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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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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In a statement, the esports outfit revealed that Aspire was no longer a part of their line-up as a result of the recent grooming allegations.

��The Vancouver Titans announced today that Luka ��Aspire�� Rolovic has been released from the team following recent allegations,�� the Twitter post read.

��This decision is effective immediately and he will not be finishing the season with the Titans. We take these matters very seriously and will have no further comment at this time.��

On June 27, Aspire was accused of grooming by an anonymous Twitter user who released a 700-word document detailing their alleged relationship. In the post, the accuser named @ExposingAspire claimed she was 16 while Aspire was 20 during the alleged relationship, which started in March 2022.

��At the time I was 16 years old, and he was 20. Our initial conversations and interactions were through Snapchat. After a few weeks, they turned much more sexual in nature with both of us exchanging pictures before I ever turned 17,�� she wrote.

The Twitter user also said that she had informed Aspire of her age from the beginning of their interaction. She also posted multiple screenshots of Discord conversations along with pictures of them together.

According to the Twitter user, she was initially ��hesitant to go public with this for a while simply because I didn��t want to deal with any possible backlash.��

Despite the Vancouver Titans�� post cutting ties with Aspire, Overwatch player and streamer Becca ��Aspen�� Rukavina recently claimed they were aware of the situation for over six months. The management were allegedly given the information before the decision to go public.

Vancouver Titans are yet to publicly address the allegation by Aspen. Aspire has also not released a statement concerning the situation.

The player was also suspended from the Overwatch World Cup��s Team USA on Tuesday, shortly after news of the alleged grooming was published. Aspire was a starter for Team USA in the 2023 Overwatch World Cup; however, according to a recent statement, he will not play with the team in their last two qualifying matches.

He was initially listed as a Team USA substitute player before they moved him to the starting lineup on June 20. The team are currently ahead with a 3-0 record and will earn a place in the Main Event at BlizzCon if they hold onto their top position.

��In light of recent allegations, we have made the decision to suspend Luke ��Aspire�� Rolovic from the active roster. The suspension takes effect immediately and he will not be participating in the remainder of our qualifier matches,” A statement from Team USA said.

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While players are most often the first to be let go, the Titans have decided to start their rebuild from the top down. Having joined the long-suffering franchise in the middle of the 2022 season, dpei has relinquished his position after spending barely five months with the team.? ?

The Vancouver Titans made the revelation of their decision to part ways with dpei via their Twitter page. The franchise acknowledged he had joined at a low point and was key to getting the team back on track.

“Today we announce that we will be parting ways with @dpei_ow,” the tweet read.? ?

“David joined us at a very difficult time in the season and lifted us up with his insight and expertise. We appreciate the hard work he put in as our head coach this season. Thank you & all the best moving forward.”

?Dpei started out his coaching career with Kungarna in 2017 and moved on to the Los Angeles Gladiators in the same year. He has spent the bulk of his career thus far with the Gladiators, having been with the franchise for about four years. He led the team to the OWL Countdown Cup title and to the playoffs in every season with the franchise.? ?

Although dpei had led the Titans to their first win of the year and a few more, management have decided to go in a different direction for the upcoming season. The announcement of dpei��s exit has come as a shock to some fans.?

?The Canadian franchise had a difficult first half of the year, unable to muster a win after several outings. It was imperative for the team to make major changes, which they did with the appointment of dpei on July 6.?

?The American coach was unsuccessful in his first few weeks with the team, but the Titans eventually secured their first win of the campaign in the 2022 Overwatch League Summer Showdown Qualifiers against the Paris Eternal, sweeping their opponents 3-0. After that, they went on a three-game winning streak, recording back-to-back wins over the New York Excelsior and the Washington Justice.? ?

Vancouver’s brief success was enough to get them through to the Summer Showdown main event. At the LAN event in Toronto, the Titans lost in the West upper-bracket quarterfinals to the San Francisco Shock, before they were swept out in the first round of the lower bracket by the Florida Mayhem.

Despite his short stint with the franchise, dpei led the team to a 5-19 regular season record. That is a marked improvement on Vancouver’s abysmal campaign in the 2021 Overwatch League, where they finished with a 1-15 record.

?The Titans are yet to announce any changes to the playing roster. However, the offseason has only just started, and as such, some changes are expected in the coming weeks.

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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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?When we talk about teams that aren’t built for success, the first one that should come to mind are the 2019 OWL finalists, the Vancouver Titans. There aren’t many things that would get you excited about this team besides Min-gi “Teru” Kim, Abtin “ShRedLock” Shirvani, and Nathan “frdwnr” Goebel, who still need to prove they’re better than everyone expects them to be.

The Titans�� first opponents of the 2021 season are the Toronto Defiant. They seem capable of great things this year, but a lot will come down to the performances of Su-min “SADO” Kim, Hee-su “Heesu” Jeong, and Jung-won “Lastro” Mun.

The problem with the Defiant is that while they have the talent, most of their star players aren’t exactly reliable, and fielding three rookies won’t help their consistency either – especially early in the season. Despite their relative lack of quality, the Titans should be capable of winning one map; however, until they prove otherwise, we wouldn’t expect much more from them.

?This might seem like a hot take, but we view the Florida Mayhem as one of the top five teams in the league. They might not have the high ceiling of some other squads, but their flexibility and stability are two big reasons why we trust the Mayhem to shine. That said, Florida’s success will greatly depend on Min-seok “OGE” Son and whether he can perform as well as he did in the early days of his OWL esports career.

The Atlanta Reign’s biggest strength is their stacked DPS position with Kai “Kai” Collins, Se-hyun “Pelican” Oh, and Tae-hoon “Edison” Kim, who will be the driving force behind how far this team can go. The problem is that the Reign don��t look too solid in other positions, which will be a huge roadblock for them this season.

Even though there are a few ‘what ifs’ with the Mayhem, we don’t believe they should be considered as an underdog against Atlanta. The latter are definitely capable of a few upset wins if their DPS players perform well, but due to weaknesses elsewhere, it’s hard to take the Reign’s side as slender favourites with Overwatch betting sites.

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The announcement came on Friday, only two days after the North American organisation confirmed they had parted ways with Hyojong “Haksal” Kim, Min-soo “SeoMinSoo” Seo, Chung-hee “Stitch” Lee, Hyeon-Woo “JJANU” Choi, Sung-jun “SLIME” Kim, Jooseok “Twilight” Lee and Chan-hyung “Fissure” Baek.

Replacing them are Samir “Tsuna” Ikram, Alhumaidi “KSAA” Alruwaili, Carson “CarCar” First, and the former Second Wind trio of Abtin “ShRedLock” Shirvani, Randal “Roolf” Stark and Dalton “Dalton” Bennyhoff.

“We are excited to introduce this new team of Vancouver Titans who will represent us not only in league matches but also in our community,” said Tim Holloway, Director of Esports at Vancouver Titans.

“As a group they are excited to play for and engage with Titans fans in Vancouver and across the Pacific Northwest.”

The new roster will be led by Roolf, who was previously the captain of Second Wind. The flex support began his Overwatch esports career in June 2016 and has since played for Method, Cloud9, and the Los Angeles academy team, Gladiators Legion. Roolf also represented Canada at the Overwatch World Cup in 2016 and 2017, earning a second-place finish in the latter event.

Joining Roolf in the support position will be CarCar, who was most recently seen competing for Atlanta Reign’s academy team until the roster disbanded in late March.

In the tank role, Vancouver Titans will field the 18-year-old ShRedLock. During his time at Second Wind, he became known for his prowess on Orisa, Wrecking Ball, Winston and Reinhardt.

Standing next to the young Canadian will be KSAA, who recently played for Raspberry Racers in the European Overwatch Contenders league. He also appeared in Saudi Arabia’s qualifying campaign for the 2019 Overwatch World Cup, where he helped his nation reach the semi-finals of the preliminary stage.

Taking over the DPS roles are Dalton and Tsuna. Dalton was formerly a member of Toronto Esports and Gladiators Legion before he teamed up with Second Wind in January 2020. Tsuna has previously played for Young and Beautiful, British Hurricane and Paris Eternal’s academy team, who released all of their players last month.

Taking charge of the new Titans roster are head coach Steven ��Flubby�� Coronel and assistant coaches Ali ��Pew�� Anwar and Eric ��Wheats�� Perez, while Justin Hughes has signed on as assistant manager. All four were previously members of Second Wind.

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The reports of the teams’ relocation surfaced on Tuesday, March 24, when multiple sources unveiled Vancouver Titans were already in the process of moving their staff and players to the Korean Peninsula. The claims were later confirmed by a Titans spokesperson.

“The team is currently in Vancouver but I can confirm that we are working on relocating them back to South Korea imminently,” said the spokesperson.

On Wednesday, London Spitfire released a statement on their Twitter account confirming they will follow suit and move their team to Seoul.

��For the well-being of our players, the London Spitfire has relocated our team to South Korea. We plan to play our upcoming Overwatch League matches from the Cloud9 facility in Seoul,�� read the announcement.

Both teams are assembled entirely from Korean esports players, meaning the move will allow them to return to their home country.

The coronavirus has already infected more than 55,000 people in the United States, making it the second-worst hit country in the world behind Italy (70,000+) and China (80,000+). Meanwhile, South Korea has reported just over 9,000 cases despite its proximity to China.

The relocation of Spitfire and Titans could result in a changed schedule for the 2020 Overwatch League season, as noted by Toronto Defiant coach F��lix ��F��f���� M��nch on one of his streams. That is because the newly implemented online OWL schedule is based on the physical location of the teams in a bid to avoid connectivity issues.

Overwatch League’s decision to divide teams into regions saw the Asian teams numerically underrepresented, as there are only four teams who remained in Asia since Seoul Dynasty relocated to Los Angeles. This resulted in an asymmetric season schedule, with Asian teams forced to play each other repetitively. The decision by Titans and Spitfire to relocate to South Korea will bring the region up to six teams, which should help Overwatch improve its competitive schedule for the region.

London Spitfire are scheduled to play Paris Eternal and Toronto Defiant this weekend, while Vancouver Titans are slated to meet Dallas Fuel on Sunday. Titans have yet to officially address whether they will participate in their scheduled fixtures, while Spitfire have confirmed they are planning on playing their upcoming OWL matches from the Cloud9��s facility in Seoul. This, however, raises concerns with latency issues that will surely occur since Spitfire will have to play teams based in Europe and North America.

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On one side we have the Titans, a team that started off from a core of underdogs and evolved into a juggernaut of the Overwatch esports scene.

On the other side we have Vancouver’s long-time rivals San Francisco Shock, who demolished everything in their path in the lower bracket to secure a ticket for the grand finals.

The match will take place at 15:00 EDT on Sunday, September 29.

Vancouver Titans

+138 at BetOnline

Vancouver Titans made a remarkable run through all four stages of the season, finishing among the top two in all but stage four, when they had to settle with fifth.

Despite finishing the season as the number one seed, there were some concerns regarding Vancouver��s performances after the meta shifted in stage four. For that reason, many expected to see them drop out of the title race early into playoffs, yet they made sure to prove doubters wrong.

On the wings of Jang-hyeon “TiZi” Hwang, the Titans cruised through the playoffs with relative ease, dismantling Seoul Dynasty (4-2), LA Gladiators (4-2) and New York Excelsior (4-3) on the way.

Despite their impressive performances in the playoffs, Vancouver will still enter the grand finals as underdogs.

San Francisco Shock

-188.68 at BetOnline

Although San Francisco Shock were not quite as successful as the Titans throughout the season, they ended stage four with a perfect 7-0 score, making it clear that the meta change suits them and their playstyle.

The Shock entered the playoffs as one of the top dogs but soon found themselves on their knees, as they flew out of the upper bracket following an upset loss against Atlanta Reign (3-4) in the quarter-finals.

But it did not take long for San Fran’s wounds to heal, and a dominant run in the lower bracket helped with the healing process. After perfect 4-0 wins over London Spitfire, LA Gladiators, Hangzhou Spark and New York Excelsior, the Shock enter the grand finals as the team to beat.

Frisco’s depth will be tested, however, as star player Namjoo “Striker” Kwon is set to miss the deciding series after suffering a nasty hand injury in the lead-up.

Titans vs Shock betting predictions

The Shock have been remarkable on their road to the grand finals, but the Titans have historically produced high level of resistance when facing the Californian outfit.

The two sides met four times this season and split two wins each, leading us to believe the Sunday’s match could be a 50/50. That being said, it is hard to ignore the superb form the Shock have shown in the lower bracket, where they looked unbeatable.

There is no denying the absence of Striker will put a dint in San Francisco’s overall quality; however, with the immense depth of their roster and the exceptional form of Jay “sinatraa” Won, this is the Shock��s title to lose.

San Francisco Shock to win – -188.68 at BetOnline

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Let’s take a look at the latest odds and the best bets for this crucial OWL playoffs fixture.

Vancouver Titans

-178.57 at BetOnline

Vancouver Titans will enter as favourites, which should come as no surprise considering they finished the regular season as first seed.

The Titans defeated Seoul Dynasty (4-2) in round one of the playoffs and then bested LA Galaxy (4-2) last Sunday to secure a spot in the winners’ finals, where they will meet their toughest challenge yet.

While aware NY Excelsior are no easy beats, Vancouver head into the clash knowing they have beaten their upcoming opponents twice already this season.

New York Excelsior

+133 at BetOnline

While ending the regular season behind both Vancouver Titans and San Francisco Shock, New York Excelsior did not need long to establish themselves as the main favourites to go all the way.

SEE ALSO: OVERWATCH ESPORTS BETTING SITES

The NY outfit started the playoffs with a dominant win against London Spitfire (4-1) in round one, followed by a 4-2 win against Atlanta Reign in round two to set up a meeting with the Titans.

After a disappointing 2018, Excelsior are playing like they have something prove.

Vancouver Titans vs New York Excelsior betting tips

Vancouver Titans will enter this fixture as heavy favourites, yet there is a reason to believe this fixture won’t be as easy for them as the odds suggest.

Their opponents have been without a doubt the most dominant team so far into the playoffs and look like a team that will not go down without a fight.

While they share the same 2-0 postseason record with Vancouver, there is an argument to be made that NY Excelsior had a much tougher road to the winners’ finals.

If we put the two teams side by side, the Titans have the stronger individuals; however, when we compare their team performances so far, it’s Excelsior who come out ahead.

The biggest weapon for NY is their unique playstyle and strategy, which helped them overcome both London Spitfire and Atlanta Reign and could benefit them greatly in this fixture too.

Both teams can win this clash just as easily as they can lose it. Vancouver might have a slight advantage, but they will not have an easy time winning this one.

Excelsior have the quality to push the Titans to their limits and possibly even win. It will be a close match wither way, so the +1.5 handicap bet on NY Excelsior is a good way to go.

New York Excelsior +1.5 – -131.58 at BetOnline

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