Dallas Fuel vs Los Angeles Valiant

For our third match of the day we have a highly anticipated clash between the Dallas Fuel and the Los Angeles Valiant.

The Valiant are coming off from a win against the San Francisco Shock. They started off with a loss on Volskaya even though they played fairly well - Kariv especially on both Widow and Soldier, but the Shock played better, Danteh caused a lot of trouble on Sombra (taking an average 52s to charge EMPs) and Babybay had a phenomenal showing on Soldier, ending with 14 eliminations and 4 deaths. The Valiant rebounded nicely however, winning Lijiang in clean fashion and demolished the Shock on King's Row with some insane "Graviton Surge" and "Deadeye" combos. It was enough against the Shock, however that doesn't go for much these days as San Francisco only managed to win three matches so far, two of which come against the Shanghai Dragons and the Florida Mayhem, two teams that are at the very bottom of the standings.

As for Dallas, they've displayed quite a lot of promising things over the last week and a half, however this will be their first test. They were unable to take down Seoul Dynasty two days ago but they did a lot of things right. They gave them too much space on Hanamura which allowed Fleta ample space to do his things - take out people in rapid succession. Seoul suffered zero deaths on their attack, but they made quite a fair number of mistakes with their overaggressive defense but it was never enough for Dallas to fully capitalize. That trend continued on to Nepal as well. It was a game of inches and Seoul was more in-sync when it mattered the most.

For Dallas it was always an individual mistake, mainly from Mickie, Harryhook or Custa. They were out of position too often and it cost them the match. But perhaps taking down Seoul was a bit of wishful thinking. This is a far more realistic test as both teams are pretty close in their predicted strength.

This is not an easy match to predict - far from it. In reality it can really go either way, as it really depends on which teams shows up more. So far, Dallas has shown a lot more during the first two weeks of Stage 2, but it's always a lot more nuanced than that. Likewise, Valiant often find a way to win but they don't look that dominant or clean - they just manage to do a bit more which often ends up being enough against lower ranked teams. They're also really inconsistent, almost to a painful degree. It depends on their mood, their coordination and their will to win but it's different than their Los Angeles brethren - you always see that the Valiant are playing on a high level.

Dallas had more highlights but they also had obvious weaknesses and moments when they were out of sync. This match will probably go the five map distance if both teams come motivated and it won't be one-sided, but do have in mind that it could go either way so if you're betting make sure to invest a low amount.