The Overwatch League announced the overall champion of the Midseason Madness event after nearly seven days of intense play.

The San Francisco Shock were nearly prevented from completing a reverse sweep by the Los Angeles Gladiators, who upset them in a 4-2 series. After capturing the West Region’s Kickoff Clash event with a 4-0 wipe in June, it is the Gladiators‘ second tournament victory of the year.

Although Los Angeles appeared unstoppable in the “Kickoff Clash”, the squad struggled a little more during the Midseason Madness.

The Gladiators had to defeat the Atlanta Reign to go to the final after being eliminated from the upper bracket by the San Francisco Shock—their rivals in the grand finals. After defeating the Reign 3-1, they barely had 30 minutes to rest before taking on the Shock.

The Finals Recap

The Shock got to choose the opening map for the championship match because they won the upper bracket. They went to “Ilios”, one of their most productive maps, but the purple team won because to significant plays from Gladiators stalwarts like “FunnyAstro” and definitely an MVP candidate “Kevster”.

“Eichenwalde” has also benefited the Shock, but a string of crucial errors cost San Francisco another map victory. The Gladiators successfully executed an aggressive dive; tank Reiner’s strikes synced up well with his DPS, making it impossible for the Shock’s backline to survive.

The strange decision for San Francisco to proceed to “Watchpoint: Gibraltar”, one of the best arenas for sniper heroes, came next. Kilo may be the Shock’s best shooter, but this tournament has seen famous sniper ANS finally come into his own. The Shock suffered yet another defeat despite this being the closest map in the entire series.

The Shock moved the game to “New Queen Street” and turned the tides in an effort to avoid the Colosseo, a favorable map for the Gladiators. San Francisco appeared to be fully alive for the very first time in the matchup, while DPS dynamo Proper came very close to performing the famous “Fleta Deadlift” in the streets of Toronto.

The Gladiators then dragged their opponents to “Lijiang Tower” in the hopes that their assertive Doomfist play on the map’s confined points would succeed. Sadly, such barriers only served to enclose them within with Proper, who obviously wants to inflate his “Rookie of the Year” nomination. The Gladiators had to find yet another strategy to win because he outran them by a wide margin.

Dorado, the last map in the series, was the most contested one yet, with both squads seeming to find their strengths. The Escort map’s snipers were without a doubt its strongest feature, and Kilo may have given his best Overwatch performance of his career in the match versus ANS. When it counted the most, though, ANS returned fire and destroyed his opponent’s DPS and backline.

As the Gladiators made their second charge around Point B, the crowd was anticipating a dramatic final clash, but the San Francisco Shock were unable to touch the cart. The number of C9s we witnessed during this competition remains the true winner, despite the Gladiators‘ ability to win.