Overwatch League, Week 2: London Spitfire nearly fall to the Los Angeles Valiant

The London Spitfire are looking unstoppable.

On Friday night, London kicked off their second week of the Overwatch League right with a win over the Dallas Fuel. But in order to stay competitive with the Seoul Dynasty — the first team to hit 4-0 — the Spitfire would also need to beat the next team on their schedule: the Los Angeles Valiant.

The Valiant suffered their first loss earlier in the week at the hands of the New York Excelsior. A win over the Spitfire would not only push them farther up in the standings, but it would also give them bragging rights. After all, it would be the first time a Korean team had lost a game in the Overwatch League.

Map One: El Dorado

On defense, London elected to secure the high ground with an Orisa shield and a Torbjorn turret. While a bit taken aback at first, LA was able to grind down the shield to get to the turret. With that taken care of, LA’s Envy on D.Va made his way around the London defensive stand, breaking it apart. With LA and London trading picks, it was Fate on Winston digging into his Primal Rage to sustain LA’s presence on the payload, pushing it all the way to the first checkpoint.

As LA moved into the second section of the map, Soon on Tracer had a great time in London’s backline, taking out as many London members as possible. However, the payload was unable to make too much progress during this time thanks to a couple London players lingering around it. It’s only when Silkthread pulled out his Dragonblade and took out Bdosin on Zenyatta that LA made a stretch of decent process.

In overtime, the Valiant had just under four meters to go before the payload would reach the second checkpoint. LA’s last push opened with Silkthread’s Dragonblade but he was unable to make much of it. The one person he did take out, Profit, was immediately resurrected. With nothing else going for the, LA fell short.

In almost no time at all, London found themselves pushing the payload to the first checkpoint, their way being led by Fury on D.Va. The Spitfire were able to make quite a bit of unchallenged payload progress before the Valiant finally came forward to attempt a real engagement. Profit on Genji had no problem dispatching most of the Valiant with a Dragonblade, and the payload would move even further forward. With no support ultimates on their side, it was only a matter of time before London got a devastating uncontested ultimate. Indeed, it was Profit again who managed to cut his way through LA and guided the payload to the goal line.

Map Score: Valiant 1, Spitfire 2

Match Score: Valiant 0, Spitfire 1

Map Two: Horizon Lunar Colony

The Valiant came out with a very quick take on point A thanks to a tank-heavy composition supported by Moira. As we have seen already in the Overwatch League, once this type of composition makes its way around and onto the objective, it is very difficult for the high-ground defense to then pivot to contest on the point. That’s exactly what played out for the Spitfire, with birdring’s Widowmaker all but useless in the situation.

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Los Angeles moved right on to point B, behind the strength of Fate’s Reinhardt and Agilities’ Whole Hog. With London’s Fissure dropping early, it looked nearly like Los Angeles would have an advantage. However, the Spitfire would be able to push them back, as well as on subsequent pushes after that. With Rascal icing Soon in the head with a Mei icicle and birdring sucking up tank HP with a Death Blossom, the Valiant were halted time after time.

With overtime looming, Los Angeles made one last attempt with both support ultimates. This time, the attack started in the Valiant’s favor with Soon catching Fissure with the Pulse Bomb. Even as the fallen members of London were resurrected, Agilities was able to get a Helix Rocket kill onto birdring and Fate got a crucial hit onto Bdosin. One by one, the Spitfire found themselves felled and with no one available to contest the point, the Valiant took the second point by a hair.

London’s first attack seemed to start out well, with Bdosin playing very tricky on Sombra, but it ultimately fell flat as the Valiant resurrections came in. After a bit more stalling, London found their successful push by taking out Valiant tanks early as well as Unkoe on Zenyatta. As both the Spitfire and the Valiant pushed toward point B, Fury was able to pick off  a very low Unkoe, giving London an immediate advantage. But the push got stalled with the rest of his team falling around him.

For quite a long time afterward, the Valiant held strong. Agilities played two Dragonblades absolutely perfectly, shutting down London just as they regrouped and were about to launch an attack. With under a minute left, Soon disrupted the London backline once again, taking out one with a Pulse Bomb. As the clock ticked down to overtime, the Spitfire launched into their last attack and this time it worked. By sheer force of will paired with a Valkyrie, London would take it to the time bank rounds.

Since both teams finished in overtime, both teams got a minute on the clock to get as far as possible on attack. The Valiant started it off, and their first attack went very poorly. With no real shielding around LA, Rascal was able to gain a Riptire within seconds and used it with deadly precision. Almost as soon as the attack started, London ended it.

Having successfully fended off Los Angeles, all the Spitfire needed was a tick on the point to win. Going with a tank-heavy offense, London went down and around to get their positioning on the point. With their hold already gaining, Agilities rained down a huge Riptire onto the Spitfire but it just wasn’t enough. Nobody from the Valiant was there to follow up and London would take map two.

Map Score: Valiant 2, Spitfire 3

Match Score: Valiant 0, Spitfire 2

Map Three: Oasis

Los Angeles won the first engagement, thanks to Agilities on Pharah taking down Fury, Bdosin and landing a rocket on London’s opposing Pharah, Rascal. With Rascal hovering on the outside of the point with Nus healing him on Mercy, the rest of London was unable to benefit from that healing.

Surprisingly, London’s next engagement was unable to net them anything, even after using many of the ultimates in their bank. With ultimates nullified and Soon on Tracer running rampant, the Spitfire were shut out of the point completely.

The Valiant were once again able to win the first fight on University. London started their next push off with an Earthshatter that was able to ground Kariv on Lucio, but Agilities on Roadhog landed two crucial hooks on birdring and Bdosin. With the Spitfire hastily giving ground, Agilities decided to use his Whole Hog to push London as far back as possible. Unfortunately, the Valiant extended just a bit too much and with members of LA falling, the Spitfire were actually able to rally and retake the point.

The next couple minutes of the map were nonstop action, with control swinging back and forth between the two teams. LA’s larger control percentage ultimately gave them an advantage at the end, as they tenuously regained the point and fought desperately just long enough to gain the final bit of percentage they needed to take the point. With a 2-0 map shut out, it was clear LA was not ready to hand London the win quite yet.

Map Score: Valiant 2, Spitfire 0

Match Score: Valiant 1, Spitfire 2

Map Four: Eichenwalde

On attack, the Valiant got off to a remarkable smart. Almost immediately, the supports from both teams were felled. With London much farther away from their spawn point, it was only a matter of time before LA wore the defense down. Soon on Tracer ensured that no London respawns reached the objective alive, and an incredibly executed Self Destruct from Envy took out birdring nearly back at the London spawn point.

With the payload moving past the archway, London was able to stablize on defense. But it was Silkthread on Genji who flew all the way into the castle, falling upon any London player he could find with his Dragonblade. However, the rest of LA was unable to stay alive long enough on the payload to push it to the second checkpoint. With the clock ticking down to overtime, Soon led a successful attack onto the payload, able to stick a Pulse Bomb onto Gesture and then doing enough damage to the rest of London to force them to give ground.

Moving into the last section of the map, Profit’s Junkrat made things very difficult for LA to put together a cohesive push. It wasn’t until overtime when the Valiant all came down on the payload, and what ensued was a desperate tussle which almost didn’t go the way of LA if not for some key tank resurrections. With one final LA Riptire taking out London’s healer Nus, the Valiant earned themselves that illusive final point on Eichenwalde.

On defense, LA stuck with Silkthread on Pharah but London’s birdring elected to go with McCree instead of a Pharah of their own. Unfortunately for the Spitfire, that decision did not seem to be a good one. With birdring so concerned with the damage coming from the air, he was continually jumped on by Valiant tanks before being able to make any sort of impact. With 30 seconds remaining, London was still hunting for their first tick on the map. Finally, the Valiant’s defense was disassembled and the Spitfire took possession of the payload in overtime.

Moving into the second section of the map, it almost looked like London would roll right on through. With birdring hiding in the backline of LA, he dismantled the Valiant’s Mercy as they came to contest the Spitfire. But it was the Valiant’s tanks that held on through the engagement, knocking the Spitfire both back and even off of the map. With London’s Fury heavily staggered from the rest of the team, the Spitfire didn’t have enough time to get back to the payload and LA was suddenly looking at a tied series.

Map Score: Valiant 3, Spitfire 1

Match Score: Valiant 2, Spitfire 2

Map 5: Lijiang Tower

The Valiant started strong on the tiebreaker map, running a triple-tank composition that strong-armed the Spitfire back. But the picks that LA were able to make were not enough to prevent London from rallying behind their Reinhardt and push right back.

Once they took the objective, London pushed up to defend right on the other side of LA’s doorway. Profit was chastened for pushing too far too quickly by an Agilities Roadhog hook, but the rest of London was there to back Profit up. Again and again, the Spitfire held strong against the Valiant and went on to take the first point.

Next: Overwatch League, Week 2 recap: London Spitfire vs. Dallas Fuel

London also took point two right from the start, allowing birdring on Widowmaker to comfortably make the adjustments necessary to maintain optimal sight lines. Consequentially, birdring one-shotted Agilities’s Junkrat three times in a row. At 99 percent, the Valiant finally barreled onto the point, even able to break apart a London attempt at a retake. But with such little room for error, LA soon found themselves on the outside looking in yet again. The final scuffle was intense and extensive, with advantage swinging wildly from one team to the next as each team used their support ultimates to extend their hold. In the end, the Valiant failed to get the kills they needed to give their last ditch contest a chance of succeeding. After giving it their all, LA did finally fall to London.

Map Score: Valiant 0, Spitfire 2

Final Match Score: Valiant 2, Spitfire 3

Player of the Match: Fury, London Spitfire