2019 New York Excelsior season
The Excelsior's playoff run ended in the lower bracket finals, as they were defeated by the San Francisco Shock, 0–4.
In this period, Excelsior released player Song "Janus" Jun-hwa and assistant coach Kim "WizardHyeong" Hyeong-seok, both of whom went on to sign with expansion team Washington Justice.
NYXL did not make any free agency signings in the offseason but did promote two of their academy team players.
Excelsior promoted Hwang "Fl0w3R" Yeon-oh and Jeong 'Nenne" Yeon-kwan from XL2 Academy on October 29 and November 8, respectively.
[7] Prior to their quarterfinal playoff match, New York transferred Hong "ArK" Yeon-jun, who had played less than 30 minutes for NYXL in the entirety of Stage 1, to the Washington Justice.
[8] Excelsior faced the seventh-seeded Seoul Dynasty in the Stage 1 Quarterfinals on March 21; NYXL was defeated 1–3.
Heading into their first match on April 19, NYXL was heavily favored, as predictions from ESPN had the team at a 94.4% win probability.
NYXL made quick work of the Gladiators, not allowing them to complete a single map, as they won in a 3–0 sweep.
[18] The team's final match of the regular season was against the Pacific Division Champions Vancouver Titans.
Both teams were able to complete the map on their respective attacks, but New York came out on top in overtime rounds to take a two-map lead.
[20] Moving on the first round of the winners' bracket, NYXL next faced the sixth-seeded Atlanta Reign two days later.
New York sent the match to King's Row next; the Excelsior struck back in map two, completing the map on their attack and holding Vancouver from completing the same feat, due in part to a stellar performance by New York's DPS Kim "Libero" Hye-sung on Doomfist.
With the series tied 1–1 coming out of a match break, Vancouver chose Temple of Anubis for the next map.
Titan's DPS Seo "SeoMinSoo" Min-Soo's stellar Reaper and Doomfist play, along with well-coordinated plays from Vancouver's tank line, propelled the Titans to take maps four and five, while New York struck back to tie up the series by winning map six, Numbani.
On defense, the Shock could not stop New York from reaching the first two checkpoints, but they held off the Excelsior from completing the map, handing NYXL 0–4 loss and ending their playoff run.
