The California Cup so far

Who Owns the Golden State?

As the Overwatch League Inaugural Season comes to an end, we have a couple months before the games start again. And what better way to keep it spicy than having two rival teams fighting over who controls the state of California. The Los Angeles Valiant and the San Francisco Shock have come together to create a first of its kind competition. The California Cup will feature the two powerhouses fighting for control in two matches. The first match will be on October 20 at Esports Arena Santa Ana and will end on November 10 at the Esports Arena in Oakland.

There will be various thing to do at the venues as well. Both teams will have meet-and-greets showcasing their brand new rosters. There will also be exclusive merchandise, free-to-play computers and an amateur and collegiate tournament. The events will finish with the highlight of the day, the match between the two titans. After the game in Oakland, the team that wins will hold the title of Guardian of the California Cup and will have to defend it until the next meeting.

However, this is not the only event they had in store for us. Most noteworthy, they’re not keeping this event to be only decided on the streets of Hanamura or the ruins of Eichenwalde. In order to prove their superiority over one another, they have decided to face off in other types of challenges as well. As of now, we have seen them use their minds in a game of Spelling Bee, and their motor skills in a Jenga match. They still have three more events in store for us that will be revealed with time.

For these challenges the teams have brought their elite squads. Mathew “Super” Delisi, Jay “Sinatraa” Won, Minho “Architect” Park and Hyo-Bin “Choihyobin” Choi are San Francisco’s fighters. Scott “Custa” Kennedy, Indy “Space” Halpern, Minchul “Izayaki” Kim and Kyle “KSF” Frandanisa bring LA Valiant’s might to the scene.

But how have these challenges been so far? Let’s talk about that.

Challenge 1: Spelling Bee

LA VALIANT CHALLENGES SF SHOCK TO A…SPELLING BEE? | California Cup Challenges

With KSF taking the bullet and going first for the Valiant, he was faced with the word “centenary”. After losing, it was very clear that Custa’s pronunciation made him lose that round. Immediately after that, without a doubt in his mind, Super shows us his 200 IQ spelling of “transcendence” nailing it perfectly in one try. The teams faced harder words like “Eirennach” and “Tekhartha” as the game moved on. As a result, score of the game ended being a 2-2 tie.

Challenge 2: Jenga

SF Shock vs LA Valiant in JENGA! | California Cup Challenges

We start with a very comfortable Valiant, giving the Shock the first turn of the game. Super going for the classic bottom of the tower block, with Space going for the top immediately after. By turn 13 we can already see the tower trembling right as Architect starts to grab the piece he intends to move. Past turn 20 things started to get more serious, as the tower started balancing as Custa placed his piece at the top. Turn 46 had Izayaki on the edge as he almost made the tower fall with a forceful pull but stopped in time to choose an easier target. It all ended with Space throwing the game on turn 50, taking out a piece that unbalanced the top of the tower and sent it down.

With the San Francisco Shock taking the win, this will put them ahead on the leaderboard 1-0!

Featured Image Courtesy of San Francisco Shock.

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