Los Angeles Valiant 3, Dallas Fuel 0
The Los Angeles Valiant started Day 3 of Overwatch League play with a 3-0 victory against Dallas Fuel in Burbank, California.
Valiant DPS Terence "SoOn" Tarlier was a thorn in Dallas Fuel's side with his persistent and evasive Tracer play the entire series, making him one of the key players this match. Substitute DPS Ted "silkthread" Wang was the perfect player to compliment Soon, and his Genji looked incredibly clean. Diving was a clear part of Valiant's strategy against the San Francisco Shock earlier this week on Wednesday, but the dives Friday were cleaner and deadlier this time around against a stronger team in the battle-hardened Fuel.
The first two maps of the series were mirrored in how fast both teams were able to score points, leading to several repeats of the map during the timebank. Los Angeles took Junkertown with an incredible 8-7 score, including five captured points in overtime. After that, a 5-5 score on Horizon Lunar Colony in Game 2 led to a rare draw. The Valiant shined brighter as the series went, crushing Dallas Fuel on both Ilios and Numbani to close out the series.
Dallas Fuel will have time to redeem itself next week at 2 p.m. ET on Thursday as it takes on the Houston Outlaws. The Los Angeles Valiant will try to remain undefeated when it goes up against New York Excelsior later that day at 4 p.m. ET.
-- Steven Nguyen
Boston Uprising 4, Florida Mayhem 0
Opening week continued on Friday with Boston Uprising showing Florida Mayhem that they aren't to be trifled with in a 4-0 victory at Blizzard Arena.
While the Florida Mayhem had already been on a slump with a 3-1 loss to the London Spitfire on Thursday, the Boston Uprising were a much more mysterious team despite losing 3-1 to the New York Excelsior. Nobody knew exactly how good Uprising was as a group, and this match against the Florida Mayhem looked to be a good demonstration of how good it could actually be.
What started off as a close Game 1 on Dorado quickly snowballed into the favor of the Boston Uprising. Jonathan "DreamKazper" Sanchez put on the heat right away with lethal Hanzo play, and near the end, the Florida Mayhem performed a poorly executed dive that lost it the map. Moving onto Game 2 both DreamKazper and Nam-joo "Striker" Kwon showed their dominance and applied constant pressure to Florida's backline that quickly put the Boston Uprising ahead 2-0.
By Game 3 on Oasis, it was clear that the Florida Mayhem was outmatched, with the Boston Uprising dominating teamfight after teamfight. Despite some valiant attempts, Mayhem wasn't able to win even a single round. Boston continued its superiority in Game 4, with Boston forcing the Florida Mayhem to fight for every inch of space.
The next match for both of these teams will both be against one of the Overwatch League's best, Seoul Dynasty. The Florida Mayhem will go up against Seoul at 9 p.m. ET on Wednesday, and Boston will get its shot at 7 p.m. ET on Friday.
-- Liam Craffey
San Francisco Shock 3 - Shanghai Dragons 1
The San Francisco Shock closed out the Overwatch League slate on Friday with a 3-1 victory over the Shanghai Dragons.
With Shock DPS Andrej "Babybay" Francisty stealing the show early on with two quick kills with his Widowmaker, San Francisco grabbed the momentum of this match early on and never let up. This led to a trouncing much like the Los Angeles Gladiators put on the Dragons earlier in the week.
The Dragons didn't give up without a fight, however. Shanghai came back in full force on the back of an unexpected and epic showing from DPS Chao "Undead" Fang, who dismantled Shock's core on defense with Widowmaker and disoriented his opponent on offense with expert mechanics and quick thinking on Sombra. Ultimately the Shock gathered its composure and went into the tie-breaker match on Illios with perfect poise. Once again playing the hard-carry, Babybay unleashed his Pharah and took no prisoners as his opening play led to four quick kills within the first minute of the match. Dante "Danteh" Cruz was another hero for the Shock, looking absolutely unstoppable with Tracer and sending the Dragons reeling with his unpredictable dashes.
While the Dragons did show heart and a lot of improvement to stave off the sweep, Shanghai was ultimately no match for the Shock and has a lot of work to do if it wants to improve on its 0-2 record.
Both teams will be back in action next Wednesday to open Week 2. The San Francisco Shock will take on the Philadelphia Fusion at 7 p.m. ET that day, and the Shanghai Dragons will face the Houston Outlaws at 11 p.m. ET.
-- Tyson Tavolazzi