Los Angeles Valiant vs Philadelphia Fusion

For our first match of the evening we have an incredibly exciting clash between two teams that are knocking on the Top 3. The Los Angeles Valiant vs. Philadelphia fusion match up will surely bring a lot of fireworks and the odds are fairly interesting as well.

Philadelphia is a team that is hard to fairly gauge right now. They have insane flashes of brilliance and established their dominance from the very get go with a strong showing over the Houston Outlaws. They tend to look incredible, with a couple of underwhelming showings against the most "random" of teams, like their reverse sweep loss against the LA Gladiators.

But their potential hit it's peak last week as they took down what many considered the second best team in the entire League - New York Excelsior. The sheer fact that they took down New York in a five map brawler is mindblowing and the level of play that they exhibited was nothing short of sensational. They started off with an strong attack on Numbani but were quickly thrown off by Jjonak's deadly Zenyatta accuracy. (and DPS-like damage numbers) They put the gear into overdrive on Anubis however with some phenomenal play - Carpe thwarting the majority of New York's plans by constantly taking out key members like Libero and Jjokak, and Shadowburn causing absolute chaos on his staple Genji.

They entered Ilios fully knowing that New York would sub in their DPS highlight reel specialist - Pine who was yet to lose on the map. (#1 in hero damage, #1 in final blows and critical hit kills) That didn't stop them from taking the fight to New York. They went blow-for-blow with everything New York had in store with Carpe being the man of the hour for besting Pine at besting Pine in certain moments at what he does best - McCree. It wasn't enough though as Saebyolbe had one of his best performances to date on Tracer, always taking out the opposing DPS and supports in the backline. Luckily for all Philly fans, the Fusion bested New York on both Dorado and Lijiant Tower thanks to some superb defending and otherworldly Genji play from Shadowburn, thus taking the win in 3-2 fashion.

Perhaps the biggest problem they had so far was adapting to Fragi's very specific tank playstyle. He is incredibly aggressive, and it was what made Team Gigantti so formidable in the first season of the Overwatch: Contenders Series where they managed to best a very hyped up Misfits squad. With each passing week, the Fusion is displaying better and better synergy and their DPS duo - Shadowburn and Carpe never cease to amaze in the moments that matter the most.

As for the Los Angeles Vailant, they ended last week with two victories, one over the Los Angeles Gladiators and the other against the struggling Florida Mayhem.

To summarize - they looked good but they weren't as clean as most expected. It's not standard to almost take down the London Spitfire but then struggle against the Gladiators and even lose Dorado to Florida. They couldn't handle Surefour's Pharah, they had lapses in communication and even though they had the ult advantage they weren't able to synchronize thus letting the Gladiators get an easier push of the payload. Unkoe died far too many times and Agilities failed to have any impact in the early stages of the match regardless of the pick. Their mistakes were swiftly punished by the Gladiators who looked at ease regardless of the map. Even though they rebounded fairly well against Florida, the level at which the Mayhem plays is far lowed than that of Philadelphia Fusion.

While the Valiant are surely looking to continue their streak and perhaps get some redemption for last week's mistakes, it's highly questionable whether or not they'll be able to do so against a highly fierce Fusion squad that's coming into week 4 after slaying Goliath.

Last week there was a plethora of upsets, and six matches went the five map distance! These teams are competing against each other almost every single day, they watch each other, learn from their mistakes and from the opposing players as well. The gap is getting smaller with each passing day so upsets like Boston vs. London and Philadelphia vs. New York will become the norm. (until they're not considered upsets any longer) This is exactly what makes Philadelphia's win over a game New York Excelsior that much better and more surprising.

We're going against the odds here for a potential big win. Make no mistake, Philadelphia is far more inconsistent but when they're in the zone there aren't a lot of teams that can compete.