RESULTS: Boston Uprising Take 3-2 Victory Over Los Angeles Valiant

The Boston Uprising came into the match with a 9-8 record and in 8th place in the Overwatch League. Coming off of a 4-0 victory over the Dallas Fuel earlier in the week, Boston was looking to end Week 4 with a 2-0 record. The Los Angeles Valiant came into the match with 11-6 record and in 4th place in the league. Suffering a surprising 3-1 defeat to the Florida Mayhem earlier in the week, Los Angeles was motivated to not end Week 4 wiith a winless record. With every match having the potential to decide playoff positioning, both teams were looking for a quality win to help propel them into the Stage 2 playoffs. Here is a short breakdown of how the match went. 

Volskaya Industries was the first map of the match. Both teams would secure the first point in both of their attack rounds to force a 1-1 tie. An impressive five kill streak from Jonathan "DreamKazper" Sanchez's Genji would open up Point B for Boston, but Los Angeles would hold strong and prevent the Uprising from securing their second point and the win. Going into their second attack round, the Valiant were able to secure Point A again for their second point, but the Boston Uprising would secure both points in their second attack round to secure the 3-2 win. Lucas "NotE" Meissner (25 eliminations, 11,575 damage blocked and three deaths as D.Va), YoungJin "Gamsu" Noh (25 eliminations, 14,924 damage blocked and seven deaths as Winston) and Nam-Ju  "STRIKER" Gwon (24 eliminations, 15 final blows and four deaths as Tracer) were the leaders for Boston on Volskaya Industries. 

Lijiang Tower followed Volskaya Industries and saw the Los Angeles Valiant capture the first hill to take a 1-0 lead to begin the map. Clutch kills in the final moments of overtime for the second hill by DreamKazper allowed the Boston Uprising to secure the capture and tie the map at 1-1. The third and final hill would see the Los Angeles Valiant shine in the closing moments. This resulted in the Valiant taking the final hill and the 2-1 win on Lijiang Tower, which forced a 1-1 tie going into halftime. Los Angeles had Pan-Seung "Fate" Koo (37 eliminations, 17,838 damage blocked and 10 deaths as Winston), DPS and support hybrid player Young-Seo "Kariv" Bak (14 eliminations and zero deaths as Reaper) and Terence "Soon" Tarlier (35 eliminations, a kill streak of nine and nine deaths as Tracer) to thank for the map two victory. 

King's Row was the third map of the match. The Los Angeles Valiant were able to put together a strong offensive push in their attack round to deliver the payload all of the way to the end of King's Row to take a 3-0 lead. One of the highlights of the Valiant's attack round was some excellent and fast paced play from Kang-Jae "Envy" Lee as Doomfist, which helped the Valiant secure their second point. The Boston Uprising would answer with their own delivery of the payload to the end of the map to force a 3-3 tie going into the time bank round. However, a clutch Pulse Bomb from STRIKER onto a group of Valiant players would weaken them, thus leading to a couple of clean up kills from DreamKazper to lead to the payload capture and 4-3 win on King's Row. This resulted in Boston taking a 2-1 lead in the match going into the fourth map. Solid tank play from WooYul "Kalios" Shin (18 eliminations, 14,935 damage blocked and eight deaths as D.Va) would also be a major contributing factor in Boston's win on King's Row.

Route 66 saw the Boston Uprising looking to secure the 3-1 match victory, while the Los Angeles Valiant needed a win to force a map five. Los Angeles was able to bully their way through Boston to capture the first two checkpoints, but the Uprising were able to put together a last stand to prevent the Valiant from completing the map. While a couple of flashy kills with McCree from Stanislav "Mistakes" Danilov looked to have opened up the first checkpoint for the Uprising, a 10 kill streak from Soon would help the Valiant hold off a couple of offensive pushes from Boston. While the Boston Uprising were able to finally secure the first checkpoint, a clutch Pulse Bomb from Soon in overtime on the second checkpoint would close out the 2-1 win on Route 66 for Los Angeles and tie the match at 2-2. Soon (38 eliminations, a kill streak of 14 and four deaths as Tracer) and Stefano "Verbo" Disalvo (20 eliminations, 9,092 healing done and three deaths as Lúcio) were two of the stars for the Valiant on Route 66.

Ilios was the final map of the match and saw Los Angeles take the first hill to take a 1-0 lead. Looking to tie the map on the next hill, Boston was able to accomplish their objective and force a match deciding third hill. The final hill would be a back and forth struggle between the two teams, as the Uprising would take a 99% to 67% lead, but the Valiant would retake control and close the lead to 99% to 93%. However, in the end Boston was able to immediately take back control and secure the final hill. This resulted in the 2-1 win on Ilios and 3-2 match victory for the Boston Uprising.

Gamsu was named the player of the match for the excellent Winston play that he harassed the Valiant with through all five maps. He finished with 133 eliminations, 46 final blows and 45 deaths.

With the win, the Boston Uprising improved to a record of 10-8 and helped improve their Stage 2 playoff chances. The loss dropped the Los Angeles Valiant to a 11-7 record and had the team finish Week 4 without a single win, which was not the performance Los Angeles was looking for as they neared the end of Stage 2. 

Interested in more Overwatch League coverage? Check out our recap of the London Spitfire and San Francisco Shock match from earlier today. To see when your favorite team is playing next, check out the official Overwatch League schedule.

(cover photo courtesy of Robert Paul for Blizzard Entertainment)