Los Angeles Gladiators vs San Francisco Shock

For our last match of the day we have a very fascinating clash between the Los Angeles Gladiators and the San Francisco Shock. While this match-up might not scream fireworks, it's a rather interesting one and both teams are surely looking to enter Stage 2 on a high note.

While both teams had good moments during Stage 1, they were never able to fully shine. They were far too inconsistent regardless of the opponent, with the Gladiators mostly getting in their own way with quirky decisions and strategies.

It's hard betting on either team as you never really know which version will show up.

They are also somewhat even in the standings, with Gladiators being 4W-6L and the Shock just below with 3W-7L. The last time these two teams fought was in Week 5, and the Gladiators emerged victorious in 3-1 fashion. The only map they lost was Numbani, however you could argue that they were far stronger on that map as well, just not as clutch. As the series developed, it was obvious that the Gladiators were far more in-sync, and that their support duo was far more deadly with Shaz consistently sniping Babybay as Zenyatta.

The Shock have traditionally heavily depended on Babybay's performance, and to his credit he was almost always up to the task. He went blow-for-blow with almost every other DPS player in the League. It became apparent fairly quickly that he's able to play up to the level of his opponent and he also has a fairly solid champion pool to boot. However the Shock as a team don't have that many threats in the DPS department even though Danteh stepped up considerably during the last couple of weeks. When Babybay goes down, the San Francisco Shock follow suit fairly quickly. That said they have an uncanny ability to fully commit all of their defensive abilities and peel to protect him.

Unfortunately for the Shock, shutting down a single DPS threat (unless his name is Fleta) is far easier, especially in a meta without resurrects.

The last we've seen of the Gladiators was a somewhat lackluster performance against Dallas Fuel in Week 5. They couldn't put up an offensive on Eichenwalde as they failed to get even a single point. They played a lot better on Anubis however it was much of the same. In the end, when all was said and done, Dallas was just a bit faster, a bit more in-sync and died quite a bit less. (BigGoose at one point had double the death count of Chipshajen, luckily he won't be on Mercy duty any longer) They were only able to have a full hold on Dorado point A which was nice display of strategy and skill albeit quite late.

But they're entering Stage 2 with a strengthened lineup - they signed Fissure from London Spitfire, and they're surely looking to start anew. They beat the Shock once already and quite handily as well so they have the edge for sure but there are a lot of "what if's" with the new set of maps. The Shock are a dexterous team, they're emotional and fearless at times and that makes them dangerous.

When betting on Overwatch you want consistency, you want to be able to have at least some confidence when going for a team and investing on them to win. Unfortunately neither of these two teams have been the pinnacle of consistent Overwatch. Because of this if you're going to bet, go as low as possible.