Los Angeles Valiant vs Los Angeles Gladiators

For our third match of the day we have an exciting scrap between two Los Angeles teams - the Valiant and the Gladiators.

The Valiant had the unlucky fortune to fight against London Spitfire and New York Excelsior in just a single week, so their two losses last week should do no harm to their overall strength and momentum. In fact - the opposite. They are the first team to take London Spitfire to the fifth map! They pushed London to their limits and could by all means be the first team to make a big upset sooner rather than later.

Against London however, it was a mixed bag. Their play on Dorado was pale in comparison to the masterclass London put on, with Profit doing most of the heavy lifting from high above on Widowmaker. The Valiant were read like a book, with Birdring and Profit having one of their most dominant showings on Tracer and Genji, respectively. The Valiant tried to rebound on Horizon with a quad tank team comp which allowed them to take point A rather quickly and to shutdown Birdring on point B. After London managed to barely strike in the nick of time, they put on a clinic with a couple of key changes to their comp and strategy. While the Valiant did lose Lunar Horizon, you could see their potential, the willingness to bring the fight to London - and that's exactly what they did once they stepped foot on Oasis.

They completely shut down London from the get go, winning the first point (100% to 0%) with relative ease. They didn't let go on Oasis University either with Agilities' Roadhog being a key pick. That aggression was transferred over to Eichenwalde as well - with Valiant managing to dominate once again - spearheaded by Soon and Silkthread. It was the first time both teams fought on Eichenwalde and the Valiant were able to come out ahead. The synergy between Fate/Envy and their support lineup is fantastic, which leaves Soon and Agilities/Silkthread to play to their fullest.

Sadly it wasn't enough when they stepped foot on the deciding map Lijiang Tower as London Spitfire put the gear into overdrive and simply outclassed Los Angeles - with Birdring having a disgustingly good (and accurate) Widow game.

In the end, the Valiant's stock value rose by quite a bit seeing how well they fought against a team predicted to be far stronger. While they do have a couple of kinks to work out, they're looking like the best team outside the top 3 Korean pantheon - Seoul, New York and London.

As for the Los Angeles Gladiators - things are a bit more complicated. They're currently sitting at two wins and two losses, with their two losses coming at the hands of Korean giants, and two wins at the expense of Shanghai and Philadelphia. They're undoubtedly a team that could contest for playoffs, but they're simply a bit too inconsistent to say for sure. We are yet to see them fight against Houston or Dallas, and arguably even their win against Philadelphia could have gone differently had Philly not tilted to infinity.

They couldn't do much against New York Excelsior last week either (which was expected), in fact they couldn't do anything at all. Other than a couple of good plays from Surefour and Hydration, they couldn't hold a candle to a game NYXL lineup that was simply too aggressive, too much in-sync.

Looking ahead at this match specifically, the Los Angeles brethren already fought once in the preseason and the Valiant came out victorious in 3-1 fashion. The Valiant managed to take home a commanding win (even though it was a bit too close for comfort at certain moments) even though they couldn't start Agilities due to age restrictions. This time around they're coming in with their full roster and they're playing some of their best Overwatch to date.

In a way it's risky betting on any Los Angeles because while the Valiant look fantastic overall, the Gladiators have flashes of brilliance and are prone to upset. That said, they should know each other in and out so the Valiant should be able to get back in the win column.