London Spitfire vs San Francisco Shock

For our first match of the day we have a very exciting clash between the San Francisco Shock and the London Spitfire.

The Shock had a pretty good 1W-1L showing last week and even though they failed to put up a fight against the Gladiators, they completely outclassed Seoul Dynasty in 3-1 fashion on Saturday.

Against the Gladiators they were tame, always the second to respond and it cost them the series. They were never proactive and other than a couple of fantastic individual plays they didn't do much. When they came to Gibraltar however it was as if they came alive - Architect had one of his insane Widowmaker performances and they managed to stop the Gladiators even before the second point.

It was evident that they were in-sync and that they had a pretty solid understanding of the meta coming into Stage 4 however they were always just a bit worse than the Gladiators. Their opponents were always one step ahead and it proved to be enough last week. Going forward, with a little bit more practice they could be a very concrete threat in the Overwatch League.

Their match against Seoul was a beautiful display of synergy, and even though they started with a dive comp straight out of the gate they actually managed to make it work, part due to Architect's incredible Genji performance. While they did outperform Seoul on almost all fronts it's still incredibly hard to gauge their realistic strength. They come in one week and beat someone they shouldn't only to get outclassed a week afterwards by a team below them.

As for London, things aren't looking so hot. With an 0-2 start to Stage 4, they're already on the back foot, looking at the stage playoffs from the sidelines and things aren't getting any easier.

Now to be fair they did lose to the Outlaws - a team that's looking like Top 2 or at worst Top 3 right now and the best team in the entire League - New York Excelsior. Losing to the upper echelon of the League isn't such a big deal, but they really didn't look nowhere near as good as they should have.

Birdring finally came back after healing up his injury however he didn't look that good. He had good and bad maps and while that might be forgivable at the beginning of the season, what London needs now is consistency. As a team they're just way too streaky. You'll see them get demolished one match and then see a vintage GC Busan demonstration of force the very next day.

They're also releasing four players from their roster so if anything it's a step in the right direction. London was never able to really fixate on a starting line-up with six or perhaps seven players and develop enough synergy. Their substitutions don't always make sense and it's one of the main reasons why their performance took a dip over the months. With just eight players on their roster they should by all means start to improve, but the question rises - was this move long overdue? Time will tell. They're obviously a playoff contender but whether or not they will occupy the top or the bottom half remains to be seen.

In the end, we're going with the San Francisco Shock on this one. It will be an insanely close match and a game of inches. Historically London hasn't done so well when it mattered the most, at least not in the last two stages, but they're a highly capable incredibly dangerous team. The Shock have on the other hand been quite streaky when it comes to their wins and dominant runs but ever since they introduced Super, Architect and Sinatraa to the line-up they've become a lot more consistent.

While this is obviously a very risky bet it could pay off. The Shock are coming into this match with a better understanding of the meta and if they're smart they will watch the VODs from London's match against the Outlaws. They're hungry, they have a new coach and they know every match matters if they want to reach the playoffs so we're going with the underdogs on this one.