The Los Angeles Valiant looked strong in this series. The first half was shaky, but the team very much found their footing after halftime. It was an expected win for the Valiant, but nevertheless marks their second win in a row.
Courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment
Round one was on City Center. It was extremely close, with many flips taking place. Though, many scrappy fights later, the Los Angeles Valiant came out on top after the Justice were unable to touch the point in time to contest and bring the round to overtime.
Round two took place on Gardens. Another close round, but with less point flips. The LA Valiant looked much more solid, and were able to hold their ground in almost every fight, and therefore win the round.
The map ended 2-0 in favor of the Los Angeles Valiant.
Courtesy of Gamepedia
On Temple of Anubis, the Valiant started on attack. Their first try at pushing failed, but they came back swiftly, and, after a nice round of ultimates, took point A. They tried to rush onto point B, but a four-man Self-Destruct from Washington’s Hyang-ki “Sansam” Kim stopped them dead in their tracks. However, similarly to their point A attack, they were able to snag point B on their second try after a long stall from the Washington Justice. They ended the round with 3:14 left in their time bank.
On defense, the Valiant were able to hold on to point A for a couple of minutes, but a huge Earthshatter from Washington main tank Jun-hwa “Janus” Song opened the flood gates for the Justice squad, and Los Angeles lost the point. Once again, the LA Valiant held on for some time, but the ultimates from the Washington Justice ended up being too much, and they lost point B. The Justice ended the round with 1:30 in their time bank.
Los Angeles’ round three defense crumbled quickly on the point A, and Washington rushed to point B. Although the Valiant stalled for quite some time, the Justice’s rush proved to be successful and they eventually took the second point in overtime.
On their second attack, the LA Valiant captured point A with less than a minute remaining, and moved to attack point B. However, they were unable to finish out the point.
The map ended 4-3 in favor of the Washington Justice.
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Round one had the Los Angeles Valiant on attack. They had no trouble taking point A on their first try, dismantling the Washington Justice one by one. Not much changed moving to point B, and after having to reset only once, the Valiant finished it out. On point C, Los Angeles kept their momentum at full force, and ended the map with 3:05 left.
In round two, the Valiant’s point A defense fell at a similar speed to that of the Justice. Despite the Justice’s fast start, the LA Valiant held them off from taking point B until overtime. In the end, Washington were unable to finish point C.
The map ended 3-2 in favor of the Los Angeles Valiant.
Courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment
On Rialto, the Valiant started on attack. They had a very strong start, quickly taking point A with almost no contention. Despite a boop into the river by Justice support Yeon-joon “ArK” Hong catching three players, Los Angeles had already won the overall fight, and kept pushing. They finished out point B rather easily. The Valiant continued to dominate through point C, and they finished the map with 3:46 left.
On defense, the LA Valiant had a close call, almost losing point A after a couple of minutes. However, they recontested, and held on for the rest of the round.
The map ended 3-0 in favor of the Los Angeles Valiant.
Despite looking rather uncomfortable at the beginning of the match, Los Angeles had gathered themselves by halftime and looked completely dominant for the rest of the maps. With this victory, they’ve now achieved back-to-back wins. This obviously doesn’t mean that the Valiant are now a top tier team, but things are definitely looking up.
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Featured image courtesy of the Overwatch League
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