Houston Outlaws vs Los Angeles Valiant

For our second match of the day we have an incredibly exciting scrap between the Houston Outlaws and the Los Angeles Valiant. This is a match of great significance for both teams as they're ranked fourth and fifth in the standings - right behind the Korean trifecta of New York, Seoul and London. We're currently at the third week of Stage 2 and with only two more weeks left every single match (and even map) win matters as both the Outlaws and the Valiant are looking to upset for that third spot and reach the stage playoffs.

Unfortunately both teams had serious highs and lows so far during the second stage.

The Outlaws started off incredibly well, taking down London Spitfire in a five map brawler and outclassing Boston in 4-0 fashion. They failed to carry over that momentum over to the second week unfortunately as they lost a close match against the Fusion that went the distance and at the end got 4-0'd by the Excelsior.

You wouldn't know it by looking at the end map score, however both teams fought tooth and nail for every single map. Houston started off slow on Volskaya. They came close multiple times however they simply couldn't overcome New York's aggressive playstyle that consistently forced the Outlaws to scatter and play out of sync. The fact that Jjonak had one of his highlight reel days didn't help either as he had more damage than Saebyeolbe on more than one occasion.

The Outlaws swapped in Jake on Lijiang Tower however he couldn't do much. Maybe it's because he was sick at the time but he simply wasn't impactful and had one of his mediocre Tracer days. This meant that LiNkzr had to do the majority of the heavy lifting which seriously hindered Houston's chances against a game Libero and Saebyeolbe.

Their biggest problem perhaps was the fact that they couldn't respond to New York's playstyle that quickly. They were dumbfounded by the fact that New York had a very specific game plan in mind, perfectly tailored to the Outlaws. Saebyeolbe did a ton of work, consistently taking out Houston's supports. Lijiang was incredibly close, but what we saw on King's Row was an absolute masterclass from both teams as it was without a doubt one of the most intense maps of the Overwatch League so far.

The Outlaws have to make some changes as Jake simply hasn't been performing that well recently. Perhaps putting him back on Junkrat or Soldier:76 while LiNkzr plays Tracer could fix some of their issues. While their loss to New York didn't come as a surprise they played admirably well. We witnessed a ton of high level, high octane Overwatch and it was an absolute joy but they need to work on some of their glaring problems.

That said, the Valiant displayed even bigger inconsistencies. They managed to string a couple of victories however none of them were against top tier opponents and they built up a lot of hype and momentum after a couple of fantastic showing from their new DPS duo - Soon and Kariv.

All of that crashed after they got demolished by the Gladiators last night in 4-0 fashion.

The Gladiators figured out Valiant's gameplan and executed a counter perfectly. They completely shut down Soon from the very get go on Hanamura and the rest of the Valiant struggled to put up a worthy offensive. Even though they took both points it wasn't easy and they only had around forty seconds in the time bank. The Gladiators then proceeded to demolish the Valiant on their attack, getting both points with more than five minutes remaining. Overtime was close and even though Hydration played badly up to that point he was able to clutch out a fantastic 4K with his "Dragonblade" and take the first map. Lijiang was much of the same and even though Soon improved so did Hydration and he was able to output a ton of damage and chaos with his staple Doomfist pick. The Valiant were scattered consistently and failed to make anything happen as a team, other than a couple of nice individual plays. That trend continued well into the the last two maps, with the Valiant breaking at the seams.

The Houston Outlaws are favored here and with good reason. They displayed more so far and against some of the best teams in the world. However after yesterday's upsets we're going for a cautionary medium bet on this one. In all fairness the Valiant have the tools to beat Houston as they're mostly evenly matched in regards to overall skill and potential. Both teams can go blow-for-blow on every front - they both have stacked rosters with some of the best and most talented DPS, tank and support players in the world. They're also two teams that have consistently been able to compete at the highest level with the Korean giants. Boston and Philadelphia have often come close, even managing to upset from time to time but they're far more inconsistent when it comes to those clutch games.

Going into Week 3 this match was a hard one to predict for sure, however after seeing the Valiant stumble so much against the Gladiators - a team that is the epitome of inconsistency - it's hard giving them the benefit of the doubt, regardless of how well Soon and Kariv have been performing in the weeks prior. Furthermore the Gladiators exploited the Valiant and gave the Outlaws a very clear gameplan that they should replicate.

While this is far from an easy match the Outlaws should be able to win in 3-1 or 3-2 fashion.