RESULTS: Los Angeles Valiant Secure Tough Victory Over Shanghai Dragons

The Los Angeles Valiant came into today's match with a record of 7-4 and in 6th place. The Shanghai Dragons enterted the match with a record of 0-11 and in 12th place. Los Angeles had suffered a disappointing 0-4 loss to the Seoul Dynasty earlier in the week, while the Dragons were looking to rebound from a 1-3 loss to the Dallas Fuel. Not wanting to be the first team in the league to fall to the Shanghai Dragons, the Valiant were motivated to play much better than they showed against Seoul. Here is a short breakdown of how the match went. 

Shanghai came out firing on all cylinders, as they raced out to a 2-0 lead on Hanamura to begin the match. The Valiant, who surprised with a team composition of three support players that included Young-Seo "Kariv" Park playing Soldier: 76, would respond with their own strong attack round to tie the map at 2-2. Los Angeles would go on to secure Point A in their second attack round to grab a 3-2 lead, but Shanghai was able to hold off the Valiant's attack to prevent them from collecting a fourth point. Shanghai would only be able to capture Point A in their second attack round, which resulted in a 3-3 draw for map one and a 0-0 score for the match. Despite Pan-Seung "Fate" Koo's (46 eliminations, 18,004 damage blocked and only eight deaths) and Terence "Soon" Tarlier's (41 eliminations and only 7 deaths) best efforts, the Valiant were not able to secure the victory.

Lijiang Tower was the second map of the match, and saw each team capture one of the first two hills to force a 1-1 tie going into the third and final hill. A well placed Pulse Bomb by Soon, onto a group of Dragons trapped by a Graviton Surge from Brady "Agilities" Girardi, would be one of the driving plays for the Valiant to execute a dominant capture and hold on the final hill. This would lead to the Valiant securing the 2-1 map victory and 1-0 match lead heading into halftime. Kang-Jae "Envy" Lee was a major player in the Valiant's victory with 32 eliminations, 13,451 damage blocked and only five deaths. 

King's Row followed after halftime, and saw the Valiant return to their three support player composition with Kariv on Widowmaker, a hero that he has a large amount of experience playing at a high level. This would not stop Shanghai from securing two points in their attack round, but was enough to hold the Dragons off in the end. Los Angeles would go on to complete their attack round to collect three points and grab the 3-2 map victory, and gauranteed the Shanghai Dragons would go another match without a win, as the Valiant secured the match victory with a score of 2-0. Envy would lead the way for the Valiant with 17 eliminations and only two deaths on Zarya.

The final map of the match would be Watchpoint: Gibraltar. Los Angeles would put together an impressive defensive round to hold Shanghai scoreless in their attack round. The Valiant would not play as well in their attack, and a heroic Dragonblade from Agilities' Genji would be the deciding factor in the Valiant scoring the map winning point. The 1-0 map victory cemented the 3-0 match victory for the Los Angeles Valiant. 

With the win, the Los Angeles Valiant improved to a record of 8-4. The loss dropped the Shanghai Dragons to a record of 0-12, and while they were able to give the Valiant a very tought battle, it was not enough to capture their first win in the Overwatch League. Fate was named the player of the match for his 83 eliminations and only 15 deaths as Winston.

Interested in more Overwatch League news? Check out our recap of today's Houston Outlaws and Boston Uprising match.