With their spot in the playoffs all but assured, the London Spitfire don’t have too much to fear from their last game of the season. A close loss against the Vancouver Titans and a clean win over a rapidly improving Outlaws look good for the team. With the loss to the Mayhem fresh in their minds, the team are clearly determined not to repeat that performance. Fans of the Spitfire should be cautiously optimistic looking ahead.
Photo: Robert Paul for Blizzard Entertainment
Some teams, after taking a 3-0 loss to the league’s 20th ranked team, might have let it get to them. Not the Spitfire. They came out swinging against the Titans and won Control 2-0. However, Vancouver bounced back, tying up the series off the back of some incredible Genji plays from Hyojong “Haksal” Kim. After halftime, the Spitfire brought it back on the most one-sided map in the series. Joon-yeong “Profit” Park’s Mei and Jun-ho “Fury” Kim’s Roadhog shut down every one of the Titan’s attack attempts. On the offense, London was quickly able to break the Titan’s defense, bringing them up 2-1.
The next map, Route 66, was one of the most exciting maps of the week. Both teams managed to push the payload to the end, and with only a minute left, the Titans managed an incredibly clutch push to score 5 points. Although London’s push was also extremely impressive considering their small time bank, it wasn’t quite enough. The Titans took it, tying up the series, and then came out on top on the tiebreaker map. It was a close game, but ultimately Spitfire weren’t able to clutch it out.
Player of the Match: Jun-ho “Fury” Kim
Fury’s been one of London’s best players all year, and this match was no exception. On the maps where London played best, including their dominant defense on Hollywood, it was Fury coming in clutch. He masterfully shut down the Titans on both Roadhog and D.Va.
The Spitfire were able to keep calm going into their game against the Outlaws. Despite a steadily improving performance across the last two stages, Houston weren’t able to take it. London won the first three maps, starting with a dominant Lijiang Tower. A close Volskaya narrowly went in London’s direction. Then, they proceeded to finish King’s Row and prevent the Outlaws from capturing the third point. On the fourth map, Houston showed signs of life, crushing London and preventing them from getting so much as a single point. Overall, it was still a strong win to recover from Spitfire’s last two matches.
Photo: Robert Paul for Blizzard Entertainment.
Player of the Match: Ji-hyeok “birdring” Kim
Birdring has acquired a reputation for being an inconsistent player. When he’s on, he can go toe to toe with any DPS player in the league and win. When he’s not, however, he can often be practically invisible for a map. This was one of the former occasions. Birdring showed up against the Outlaws on both Reaper and Hanzo, playing a big role in the victory.
The London Spitfire won’t be playing at the Kit Kat Rivalry Weekend. That means that their Week 4 match against the Atlanta Reign is their last match of the season. With Profit going head to head with another top-tier DPS, Joon “ErsTer” Jeong, and Fury meeting his match in Dong-hyeong “DACO” Seo, this promises to be an exciting match. Atlanta will be hungry for the win to try and sneak themselves into the top six. Meanwhile, London will be hoping to leapfrog the Spark or the Gladiators to get a better playoff seed. Both teams have plenty of motivation, and with Atlanta on a hot streak, it’s anyone’s game.
Prediction: Spitfire 3-2 Reign
Player To Watch: Joon-yeong “Profit” Park
Whenever the Reign aren’t playing D.Va expert DACO, they’ve been fielding Nathan “FRD” Goebel on a surprisingly top-tier Roadhog. No matter which of Atlanta’s off-tank players is playing, they’ll be one of the strongest links on the team. As Rascal showed in the Shock’s match against the Fuel, a good Mei can make an offtank’s life a misery. If Profit can shut down the Reign’s tankline, Spitfire should be able to clinch the win in their last game of the regular season.
For a more in-depth analysis of London’s quest for a top five playoffs seed, The Game Haus covered the season’s upcoming matches and what they mean for the Spitfire here.
Featured photo by Robert Paul courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment.
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