Los Angeles Valiant vs Boston Uprising

For our first match of the day we have an interesting clash between the Los Angeles Valiant and the Boston Uprising.

Now you could perhaps think that this would be a fight for a playoff spot or a clash between two top tier teams but that would be wrong. Even though Boston ended Stage 3 with a spotless 10W-0L record, and even though they reached the finals they're currently sitting at eleventh place in the stage rankings and are winless.

Let that sink in for a bit. Not only are they winless so far in Stage 4 but they failed to put up a fight against any of the teams they faced - even against Dallas Fuel, a team that didn't win against any team other than the Shanghai Dragons since February.

Now you could forgive their losses to the Philadelphia Fusion and the Houston Outlaws, but losing to a bottom three team in such convincing fashion is unacceptable for a team that's aiming for the playoffs.

They were too slow, too stubborn and unwilling to adapt against Dallas. After their strong first push on the first point of Blizzard World they were unprepared for Taimou's Reaper pick. After refusing to swap their team comp or try a different strategy they were essentially full held at the gates right before point B.

They were barely able to tie on Lunar Horizon Colony before getting outclassed on Oasis by AKM's McCree and Mickie's incredible Brigitte play.

They were too scared and always on the back foot, forced to react rather than set up plays themselves.

As for the Valiant, they're currently undefeated after a week and a half of play but they're not exactly a force to be reckoned with. Not yet at least. They're still not a Top 3 team even though the rankings tell otherwise. They make too many mistakes, they have lapses in communication and execution and they're not always that consistent - Soon in particular. They had some serious problems against the Florida Mayhem yesterday and when Soon isn't performing as well as he should on Widowmaker, the Valiant kind of just crumble. They're also fairly one-dimensional when it comes to certain strategies but they manage to make it work more often than not, especially thanks to some stellar individual play and arguably the best tank duo in the League.

With a considerable amount of holes in their game it's only a matter of time before they lose against a team that is more flexible and faster to adapt. Fortunately, they have Boston lined up so that shouldn't really be a problem.

Now we could analyze the map pool for their match-up but it all feels in vain. This simply isn't the Boston Uprising of old, they're not even playing at their Stage 1 level which was pretty serviceable. Right now they're straight up abysmal.

For Boston this is do or die, they don't have the leisure of losing matches back to back and the fact that they're 0W-3L so far in Stage 4 is a frightening one for all Boston fans. The race for playoffs is insanely close and a single win or loss could mean the difference between playing in July or watching from home. Boston cannot allow for another loss to happen because they could ultimately be out of the playoffs. The Valiant are sitting a lot more comfortably - in every way, shape and form - and a win here could further solidify their position in the playoffs.

We're going with the Valiant on this one. Boston might be able to put up a fight but after watching them stumble and fall in every match so far it will be almost impossible for them to clean up their game in time for tonight's match. Valiant are simply on another level right now and have shown a far better understanding of the meta as well as individual play.