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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Hangzhou Spark entered OWL 2023 Summer Stage Qualifiers as the best team from the East, but Seoul Infernal quickly took that tag from them. The Infernal crushed Hangzhou (2-0, 1-0, 3-0) in their opening match, adding a commanding 3-1 win over Poker Face on Sunday.

It looks like Seoul Infernal are on the bounce-back following a disappointing showing at the OWL Midseason Madness (5th-6th), but they still have a long way to go before we see a repeat run from the Spring Stage.

Guangzhou Charge are still on a bit of a downward trend. They started the qualifiers with a 3-1 victory against 02 Blast but then lost to Hangzhou Spark (0-3), where the Charge showed that they hadn’t improved during the break and still can’t play Sombra.

As the latest Overwatch betting odd suggests, Seoul Infernal are much stronger than the Charge, who have not shown enough for us to believe they can compete against the top teams. This could easily be a 3-0, but we’re happy with the price on the handicap market.

Dreamers started off the Overwatch League Summer Stage with wins against Shanghai Dragons (3-1) and PANTHERA (3-1). Their success early into the qualifiers is even more impressive if we consider that Dreamers recently lost Park “D0nghun” Dong-hun and Lee “Ezhan” Ji-han, but it also shows that this is a well-coached team and more than the sum of its parts.

The newest signings Jeong “TOPDRAGON” Seung-yong and Seo “ssaadd” Kang-min looked great and played a significant role in Dreamers’ dominant victory over the Shanghai Dragons. With how good the DPS duo are performing, Dreamer seems to have never lost any firepower with the recent departures.

Poker Face weren’t nearly as successful in the first week of action, with two defeats against Dallas Fuel (1-3) and Seoul Infernal (1-3). Poker Face had moments over the two series, but they were not good enough to compete against established rosters.

The price gap in this match isn’t as big as it should be, mainly because these are still two Contenders teams. However, Dreamers have shown a lot more and shouldn’t struggle to get the win on Friday.

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