Hangzhou Spark vs New York Excelsior

Yet another match-up that is nigh impossible to predict with confidence. One the one hand, that is arguably its most potent allure — the fact that any kind of outcome is seemingly possible. On the other, this isn't exactly the kind of match you're elated to bet on as there's no certainty whatsoever. What you want are the one-sided blowouts, the fast-paced beatdowns, and the shellackings that are over before you know it.

NYXL and Huangzhou are both fielding pretty darn talented line-ups. Still, they're not exactly world-class when compared to most of their peers. Coming into 2021, most of us expected NYXL to rank somewhere between fifth (at best) and tenth (at worst), with Huangzhou coming in at the tail end of the Top 15. And, frankly, it's not that anyone was wrong per se, but if their recent performances are any indication, we might have to reassess and readjust our expectations going forward.

Simply put, neither of the two looked good. Heck, we're putting it mildly here! Huangzhou lost in pretty convincing fashion to the Philadelphia Fusion whereas NYXL got annihilated by the Chengdu Hunters who, believe it or not, are currently the best-performing and most dominant team in the Overwatch League. Most folks thought they'd end up somewhere in the Top 15, but they've definitely subverted all expectations and are playing out of their minds right now. The fashion in which they outclassed NYXL left no one indifferent. Was it an upset in the truest sense of the word (which would imply that New York imploded to a certain degree) or a sign that we gave the Excelsior a bit too much benefit of the doubt? No one's quite sure at this point in time, and that's a problem, especially if you're looking to put your hard-earned money on the line.

Now, in all fairness, we're talking about a single match here — that's quite literally the lowest possible sample size, but it's the only thing we have to base our assumptions on and we have to use it to the best of our ability. This means that, frankly, any kind of prediction right now would have to be made from a fairly skewed point of view — both teams could bounce back in grand fashion for all we know. So, in other words, we simply have to wing it and hope for the best. We're still at the very start of the season and, by the looks of it, mind-blowing upsets and huge twists are bound to happen — they're par for the course. And the sooner we surrender to this rollercoaster the faster we'll be able to get a good read on who's good and why. Hopefully we won't make too many mistakes along the way.