San Francisco Shock lost 1-3 against London Spitfire last week, but they might have a chance to bounce back this weekend. The Shock aren’t that bad, but they don’t have an identity or a set way of playing the game. The more you watch them play, the clearer it becomes that this team lacks stability.

Vancouver Titans were reverse-swept by Toronto Defiant on Sunday in a match that could’ve easily ended in their favour. Even though the Titans lost the Canadian Derby, they showed improvement, partly because the current meta seems to favour their preferred heroes.

The offered OWL esports betting odds on this match look fair. Even though San Francisco are not terrible, they should not be able to beat Vancouver with how they’ve been playing. The Shock lost 1-3 against the Titans at the start of August, which makes it hard to take the underdogs.

London Spitfire started the Overwatch League 2023 Play-Ins strong, crushing San Francisco Shock with 3-2 on Hybrid (Midtown), 3-0 on Flashpoint (Suravasa), and 120.9-82.75 on Push (Esperan?a). Unfortunately, the Spitfire lost 1-3 to Boston Uprising in the second round, but that’s not that worrying given how good the Uprising are.

Washington Justice defeated New York Excelsior 3-1 in the opening round of the play-ins but went down 0-3 to Toronto Defiant in the upper-bracket quarterfinals. This team has looked decent over the last couple of months, particularly DPS players Kim “AlphaYi” Jun and Lim “Flora” Young-woo. The only problem is the tank position, which the Justice need to figure out if they want to produce a deep run.

As the latest Overwatch betting odds suggest, London Spitfire should have no real issue beating the Justice this weekend. They know how they want to play and they’re good at executing their strategy. Even though the Spitfire lack top-tier talent and will struggle against teams with better individuals, this one shouldn’t be a problem.

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New York Excelsior ended the OWL Summer Stage Qualifiers with a 3-2 victory against the Vancouver Titans, which was somewhat surprising knowing how much the Excelsior struggled in the current meta. They played a good game, but there’s still the question of how long this will last and whether the Excelsior truly have figured things out.

Washington Justice squeezed their way into the play-ins despite losing against Toronto Defiant (1-3) on the final day of the qualifiers, marking their third consecutive loss and eighth over a nine-game stretch. Interestingly, the only win over their last nine games came against New York Excelsior (3-1) a month ago.

On one side, we have a team that has struggled with the current meta, and on the other side, a team that is 1-8 since June but are 2-0 in the head-to-head against the Excelsior. This doesn’t make picking a winner any easier; however, at +200 with Overwatch betting sites, Excelior to win with at least two maps to spare looks like a solid value play.

Even though the Excelsior don’t have a clear idea of how they want to play, they’re still in a much better spot than the Justice, who might have a strong head-to-head record, but form-wise, they’re not in a much better spot than New York Excelsior.

It’s very tough to feel optimistic about London Spitfire and their chances to make it to the OWL 2023 Playoffs, mainly due to their concerning results leading into the play-in stage. The Spitfire have won five of their last six games but choked in a very winnable game against Houston Outlaws (2-3).

Choking has become a theme for London, who have otherwise played well this season but could’ve accomplished much more. The Spitfire have the talent to make it through the play-ins, but they have some things to figure out.

San Fransisco Shock drew a lot of attention with their incredible performance against Atlanta Reign (2-3) on Sunday, and even though the game didn’t mean much, the Shock stepped up and delivered.

That performance alone is enough to consider San Fransisco Shock as the better team, but if we zoom out and compare the teams based on what they’ve shown this season, the Spitfire have a higher ceiling. It should be a competitive series, but as long as the Spitfire don’t slip again, they should have an excellent chance to take down the Shock.

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The Overwatch scene has witnessed an unexpected wave in how things have been unfolding this offseason. While many organizations have traded players and signed new ones, which is typical, a bunch of Overwatch players have also transitioned into the Valorant title these past few weeks.

The team will be releasing all five players — Jang “Decay” Gui-un, An “OPENER” Gi-beom, Jung “Krillin” Yung-hoon, Kim “Assassin” Sung-won, and Shin “Kalios” Woo-yeol. From the managerial team, head coach Han “Sup7eme” Seungjun and player manager Haeni Kim will both be departing now that their contracts have expired.

Washington Justice have had their fair share of ups and downs in Overwatch since forming in 2018. The team came in fifth-eighth place at the 2021 Overwatch League Summer Showdown, and came in on top at the 2021 Overwatch League Play-In. More recently, the team finished in fourth place at the 2022 Overwatch League Countdown Cup, in which they lost 0-3 to the Boston Uprising in the semifinals.

In late October, the team also parted ways with senior advisor Aaron “PRE” Heckman, and assistant coach Park “Chilhwa” Min-hyung then left on November 11. In August, Washington Justice also bade farewell to two of their best players — Lee “Happy” Jung-woo and Kim “vigilante” Jun.

The team’s released players have taken to their social media accounts to announce they are ready to explore their options. However, some hinted at still being in talks with Washington Justice, so where this story will lead is still not known.
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As a result of the move, Happy is currently with the Los Angeles Gladiators, while the Atlanta Reign signed on vigilante. At the moment, the Justice has five players still on their lineup, which is one less than the minimum amount of players OWL mandated per squad.

In compliance with the Overwatch League requirement of six players per squad, the team will bring in a staff member as a substitute for the last slot. The current players on the roster include Gui-un “Decay” Jang and Kim “Assassin” Sung-won, both of whom are DPS players; Shin “Kalios” Woo-yeol, the tank player; and lastly, the support players, An “OPENER” Gi-beom and Jung “Krillin” Yung-hoon.

The team previously organized Kim “Mag” Tae-sung’s move to Boston Uprising. The player started playing professionally with the Washington Justice during the 2020 season after being signed during the off-season. He was the main rank in the 2021 season and was included in their 2022 season switch to Overwatch 2. Mag was the first to be taken off the team.

Justice also notably dropped Jung “Tydolla” Seung-min, the former assistant team coach who became a part of the team late last year. His previous teams before joining the Justice were the Los Angeles Gladiators and Guangzhou Charge.

Shortly after announcing that Tydolla was no longer a part of the team, Aaron “PRE” Heckman, the general manager of The Justice, posted a sober message on his Twitter account, thanking fans for their understanding during the organization’s tough time, and then abruptly deleted his account.

The post read, “Thank you to everyone who understands that the situation we are in is awful and that we’re doing everything we can to give people a shot at success.”

The general manager was possibly talking about the team’s efforts to give players new homes before the Overwatch League trade deadline. Players who were under the league’s contract were not allowed to join another team after the date but could join new squads if they were released before the deadline.

PRE did not reveal whether he was still a part of the team. However, fans noticed that he took down every mention of his association with the Washington Justice on August 14.

The team’s recent changes are reportedly a result of their attempt to reduce their competitive cost. The Overwatch League teams’ representatives were in a meeting with Bobby Kotick, the CEO of Activision. The meeting reportedly led to the loss of confidence in the finances of OWL, and the involved teams made moves to cut costs.

As a result of this, the Washington Justice will have to compete in the Overwatch League competitive season with only five players active on their roster. The Countdown Cup is set to take place in October, and the playoffs are the only two tournaments left in the OWL competitive season.

The franchise will be taking on the Florida Mayhem in their next fixture in the Overwatch League 2022 – Summer Showdown Qualifiers. The betting odds for the game are unavailable on esports betting sites, but will be updated as the game draws closer.

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?Paris Eternal denied us a winning bet with our OWL betting predictions for Friday with a very strong performance in their 3-1 win against Vancouver Titans. They lost their next match 1-3 against Houston Outlaws, but it wasn’t like the Eternal played poorly. They lost the final two maps with minimal margins – 2-3 on Assault (Volskaya Industries) and 3-4 on Hybrid (King’s Row).

Their next opponents are Atlanta Reign, who have yet to win a single match this season. We sided against the Reign in our betting predictions for the first week of play, which proved to be the right choice, and we are very tempted to do it again here.

Atlanta look like the stronger team on paper, but they haven’t played a single match in a week. They’re also struggling with their form, so there is a strong case to be made for the outsiders to at least keep this one close.

?Along with the Titans, Boston Uprising are a strong candidates to end the season as the weakest team in the OWL. They’re 0-2 with a 0-6 map differential after two clean sweep losses against Los Angeles Gladiators and Dallas Fuel.

Washington Justice have the better form line, but they are yet to be properly tested. Their two games thus far have ended in 3-1 victories against the Fuel and the Titans, so we don’t really know at this stage how good the Justice are.

Boston looked lost last week, and unless they find a way to improve, they will struggle to win a match in the May Melee. That said, they have good enough players for us to steer clear from betting on the Justice to win 3-0.

Washington are clearly the better team, but they dropped a map against a Vancouver team that looks just as weak as the Uprising. Boston can steal a map, but we don’t expect much more. Expect a 3-1 victory for the favourites.

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