Florida Mayhem vs Los Angeles Valiant

For our second match of the day we have a clash between the Florida Mayhem and the Los Angeles Valiant. Now this might not be a match of big significance overall, but the Valiant are surely looking to string a couple of victories after getting demolished by the Los Angeles Gladiators last week.

The last we've seen of their play was a sensational showing against the Houston Outlaws. It was a hectic fight from the very get go, with the Tracer match-up dictating the pace of the series. The Valiant finally decided on their starting lineup with Kariv on DPS and that was a decision that paid off in spades as both him and Soon had some incredible plays starting off with Volskaya. The Houston tried their best however they were too telegraphed and they didn't have a well performing Tracer player that could compete with Soon. To make matter worse for the Outlaws, the Valiant invested heavily into shutting down LiNkzr and without a strong DPS on their side there wasn't much they could do.

It was a phenomenal showing from the Valiant as they bounced back strongly after a devastating 0-4 loss to the Gladiators.

For Florida, last week was a sensational one as they were finally able to get their second win on the board after eight weeks of competitive play. It wasn't easy nor was it clean but their win over Dallas Fuel should give them a huge morale boost. Dallas snuck their way through Hanamura with relative ease, finally utilizing Rascal's Genji after a couple of weeks of starting with AKM. Nepal was much of the same as Florida failed to put up much of an offensive. That all however changed after the mid-series break as Florida came out revitalized, hungry for the win. They took point A of King's Row really quickly but failed to reach the third point against a strong hold from Dallas and AKM's Widowmaker. Florida then rebounded with a perfect full hold on point A. They squaked by on Gibraltar thanks to some clutch plays from the entire squad, most notably Logix on McCree and the Cwoosh/Manneten duo. (and an insane stall from Tviq's Tracer at the very end)

While Florida did play better, Dallas played without their main tanks - xQc was suspended and Cocco hasn't been starting for weeks now, and seeing how Mickie and Taimou had little to no synergy and Harryhook and Chipshajen being very inconsistent this win obviously has an asterisk.

The Mayhem are improving, however at a really, really slow pace. With Zappis in the lineup as a flex tank they're a bit stronger however they're still far from Valiant's level of play. Regardless of what they come out of the gates with they shouldn't be able to do much against one of the best (semi) Western teams in the Overwatch League. As for the Valiant, they're aiming to get back to their winning ways as the playoffs for Stage 2 are still a possibility.