The Shock are undefeated since their back-to-back losses in the California Cup. But despite dominant rematch victories against the Gladiators and Valiant, they hit a speed bump with the Dallas Fuel. Last week San Fran edged out Dallas in a 3-2 victory. But this isn’t your father’s Fuel squad, as Doha and Decay have helped to push the team to incredible heights. It was a shaky win, but a win nonetheless as the team looks to take down the Valiant once more this week.
The hero pools for the week exclude Orisa, Echo, Tracer and Moira. This will be a defining factor for the meta, as well as roster selection.
Shock (4-2) vs LA Valiant (2-5)
Saturday April 25 at 6pm EST/3pm PST
Since their upset win against the Shock in week 8, the Valiant have not found a win. They have suffered two losses at the hands of the Shock, the Gladiators and the revamped Fuel. This leaves this year’s series between the Shock and Valiant at 1-1, with each team hoping to swing it in their favor.
The Shock’s two losses came in a week where the bans bolstered double-shield compositions. Their choice of Reinhardt-Zarya did not work out the best for them that weekend. But this week the expected compositions will likely include Reinhardt, D.Va, Mei, McCree, Lucio and either Ana or Moira. This works wonderfully for the Shock squad as it puts Matthew “Super” DeLisi and Hyo-bin “Choihyobin” Choi on their top characters
Prediction: Shock win 3-1
Matchup to Watch: McGravy vs Choihyobin
Caleb “McGravy” McGarvey has had a good season so far. With more than a few standout plays and all-around consistency, he is proving his worth as a starter. Going back to their win against the Shock in Week 8, he switched to D.Va for the final fight on Numbani solely to negate ANS’s Blizzard – spoiler alert: he did and they won the map. He will be a key factor if the Valiant do pull off the upset once again.
On the other side, Choihyobin is one of, if not the best off-tank players in the Overwatch League. His D.Va play throughout 2019 was MVP-worthy, and his quick adoption of Sigma led the team to the Championship. He was awarded Finals MVP for his performance in that series. With ultimate negation being crucial when playing against Mei, time will tell who the hungrier player is.
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Featured image courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment.
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