state. I currently don't see them anywhere but dead last in the standings."

"12 Shanghai do not have a consistent projectile player, and nobody on the team has been impressive, tanks and supports have been noticeably bad.
11- Florida since they lack very little flexibility and have not played particularly well on LAN and in the mercy meta
10-Shock seem to only play around the babybay carry and once figured out the other teams have stomped them.
9-Houston Outlaws Jake has been mediocre so far, they are built upon a support and tank core that was good but not very good.
8-LAG good dps and support play but tank synergy has looked off at times, especially when not playing full dive(lucio+zen instead of zen+mercy)
7-Boston Striker+Dreamkazper have looked great but they have a set strategy which once countered causes the whole team to fall apart entirely.
6-Philadelphia, Shadowburn+Carpe is one of the best duos in the league, but currently very poor team coordination which will only improve as time passes.
5-LAV Very strong tank and support core with good DPS, but i think sometimes SoOn is often doing his own thing which will get punished by the best teams
4-Dallas The best western core that made it into OWL, currently struggling with comms and who they want to play on what maps, once they find their stride will cement themselves above LAV
3-NY SBB is really good alongside jjonak and great tank synergy. As well as having the raid boss that is pine.
2-London Profit+Birdring is the best dps duo, but supports are not as good as seoul
1-Seoul they have fleta who now plays 6v6 instead of 1v11. Best support duo in the league as well as 2 of the best tracers in the league."

“1-3 Korean. 4th LA Valiant because they seem like the best Western team right now. 5th Dallas because I have faith they can do well. 6th Philly because they just got together but are wrecking. 7th LA Gladiators because they seem solid and have some stars. 8th Boston because they're up and coming, still no big names but Striker is a god. 9th Houston because they've been lackluster and I don't see them improving unless they pick up dive which is hard for them due to player hero pools. Don't see much room for improvement honestly. 10th SF Shock because game against Shanghai was a mess and their protect the DPS strat is garbage. You need Tier 1 tanks and supports too which Nomy and Dhak are not in the current meta. 11th Florida Mayhem they seemed strong but I'm placing them here until more games are played. May be over SanFran Shock honestly. 12th Shanghai Dragons they're literally Tier 2 or Tier 3 and don't belong in this league.”