Paris Eternal vs Vancouver Titans

For our first match of the week we have a rather peculiar clash between the Paris Eternal and the Vancouver Titans. This, of course, is by no means an absolute must-watch, but it'll still deliver in terms of entertainment and (relatively solid) play.

The Eternal are obviously favored (and with good reason), but seeing how we're at the very start of the season, whatever lead they might have has been somewhat neutralized — it's a level playing field, and the gap between the very best teams and the bottom-tier dwellers is relatively imperceptible. The meta is still in a state of flux, no one's all too sure of what's the best course of action, and upsets are happening left, right, and center. It's all a load of fun, but there's very little certainty which, in all fairness, isn't what we're after seeing how we're putting our hard-earned money on the line.

Still, there's definitely a reason to tune in. A lot of folks have high expectations (as in Top 5) of the Paris Eternal and, frankly, it's a fairly correct assessment. Whether they'll actually put their best foot forward and deliver still remains to be seen, but the potential is certainly there. They're a well-rounded team with some exceptional performers and should, by all means, be able to rub shoulders with the very best teams OWL has to offer.

We still haven't seen them in action, though, so all we have are our own predictions and preliminary power rankings. That's not much, in all fairness, and -- as evidenced by a slew of upsets last week -- these things matter very little at the very start of the season when everyone's scrambling to develop a bit of synergy and get on the same page. Fortunately, the Eternal will start 2021 off with a clash against one of the worst teams in the entirety of the Overwatch League: the Vancouver Titans.

Now, in all fairness, the Titans looked a lot better than most of us expected. They had *some* synergy and were often a bit feistier than previously anticipated, but it didn't matter much — the end result remained the same. They succumbed to both Toronto Defiant and the Florida Mayhem in 1-3 fashion, and their 0W-2L start is about as underwhelming as everyone predicted. Still, they should -- over time -- grow and develop into a relatively solid gatekeeper. We're talking long-term here, so don't expect much going forward as they'll still fumble and fail in every which way before any sort of improvement happens.

We're siding with the Eternal on this one as it's the only logical choice. They're better across the board, but that probably won't be as visible once they start trading blows -- this will be their very first outing in 2021 and a bit of "stage fright" will surely kick in. Regardless, once all is said and done, they should, by all means, be the ones getting their hands raised.