Florida Mayhem vs Boston Uprising

Florida facing off against Boston Uprising is by no means a monumental clash between two age-old, primordial behemoths. Instead, it's a fairly passable, somewhat underwhelming skirmish between two inconsistent teams, one of which has at least some potential. Still, in the time of excessive self-isolation, having any kind of Overwatch to indulge in is a positive thing, even if it's a relatively one-sided fiesta.

Unlike Boston, Florida actually has some semblance of potential and momentum coming into today's match, in no small part because of their surprising performance over the last two months. Now, you will by no means mistake them for a top-tier titan, but they're deceptively strong. It feels as though the Florida Mayhem narrative of them being absolutely abysmal is still strong and whenever they do even remotely well, you're sort of just waiting for the decline to begin. That's what happens when you fail to be competitive for two whole years in a row.

But the organization made a bevy of sweeping roster changes during the off-season, so we should adjust our expectations and narratives accordingly. They've beaten Paris Eternal last week in pretty clean 3-0 fashion (the same team that took Philadelphia Fusion to five maps just a week prior), and they also hold wins over the Toronto Defiant (3-1, all the way back in Week 5), and the Houston Outlaws. So, all in all, nothing overly spectacular, but still pretty solid for a team of their caliber.

They did lose to the Fusion, New York Excelsior, and the Atlanta Reign, so it's hard not to classify them as a mid-tier gatekeeper, at best. Perhaps they're slightly better -- we just can't know at this point in time given the state of the League. Some teams are playing a lot, others are barely competing. Predicting the outcome of any one match always feels like an impossible endeavor because you just don't have enough information. With hero pools shifting on a weekly basis as well, teams have to adapt to both an ever-changing list of playable heroes and a worldwide epidemic.

Talk about a tall order!

Boston, on the other hand, is even harder to read than Florida. They have an okay win over Houston ("okay" might be stretching it), but have lost to everyone else they've faced since. Heck, even the Outlaws avenged that one loss a couple of weeks afterward. So, all things considered, they're one of the worst teams in the League, at least given the sample size that's at our disposal. They do some thing right from time to time, but as a whole, they're just not strong enough to compete.

Florida Mayhem are by no means perfect in execution, but at least they have more depth and have shown a better understanding of the meta game and its many layers, so we're giving them our benefit of the doubt on this one. In any case, regardless of the final outcome, expect absolute madness and more than just a few egregious blunders from both sides.