London Spitfire vs Boston Uprising

For our first match of the day we have a fairly interesting match-up between the London Spitfire and the Boston Uprising.

You could argue that London was on the receiving end after a pretty tough week one. They were up against a very game Houston Outlaws squad that adapted quicker to the meta and the seemingly perennial champions New York Excelsior. While the Spitfire are no strangers to bad starts, they were able to overcome yet another hurdle and improve to 2W and 2L last week with wins over the San Francisco Shock and the Seoul Dynasty. While they were far from clean wins or dominant displays of skills, they were good enough. Their win against the Shock came as a bit of a surprise though - they started off incredibly strong on Blizzard World and Hanamura even though they had a losing record on the former and worse win percentages on both maps when compared to the Shock. The Shock were able to pull it together and play better on both Oasis and Dorado however London persevered and thanks to some stellar mental fortitude was able to 2-0 on Nepal and clutch out the win.

It wasn't pretty but seeing how they're struggling right now they're surely satisfied that they got away with the "W". Even in their off days they're still able to shine on an individual level and that should in theory be enough for tonight's match.

They're obviously doing a lot of things right and they're giving it their all from start to finish. While their games aren't the epitome of clean execution they're getting there bit by bit. These are growing pains, as illogical as it might sound and the decision to cut down on their roster will be a beneficial one in the long run. With just a couple of key players starting they will actually - for the first time this season - be able to focus and develop even more synergy and cohesion. While they're exhibiting some issues right now, when the playoffs come around they should by all means be a force to be reckoned with.

As for Boston, well, things still aren't sunshine and rainbows. In fact, things are abysmal. They were overtaken by the Los Angeles Valiant last week and they're currently sitting at fourth place in the overall standings, however they're only two wins ahead of the last team in the playoffs so another bad week and they could actually lose out on the chance to compete in July. After watching them play last week, it's not only possible but will most likely happen as they have too much work on their hands and not enough time.

To their credit their five map brawler against the Los Angeles Valiant did instill some confidence going forwards. While they were outclassed on the first two maps they managed to turn things around with a very solid performance on Oasis and then on Dorado, before ultimately falling flat on Nepal once again. When they're able to impose their own playstyle - which is dive more often than not - they can still echo the dominant level of play they had in Stage 3. Things get problematic when they have to flex and adapt, as dive isn't the default style of play right now, nor is it the most successful. They're not really good at anything else though, and even though they tried Brigitte-oriented comps last week they weren't nearly as successful as they should if they want to compete for a top spot.

When Striker's able to impose his playstyle and cause chaos they're instantly a far stronger team, but he's getting shut down more often than not and Mistakes simply isn't playing at a high enough level to compete with the absolute best in the League.

It's really hard betting on either team with full confidence as they've always been prone to a certain level of inconsistency. London in particular has a somewhat volatile style of play as they can play out of their minds one day and then simply crumble a day afterwards. Ever since their Stage 1 level of performance they've been severely inconsistent however things should improve as the weeks go by. Regardless of all their issues and problems they should still be more than capable at taking Boston down. They're more versatile, more flexible and they should be able to win.

That said don't be surprised if Boston come to play and manage to make this an incredibly close series that goes the distance.