With an 8-7 record, Vancouver Titans are locked in for the OWL 2023 Summer Stage play-ins, but they’re still playing for favourable seeding. New York Excelsior are 6-9, tied with Washington Justice and Los Angeles Gladiators, and still need to win one more game to secure a top-10 finish in the West division.

This will be much harder to do than it sounds, mainly because the current meta doesn’t suit New York Excelsior and how they like to play. On the one hand, there’s an easy solution for Excelsior’s problems, but it would require them to put Kim “FITS” Dong-eun on Illari. However, by doing so, NY would lose a lot of firepower.

Vancouver Titans are in excellent form, having won their last four games against Washington Justice (3-0), Los Angeles Gladiators (3-0), Las Vegas Eternal (3-0), and San Francisco Shock (3-1). Although not the most challenging opponents, the Titans looked great in all four wins.

Even though the Titans are known to be a bit inconsistent, they already defeated New York Excelsior in May, and they’ve recently found a bit more stability. That, combined with the fact that the current meta doesn’t suit Excelsior, makes it very tough to justify backing the outsiders.

Los Angeles Gladiators ended their skid of six consecutive losses in the OWL 2023 Summer Stage with a 3-0 win over New York Excelsior last week. They dominated the series and looked much more polished than what we’ve seen from them recently. In part, this has to do with the current meta, which allows Kevin “kevster” Persson to play Genji.

Boston Uprising are 10-5 and one of the strongest teams in the OWL West. However, while the Uprising have looked good this season, they’re also 1-3 from their last four outings, with defeats against Florida Mayhem (2-3, 2-3) and Atlanta Reign (1-3). In Boston’s defence, the Mayhem and the Reign are two of the league’s strongest teams.

The Uprising don’t need to win this match, and even if they lose, their play-in seeding doesn’t change. On the other side, anything less than a win for the Gladiators would mean they miss the postseason.

Boston Uprising are stronger than the Gladiators, but the LA team has looked much better recently. If the Gladiators can keep playing at this level, they should have a good chance of springing an upset this weekend.

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Los Angeles Valiant enter Week 5 of Overwatch League 2023 Summer Stage Qualifiers in shaky form. They’ve won just two games this stage, and even those were five-map games against two of the weakest OWL esports squads of the Summer Stage: Las Vegas Eternal and Los Angeles Gladiators.

The expectations for Los Angeles Valiant were never high, and even though they’re not playing well, the Valiant are at least in a better spot than the Gladiators and Eternal.

Their next opponents, London Spitfire, haven’t looked good this season but have shown improvement over the last month. They kicked off the Spring Stage Qualifier with losses against New York Excelsior (0-3) and Atlanta Reign (0-3) but quickly got back on their feet and strung together four wins against San Francisco Shock (3-1), Los Angeles Valiant (3-1), Los Angeles Gladiators (3-0) and Vegas Eternal (3-1).

London Spitfire have a lot more to prove, and their four-game win streak doesn’t instantly make them a great team. But they’ve been playing much better than the Valiant and are in excellent form, so barring any surprises, the Spitfire should win comfortably this weekend.

Los Angeles Gladiators have fallen apart at the start of the Summer Stage Qualifiers, and even though they didn’t look great before that, the Gladiators enter this match in the worst form they’ve been this season. With eight straight losses to their name, it’s clear that the roster changes backfired badly, and it might be too late to bounce back.

New York Excelsior are not one of the top OWL teams in the West, but they’ve looked much better than the Gladiators throughout the Summer Stage Qualifiers. They’ve won half of their six series (3-3), which includes a close 3-2 victory against LA Gladiators three weeks ago.

A lot of time has passed since, giving the Gladiators enough time to stabilise. But after seeing them struggle so much, it’s very tough to believe that the Los Angeles Gladiators can do much better in the rematch.

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In a Twitter post, the esports organization revealed that Danteh was now a free agent and wished him the best going forward.

“Today, we are releasing Danteh. We are grateful we had a professional like himself represent the Gladiators, even though his time with us was short. We know he will continue to be a massive part of the Overwatch community, and we wish him all the best,” the post read.

After the announcement, Danteh took to Twitter to post a reaction image with the word “Freedom.” The post was not captioned, so it is unclear what exactly the player means.

While the announcement shocked most of the Overwatch community, some agree that it was a reasonable move. The team currently has a 5-3 record and sits in the top half of the standings but is facing some issues keeping up with the rest of the competition.

Danteh’s performance has come into question on numerous occasions because while the player is impressive on Junkerqueen and Doomfist, he has a much harder time on Winston. The hero was, unfortunately, the main tank for the first half of the OWL season.

The Los Angeles Gladiators signed Danteh during the offseason heading into 2023 as the team’s only tank player. He was one of the major signings of the year and significantly contributed to the squad’s regional and international success during his tenure.

Danteh has been a major part of the Overwatch League since the Inaugural Season. He was first signed by the San Francisco Shock as far back as September 2017; however, the veteran was unable to play the entire season due to his age.

After displaying his prowess on Tracer, Danteh was eventually moved to the Houston Outlaws and remained with the team for four seasons. He transitioned to a tank player upon his team’s request and went on to become one of the best in the OWL.

Danteh helped the Outlaws secure a number of top-spot finishes during his stint, including a third-place finish in the 2022 playoffs. The team eventually released the player in late 2022, and he joined the LA Gladiators just over a month later.

With him on the lineup, the LA Gladiators had a great start to the season, reaching the Pro-Am finals and finishing second to the Florida Mayhem. The team eventually saw a drop in performance, resulting in them failing to qualify for Midseason Madness.

There is currently no information about Danteh’s next move and whether the veteran player intends to retire or join a new roster for the rest of the OWL sixth season.

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“Join us in welcoming @danteh to LA! After a historic #OWL2022 Season, we can’t wait to see all he will accomplish in purple,” the team tweeted.

Danteh also took to his official Twitter page to announce his new team. He said among the top teams he had in mind to represent were the Los Angeles Gladiators; hence, he is excited to be with them and promises to give his best while at it.

“There were only a few teams I wanted to join this year and I was lucky enough to find a home on one of them. super excited to focus on tank this season and i’ll do my best to make good results!” Danteh said.

Danteh has been in the esports scene for as long as five years. He launched his Overwatch career in 2017 with the North American team Momentary. Subsequently, he went to play for teams such as Denial eSports, Eanix, YIKES, the San Francisco Shock, and more recently, the Houston Outlaws.

He left the Houston Outlaws on December 1, 2022, which means he has been a free agent for about a month and three weeks.

With the Outlaws, the 23-year-old tank player has had fairly good results in tournaments, although he has barely won any. Danteh and the Outlaws came out in fifth-eighth place at the 2019 Overwatch League Stage 3 Playoffs and had the same finish at the 2020 Overwatch League Summer Showdown. More recently, at the tournaments held last year, Danteh garnered a fifth-sixth place at the 2022 Overwatch League Kickoff Clash and the 2023 Overwatch League Summer Showdown. Although they made a more impressive play at the 2022 Overwatch League Playoffs, which were held in November, the team came in strong with a third-place finish.

Danteh is grounded in Overwatch modus, as he owns an Overwatch YouTube channel that already has about 48,800 subscribers as of November last year. The player has also participated in all five seasons of Overwatch.

The Overwatch team now consists of a 21-year-old DPS player, a 22-year-old British support player, Daniel “FunnyAstro” Hathaway, a 21-year-old South Korean support player, Mun “Lastro” Jung-won, Danteh, and their Australian head coach, Sam “face” Merewether.

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The Los Angeles Gladiators shared a farewell video for Patiphan where several of the player’s teammates, as well as coaches, wished him well in his future endeavors. In the post’s caption, the team thanked him for his contribution to the squad during his time with them.

“Today, @itsPatiphan is retiring from Overwatch. An energetic teammate and dynamic player, we can’t thank him enough for not only his contribution to our team, but the joy he inspired within the entire Overwatch community. Once a Gladiator, always a Gladiator,” the tweet read.

Embed: https://twitter.com/LAGladiators/status/1573009285432643584?t=Njy5-8y3StTiHcwSP4JDeA&s=19

During the farewell video, a number of players referred to Patiphan as the flexible “clutch master” of the team, a moniker given to the player due to his awe-inspiring performance in the Overwatch League.

The player signed on to the Los Angeles Gladiators towards the end of 2021 and was an essential part of their steady rise and improved performances in the 2022 season. During his time with the NA team, he won two tournament cycles out of three during the season. Although the regular season matches will carry on for several weeks, the team is already locked in for the upcoming postseason.

People who have been with Overwatch for years will recall Patiphan from the 2018 Overwatch World Cup. At the time, the then 15-year-old was known as the incredibly talented Team Thailand DPS and went through other competitors easily. Due to his performance against teams with a much higher profile than the Los Angeles Gladiators, Patiphan was able to make himself known.

After the Overwatch World Cup, the player faced off against a number of Overwatch Contender teams and displayed his amazing aim and clutch abilities. Patiphan eventually left Overwatch for Valorant in 2020 due to his age. The DPS was reportedly too young to be signed on to an OWL team whose players had to be a minimum of 18 years old to join.

During his time on competitive Valorant, Patiphan signed on with X10 Crit, a Southwest Asian team. The player had remarkable success in the squad and was responsible for defeating one of the best NA teams, Envy, in the VCT Champions event. X10 Crit eventually lost to Gambit Esports, the winners of Masters Berlin.

Patiphan rejoined the Overwatch League at the start of 2022 with the Los Angeles Gladiators. The player announced that he was suffering from a wrist injury last month, which was the same one that affected him during his time on X10. At the time, the DPS revealed that he had been playing with the injury for the past seven months and was at his limit.

The player seemed to take some time off to rest and be treated because, for most of the Summer Showdown qualifiers, he was not in attendance. The team’s head coach, Yuttanagorn “Zeus” Kaewkongyai, stepped in for Patiphan in a number of events during that period.

Besides Patiphan, the Los Angeles Gladiators previously announced the departure of another notable player and clutch DPS, Lee “ANS” Seon-chang, who had been with the squad since late 2021.

The team will carry on their Overwatch League Championship journey without these two impressive players. The Los Angeles Gladiators are set to face off against the Florida Mayhem later on today.

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In the announcement on Twitter, the LA Gladiators revealed that the decision to part ways was mutual and thanked the player for his contributions to the team this season.

ANS joined the squad’s lineup towards the end of 2021. The player started playing in the Overwatch League before the 2021 season began when the San Francisco Shock signed him. At the time, ANS was an uncertain pick for the team because while he was popular in the streaming community, he was mainly not known in the world of esports.

The sniper soon made himself an important part of the team in their pursuit of victory due to his unnerving and consistent ability to hit headshots during games. With ANS’ help, the San Francisco Shock were able to take home the trophy for the 2020 Overwatch League Championship.

While in the team, the player earned the reputation as the squad’s deadliest player due to his prowess while playing hitscan heroes like Widowmaker and Ashe. ANS eventually moved on from the professional Overwatch scene in 2021 and tried his hand at Valorant.

When he announced his retirement from the Overwatch League, ANS disclosed that he wanted to take some time off for his health condition. Prior to that, the player often talked about his struggles with his mental health as well as the continuous effect of the league on him physically.

After moving to Valorant, ANS was signed on to T1 Valorant and played in the team’s academy team. However, in the middle of the 2021 season, the DPS returned to play for the San Francisco Shock once again and took up the spot of Kwon “Striker” Nam-joo, who had retired earlier.

The LA Gladiators came into the scene not long after and signed ANS to their roster before the start of the 2022 season. As a result of his reputation as an ace-level sniper and his move from one California organization to another, the signing was one of the most high-profile events in the Overwatch League.

ANS was a regular sight in the team’s lineup during matches for most of the year. However, at a point, metas began moving away from the player’s most used heroes.

The Los Angeles Gladiators signed on hitscan Lee “Happy” Jung-woo in August, who ended up taking ANS spot. The player was previously a part of the Washington Justice, and due to the notable overlap between the player’s hero pools, ANS would likely not have gotten any playing time for the remainder of the 2022 season.

Although they won two tournaments in the Overwatch League this year, the Los Angeles Gladiators could not win the Summer Showdown. The loss was reportedly the team’s inability to adjust their gameplay to the recent metas.

The tournament is set to resume on September 22, and the team is currently striving to reach a first-place seed during the postseason.

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?The Vancouver Titans are likely the weakest team in the Overwatch League, but there is a chance the Titans could pick up a win on Friday. We haven’t seen the Paris Eternal in action yet, so there’s a lot of guesswork that goes into figuring out how well they will perform, but it looks as though this team won’t be very successful this season.

Dani?l “Daan” Vincentius Paulus Scheltema is the only player on the Eternal roster that we have high expectations for. Rookies make up a significant portion of this squad, so while Paris might have a high ceiling, they likely won’t reach their full potential for a while yet.

Even though we believe the Eternal are slightly stronger, betting at these odds on a team that has yet to play a single match makes no sense. Vancouver should be competitive enough to win at least two maps.

?The last two years were a little rough for the London Spitfire, yet we can’t help but be optimistic about this team heading into the 2021 OWL season. They have a lot of upside, but it’s hard to say whether the Brits will reach their potential this year.

Most of London’s roster is the British Hurricane squad from Overwatch Contenders, but that’s hardly a bad thing. It’s no secret the Cloud9-owned team are putting a lot of resources into developing young talent, and they’re doing a great job. Whether they can compete in at the highest level, however, remains to be seen.

The Los Angeles Gladiators were regarded as one of the strongest OWL teams ahead of this season, but they have so far failed to live up to the hype. Losses to the San Francisco Shock and the Dallas Fuel leave them in a precarious position heading into their third fixture of the May Melee.

While we believe the Gladiators have a lot more to show, we can’t agree with their short price in the OWL betting markets. The Spitfire’s roster might be inexperienced, but this squad lost only one out of 15 Contenders tournaments in 2020, so they’re clearly good enough to compete with the top dogs.

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?After years of mediocre results, the Houston Outlaws put their foot down and completely restructured their roster for the 2021 season by signing some of the best talent from the Overwatch Contenders competition. Perhaps the most notable signings of the offseason were tank Cho “JJANGGU” Myung-heum and off-tank Shin “PIGGY” Min-jun, who joined the Texan outfit with a built-in synergy from their time together at Talon Esports.

The Dallas Fuel have hit the reset button as well, keeping only Kim “Doha” Dong-Ha from their 2020 roster. The new lineup looks adaptable to a possible meta shift due to the flexibility of their players, but much of their long-term success will come down to coach Hee-won “RUSH” Yun.

The Fuel should improve as the season goes on, but due to all the roster and coaching staff changes, they will likely be in for a slow start. We prefer the Outlaws at this price.

?It may seem weird seeing the Los Angeles Gladiators priced this short considering how uninspiring they were last season, but they made all the right roster changes during the offseason and now field a very capable side that can make some noise during the 2021 Overwatch League campaign.

If their performance at the SteelSeries Invitational is any kind of indicator, the addition of Kim “MuZe” Young-hun, Jin-seo “Shu” Kim, Grant “moth” Espe, and Min-seok “skewed” Kim could take LA to their best season yet. They are still weaker than the San Francisco Shock, but the gap is not nearly as big as it might seem at first glance.

It’s important to note that the Shock haven’t played a single official match since they won the 2020 OWL Grand Finals in October, whereas the Gladiators already have two games under their belt from the SteelSeries Invitational. We wouldn’t bet on LA to finish the season higher than San Fran, but they definitely can surprise the ring-rusty champions in the season opener.

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LhCloudy began his career as a professional Overwatch esports player in January 2017, when he joined ENCE eSports as one of the founding members of the team. He remained there until December the same year, when LhCloudy and his two teammates Richard “rCk” Kanerva and Riku “Ripa” Toivanen moved to Team Gigantti and started competing in Overwatch Contenders.

During his nine-month stint at the Finnish team, LhCloudy won the 2018 Assembly Summer and Winter tournaments and claimed second place in the European Overwatch Contenders league.

LhCloudy’s talents did not go unnoticed by OWL teams and in September 2018 he was acquired by Mayhem Academy, where he spent slightly over a month before moving to the newly formed OWL team Paris Eternal in late October 2018.

At his new team, LhCloudy took over the position of the main tank, and he did not fail to impress. The Finnish youngster quickly became known in the Overwatch community as a very skilled Orisa player, and it was not too uncommon to see LhCloudy terrorising his opponents with his signature hero.

Paris Eternal entered the OWL with ambitions to leave a mark in a league which is dominated by Korean and American players, but they fell flat and produced a rather lacklustre season. The French team ended their debut OWL season at 14th place, two wins short of reaching the playoffs.

As a result of their poor performance, Paris Eternal decided to drop four players in October, including George “ShaDowBurn” Gushcha, Karol “Danye” Szcze?niak, Finnbj?rn “Finnsi” Jónasson and LhCloudy.

Thus far, LhCloudy is the only one of those dropped players to find a new home. He joins Los Angeles Gladiators as a replacement for Junwoo “Void” Kang, who left for Shanghai Dragons.

The Gladiators had a solid season in the OWL, where they finished fifth-sixth after losing to the eventual champions, San Francisco Shock, in round two of the lower bracket.

Due to LA’s underwhelming run in the playoffs, the team decided to make a series of roster changes in the offseason. Among the departures were Jo?o Pedro “Hydration” Goes Telles and Lane “Surefour” Roberts, who moved to Houston Outlaws and Toronto Defiant respectively.

The Gladiators also signed off-tank Indy “SPACE” Halpern, Kim “Birdring” Ji-hyuk and reunited with the seasoned veteran Aaron “Bischu” Kim.

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Both of these sides started off their playoffs journey in the upper bracket, and while the Gladiators managed to go keep their boat afloat for longer, they have in the end suffered the same fate as the Shock and will now have to fight their way to the finals via the lower bracket.

Let’s look at the latest match odds for both sides and find out where the value lies at the top esports betting sites.

Los Angeles Gladiators

+225 at BetOnline

Los Angeles Gladiators started their OWL playoffs campaign strong, with a 4-3 win against Hangzhou Spark in the quarter-finals. Unfortunately, they failed to repeat their success in the semi-finals, where they suffered a painful 2-4 defeat against Vancouver Titans only two days later.

By losing to Vancouver, LA Gladiators got denied a ticket to the winners’ finals which would put them one step closer to reaching their first-ever OWL finals.

So far into the postseason, Gladiators earned themselves an unofficial title as one of the most entertaining teams to watch.

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Their ability to produce incredible come-from-behind team fight wins is what defined their playoffs run so far and if they can keep at it, we can expect to see more exciting matches with Gladiators involved.

Despite their ability to entertain, Gladiators leave a lot to be desired and would need to be on top of their game to even be considered a candidate to appear in the grand finals.

San Francisco Shock

-303.03 at BetOnline

San Francisco Shock impressed during the regular season, where they finished second behind Vancouver Titans.

With a high finish in the regular season, Shock entered the playoffs with high ambitions, but they soon found themselves stopped in their tracks when they lost against Atlanta Reign in the quarter-finals (3-4).

Shock did manage to get their spirits back up by crushing London Spitfire in round one of the lower bracket (4-0), yet there is still a long road ahead of them which starts this Thursday against LA Gladiators.

Ahead of the fixture against LA Gladiators, there are some concerns about Shock and their ability to comfortably win here, considering they did lose to Atlanta not long ago.

However, it would be fair to say that the fixture did not end the way it should. It was an upset win, and should Shock get another shot at Atlanta, they would almost certainly come out ahead.

LA Gladiators vs San Francisco Shock betting tips

If we put the two teams side by side, it’s San Antonio Shock who come off as a stronger team, which was the case throughout the regular season and remains so in the playoffs as well.

That being said, LA Gladiators can reach a certain level of success if Lane “Surefour” Roberts and Jo?o Pedro “Hydration” Goes step up and perform, yet there is still some the level of uncertainty if they will manage to do so against Shock.

San Francisco looked scary in their fixture against London Spitfire, where they showed no mercy and should they approach this game with the same spirit, LA Gladiators are in for one tough fight.

Winning this fixture would give Shock a shot at meeting with Atlanta Reign in round three, meaning this is a must-win fixture for Shock for two reasons: their hunger for glory and their desire for revenge.

San Antonio Shock -1.5 – -151.52 at BetOnline

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