Los Angeles Valiant vs San Francisco Shock

For our second match of the day we have a clash between the Los Angeles Valiant and the San Francisco Shock.

The Valiant surely didn't start off Stage 2 as best they could, as they failed to even look like a top team against Seoul in their very first match. (even though they manged to 4-0 Seoul just a couple of weeks earlier) Even though the playing field was leveled they failed to adapt and to utilize any of their strengths from the very get go. They were out of sync and without a clear game plan which allowed Seoul to run rampant on almost every single map. That, paired with Fleta's incredible accuracy allowed Seoul to snowball more often than not.

In the very best case scenario they simply failed to adapt quickly enough, however at the same time they made too many mistakes individually. Without a Mercy to negate bad positioning and/or bad calls it became difficult to take Seoul head on.

Fortunately they were able to step up a bit and defeat the Shanghai Dragons just a couple of days later, however even then they weren't without fault. It's hard fairly predicting how strong the Valiant are right now as, much like their LA brethren they too have off weeks. They tend to bounce back really strong, however with a different - less forgiving meta - it's questionable whether or not they will be able to get back to their Stage 1 level.

As for the Shock, they remain somewhat of an enigma with a fair amount of potential. They don't always do the right thing, they don't always go for the right play and they often go out of line but they're a proactive, emotional team and that makes them a threat more often than not. Now again, they mostly fail to translate their virtues and leads into map and match wins, but at least it makes them a fun team to watch.

Against the Gladiators they lacked the synergy to pull off multiple plays and comps they went for even though they were quite strong on an individual level - most notably Babybay and Danteh. Even though they read what the Gladiators wanted to do they weren't always able to counter, especially as they had problems of their own. When they got to King's Row they were almost completely out of sync, throwing key ults (like the "Graviton Surge") without any follow up, etc.

They stepped up considerably against Seoul when they managed to win Hanamura thanks to a very strong point B hold. It wasn't enough for another map win as Seoul got aggravated after their map one loss and an angry Seoul is a very dominant Seoul.

We're going with the Valiant here as they were always the better team, and they also have a tendency to rebound strongly after a mediocre week. This should be no exception.

While it might not be clean or dominant, the Valiant should emerge victorious.