London Spitfire vs Philadelphia Fusion

For our first match of the day we have a very exciting clash between the Philadelphia Fusion and the London Spitfire. This is a repeat of the Stage 2 playoffs when the Fusion came out victorious and there is quite a lot on the line for both teams.

While London managed to stay at the very top of the standings for the last ten weeks of competitive play, their Stage 3 start was nothing short of a nightmare for the former Cloud9 organization. After losing a close 2-3 barnburner to the Houston Outlaws their eyes were set on taking down New York two days later however not only did they lose but they failed to win even a single map. Fortunately they managed to break the losing streak against the Florida Mayhem on Friday however it was far from a dominant showing.

They never really forced their own playstyle, never made any play worth mentioning. They were just better enough - both individually and as a team - than Florida to clutch out the win but that was expected. They didn't dominate, they didn't look clean neither in communication nor in execution and it was just a lackluster performance overall when you factor in the fact that they were fighting against the eleventh ranked team in the League. Sure, Florida has been stepping up immensely but they shouldn't be able to compete with London on their level, let alone get a draw on Volskaya Industries with two new players in their roster - Sayaplayer and Awesomeguy.

As for Philadelphia, they didn't enter Stage 3 as the best Western team around, but they did enough to be considered as a runner for playoffs. Perhaps the biggest problem was the fact that they couldn't start with EQO due to his suspension however the Carpe and Snillo duo was more than sufficient to keep them in the running for playoffs with two wins and one loss. While they're not in the Top 4 right now they are incredibly strong, versatile and perhaps most importantly - consistent when it matters the most.

Looking at this match-up specifically, the Spitfire are surely looking to avenge their loss. They also know that they need to pick up the pace and start dominating if they want to keep their playoff hopes alive. They were drawn into a Widow duel against Carpe the first time around and they lost handily so they will no longer underestimate the Fusion, they will try to adapt and come prepared but Philadelphia is no slouch.

This is an incredibly tough match to call. While the Fusion isn't looking as strong as they did just a couple of weeks prior they're still getting the job done whereas London is looking like a pale shadow when compared to how dominant and in-sync they once were. It's not going to be close but London showed a far greater amount of weaknesses over the last couple of weeks so we're going with Philadelphia on this one.