The Overwatch League kicked off its second season earlier today with much fanfare at the Blizzard Arena in Los Angeles. As the league looks to build on the success of its inaugural season, its day 1 matchups showed some promise.

The league opened with a Season 1 Grand Finals rematch between the champions London Spitfire and the runners-up Philadelphia Fusion. While the defending champions came in with heads held high, Philly brought out some swagger of its own with a surprise appearance by Gritty, the beloved mascot of the NHL team Philadelphia Flyers.

The Fusion looked to avenge their Season 1 Grand Finals loss as they convincingly took the first two games of the series in Ilios and Hollywood. While the Spitfire won a close game 3 in Volskaya Industries, Philly exacted its vengeance in game 4 at Rialto to win the first series of Season 2 of the Overwatch League, 3-1.

Next up was a heated series between rivals New York Excelsior and Boston Uprising, with New York coming out swinging to decisively take the first map, Nepal. Boston struck back in a close game 2 at Numbani, but both teams ended up with a draw in game 3 at Horizon Lunar Colony. The Excelsior eventually came out on top in game 4 at Route 66, with Season 1 MVP Sung-hyeon “JJoNak” Bang leading the way, to take the series 2-1.

In the next matchup between the Seoul Dynasty and the Los Angeles Gladiators, all eyes were on Seoul’s Chan-hyung “Fissure” Baek and how he would fare against his old team. While the Gladiators easily took game 1 in Ilios, Fissure’s signature aggressive playstyle was key in Seoul coming back to tie the series in King’s Row.

Seoul carried its momentum to an easy game 3 win at Horizon Lunar Colony to force match point in Route 66. While Seoul continued with their trademark aggression, Los Angeles remained stalwart and seemed as if the series would go to a deciding game 5. That is until Fissure turned things around to give the Dynasty the 3-1 win.

The last match of the day was between the expansion team Hangzhou Spark and the much-maligned Shanghai Dragons, who infamously went winless throughout all of Season 1. Looking to make their mark in the league early, Hangzhou convincingly took games 1 and 2 in Busan and Hollywood, respectively, with key plays coming out from Seong-Wook “Ria” Park.

With another loss imminent, Shanghai looked to bounce back in game 3 at Horizon Lunar Colony. In a tightly-contested game, Se-yeon “Geguri” Kim and Yong-Jin “YOUNGJIN” Jin were instrumental in Shanghai’s bid to get that all-elusive win.

Unfortunately for the Dragons, the Spark eventually won game 4 in Rialto to take the series, 3-1, and notch the first win for a Chinese team in the history of the league. Shanghai’s losing streak now stands at 41 games dating back to Season 1. They will get another chance to finally get a win in Day 3, when they face off against another expansion team, the Vancouver Titans.

You can watch all Overwatch League matches live and on demand on overwatchleague.com, the Overwatch League app, Twitch channel, as well as on MLG.com and the MLG app. Check back with us for more updates on the Overwatch League.