Team Vitality vs exceL

To start things off, we have a fairly unexciting clash between Team Vitality and Excel Esports. Frankly speaking, there's just not a lot going on here. We have two teams that are, deep down, pretty much equal in terms of strength and potential. There's very little to get excited about, and while they certainly aren't abysmal by any means, they lack the strength and potential to truly compete on even footing with the rest of the League.

Again, they're doing *some* things right, but these flashes of "brilliance" are too few and far between to actually warrant anyone's benefit of the doubt. Vitality have a slightly better record but they've had an easier strength of schedule, and they also have a stronger team on paper, but that, in the grand scheme of things, means very little. When we have to two teams of seemingly equal strength, it always boils down to a game of inches: who'll come out ahead in the draft, and which team will impose its will in the early game. Those are the two most important elements this time around, as neither team has the clean macro or team-wide cohesion to actually switch things up and throw a couple of curveballs once the mid and later stages of the game come around. If they start off well, there's a good chance they'll get the win; if that fails to be the case, they'll almost always implode beyond measure and just roll over en route to a one-sided defeat.

Over time, they might slightly improve, but they're inherently flawed and are insanely inconsistent. As a result, they're bound to once again end up at the bottom of the standings. Vitality might stand a better chance of potentially reaching the playoffs, but that seems like an optimistic stretch as well. They might look somewhat competitive from time to time, but that's nowhere near enough to actually compete at the highest of levels. In the end, we're going with Vitality on this one as they have more momentum coming into the game, but again, it'll all come down to the wire.