New York Excelsior vs Philadelphia Fusion

For our first match of the day we have a fairly exciting clash between the New York Excelsior and the Philadelphia Fusion.

While this match doesn't really impact the standings that much, a win for the Fusion would be huge on all fronts. Not only do they need a lot of hype and momentum behind them right now, but they could really use a win and further solidify their spot in the season playoffs.

New York on the other hand doesn't really need a win. In fact, if they lost every single match going forwards they would still be ranked number one overall as it's mathematically impossible for any other team to overtake them right now. With Boston Uprising losing last week, they also clutched $300k in additional prize pool money, which brought them to over half a million dollars in Season One earnings - and the season isn't even over yet. Their hard work is paying off in every imaginable way and they deserve every last penny.

Last week they completely shut down both Seoul Dynasty and an ever-struggling Shanghai Dragons. This time around they have a somewhat harder schedule with the Fusion and the Los Angeles Valiant but they should emerge victorious regardless.

Philadelphia on the other hand is currently sitting at number five with 21W and 13L and while they're not exactly at risk of losing their playoff spot it could happen. Their loss to the Dallas Fuel was a worrying sign and even though Dallas stepped up immensely it was still expected for a team of Fusion's caliber to outclass the Fuel on all fronts. It didn't happen - not even close, and a lose as "stupid" as this one, to a team that's out of the playoffs altogether is something that Philadelphia cannot allow to happen again. They're very close with every other team in the standings and a single win/loss could make the difference in three weeks when it comes to the playoffs.

Prior to their Dallas Fuel loss they looked quite formidable, however in hindsight it might have been due to their strength of schedule. They beat a struggling Boston Uprising - which in week one looked like an upset, outclassed a regressing Florida Mayhem and finally demolished the Shanghai Dragons. Not the biggest or most impressive string of victories when you really look at it. They were often a streaky team but everyone hoped that things would settle down a bit with two additions to their line-up - SADO and Hotba. It's impossible to realistically gauge their strength right now, especially after they got outclassed by Dallas a couple of days ago. We know what they're capable of, but right now with the constant shifts in the meta they don't really seem like a very strong team.

We're going with New York on the one, without a shadow of a doubt. They're the absolute best team in the League and have been arguably ever since the League began. We can look at the map pool for tonight and it still wouldn't matter, New York Excelsior is simply on another level and they've shown great proficiency on the newest patch as well with Saebyeolbe playing a ton of Brigitte. The only frightening thing would be if they decide to test the waters and start with Janus instead of Meko, which could in theory give Philadelphia the upper hand. However even in that worst case scenario the Excelsior are more than adept of handling what Philadelphia has in store.