After the Dragons absolutely dominated the Valiant back in Week 1, Los Angeles came through and thrashed Chengdu and Guangzhou. Although two weak teams, the Valiant held a 7-1 map record during that span and have come for vengeance.
Image Courtesy of @LiimitLiz on Twitter
In an interesting twist, the Dragons opted to start new member Kang-jae “envy” Lee over Jin-hyeok “DDing” Yang. Envy didn’t make a move almost the entire first round, as Shanghai was smothered against Johannes “Shax” Nielsen on Sombra. Round two looked much better for the Dragons, but the Valiant ran a daring composition. Mei, Roadhog and Torbjorn caused some confusions, and the score was completely flipped. The Mei continued in round three on Kyle “KSF” Frandanisa, and Shanghai seemed to not have too much of an answer. The Blizzard, again and again, put the Dragons in a solid state, stalling pushes and halting rotations. In one of the more dramatic moments of the match, Russell “FCTFCTN” Campbell continued his redemption story with a quadruple-elimination with around ten health left as Reinhardt.
As DDing was subbed back into the lineup, the Shanghai Dragons began to look like the same team as the last two months. The Dragons’ attack round was ferocious, running their Pharmercy single-tank composition. Completing their attack with 5:50 left in the timebank, all Shanghai needed was a tough defensive stand.
The Dragons proved to be a brick wall on their defensive stand. DDing was certainly impressive as Sombra, collecting 27 total Hacks that defense round alone, eliminating 14 of those players. Seong-hyeon “Luffy” Yang ultimately ran as the unsung hero once again, as he and the Zenyatta opened up with eliminations in team fights despite being a man-down. With less than a minute left in the Valiant’s attack, a crucial EMP from Shax was denied by Luffy, the transcendence able to hold the Dragons until the end.
This map was all over the place, as the Dragons attack capped point A with 5:55 left. The Valiant then found their footing in a GOATs composition, stalling Shanghai for over three minutes on their way to point B. Moving through to the finish quickly, Young-seo “KariV” Park laid down a nasty sleep dart, halting a DDing EMP to prevent a full push on Eichenwalde.
Los Angeles took their attack round with force as well, pressuring Shanghai quickly on the back of Brady “Agilities” Girardi. The DPS main blew rocket after rocket on Pharah, and pushed past point B with ease. Shanghai held Los Angeles with a GOATs composition for a while, around three and a half minutes. The stronghold fell soon enough, as a KSF graviton surge was the finishing blow.
The amount of sleep darts that KariV hit at the end of this map was insane. Time after time again, either DDing or Gamsu took a quick snooze in the middle of the fight, running around as either Pharah or Hammond. Shax also made a name for himself, pummeling Shanghai with one EMP after another. Despite a last-second cap by the Dragons on their first attack, Los Angeles’ quick dives were too much for the Dragons to stay in the match. Agilities flew through the skies with EMPs, and the Valiant took vengeance and put the hype around Shanghai to sleep.
Credit to Los Angeles for throwing a different lineup than in Week 1, as the Dragons were not prepared for the emergence of Shax. Comboing that with envy getting a starting spot on Nepal, it gave the Valiant the momentum they needed to snowball the rest of the match. The Dragons were unable to handle Agilities on the Pharah, and it showed. The exposure may open up the door for other teams to roll right through them later this stage.
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