In the first season of the Overwatch League, the Los Angeles Valiant looked like a really strong team, but they have been extremely disappointing in 2019 thus far going 0-8 in their first 6 weeks of matches. They've looked so bad in 2019 that the Valiant even fired their Head Coach.
Today, however, the LA Valiant won their first game of the 2019 season and finally break the losing streak against the Atlanta Reign.
Valiant in Five
The Valiant took the first map on Lijiang Tower very easily, and the atmosphere inside the Blizzard Arena shifted into a “is this the day?” type of mood. However, in true Valiant fashion, everyone wrote them off again after they dropped map two harshly, and map 3 in an embarrassing display of zero confidence.
Junkertown turned things around, though, as the Valiant stormed back to hold the Reign to just two point caps, heading into Busan as map 5 with a tied-up series.
With KSF playing out of his mind as Zarya on map 5, with trusty Space on main-tank and Custa on support, the Valiant took the fifth map winning the series in a dramatic clean-up. Through huge chants from their home-field fans, the Valiant have burned their bad luck, and head through to their matchup on Sunday against their LA counterparts in the Gladiators.
Reign Reign Go Away
As for their opponents, the Atlanta Reign have a lot of problems to solve. After making the Stage 1 playoffs, the Reign without Dafran doesn’t look like a competitive team in Stage 2 thus far. This loss against the winless Valiant puts the Reign at 19th in the league for Stage 2, with a 0-3 record.
Is it simply to blame on their star DPS player retiring mid-season? Does this Atlanta Reign have what it takes with their current roster to make a stand? We’d say yes, but they sure aren’t proving it right now. With the addition of BabyBay and FRD, the Reign should find their stride sooner rather than later. Whether that’s in time to push for a playoff spot is unknown.
The Battle of LA
The LA Valiant is one of those rare teams in professional Overwatch that seem to be a viable contender for the crown on paper, but something hasn’t been clicking in 2019 so far. That is, until today.
This first win in the books for the Valiant really makes their Sunday match against the LA Gladiators that much more exciting. On top of the rivalry between two LA teams, we will also get to see if the Valiant’s victory today is a trend or a blip.
The Battle for LA takes place to wrap-up Week 2 of Stage 2 this Sunday at approximately 5:15 PM Pacific Time and you can catch that action on the Overwatch League Twitch channel.
Do you think this Los Angeles Valiant is for real? Or was this win more of a gift from a sad looking Atlanta Reign team?
