In a surprisingly dominant performance, London Spitfire defeated LA Valiant in a  6-1 victory. On the backs of incredible tank play and birdring popping off continually(especially as Brigitte), Spitfire reminded the live OWL audience why they were the stage 1 season champions.

Going into the match, many fans and pundits predicted LA Valiant continue their hot streak. As stage 4 champions, it was assumed that Valiant's winning understanding of the meta would carry over to the semi-finals.

But they ran into a brick wall named Spitfire.

While the matches were often close, Spitfire displayed a level of teamwork and individual playmaking that Valiant couldn't compete with. Agilities, in particular, should be praised for his, no pun intended, valiant efforts on Pharah and Genji. Multiple times, his individual plays gave the LA team a fighting chance.

Custa, the main support for LA Valiant, also deserves some recognition. Throughout the match, Spitfire was exhaustively focusing him and it is easy to imagine other Mercy players in similar situations crumbling. Instead, Custa managed to secure kills as Mercy and support Agilities' consistently.

The Group Interview

During the group press interview, Fury and Gesture commented that Valiant's tank play isn't to blame for the loss, instead remarking that the current meta requires "all 6 players to play very well" with clear cohesion. However, Fury did cite their comfort in the Roadhog and D.Va mirror match as factors for winning as dominantly as they did.

The team was then asked how they feel about their perceived underdog status, Gesture was quick to respond: 

During a humorous moment during the group interview, the team as a whole didn't quite know how to respond when asked what they are looking forward to in New York.

"What's famous about New York?" was the overall response the translator provided.

However, when the team had time to think, they each talked about seeing time square, the dazzling lights, seeing yellow cabs (Korean cabs are orange) and overall seeing New Yorkers for the first time.

Birdring had other ideas:

With Fusion currently up one game against NYXL, it is still unknown who Spitfire's opponent will be.

However, Space of LA Valliant strongly believes Fusion is the team to beat:

Valliant was clearly still brooding over the match. During the press conference, it was clear that most of the player's attention was on a screen that was showing highlights of the match. Like true competitors, the games were still swimming in their heads, making the press core's questions about the meta and who will win in New York seem unimportant.

Head coach MBC did the majority of the talking and he brought up some interesting points regarding the current semi-finals format and how Valliant's higher seeding may have been a disadvantage against Spitfire:

MBC also cited that the team might have been a little too confident going into the match, causing a lapse in small improvements that a more "hungry" Valliant might have discovered.

Next up is Fusion vs. NYXL starting at 4:00 PM PST, Saturday.