OWL 2023 Power Rankings – #17 Los Angeles Valiant
| Tags: Overwatch
| Author Joseph Shay
The Los Angeles Valiant just might have a chance to not be a laughing stock.
Returning to the West, LA Valiant have yet another mostly rookie roster that they plan to train up.
2FA can be hard to crack. #WingsOut
Welcome @lyar_ow @paintbrush @cjayow @NosZ__ @seeker_ow @KrawiOw ! pic.twitter.com/645aUeBpM0— Los Angeles Valiant (@LAValiant) March 23, 2023
Los Angeles Valiant 2023 Roster
This year's Los Angeles Valiant look similarly as weak as the last few iterations of the team, but with a catch. They've started off by already defeating another Overwatch League team, that being the Vegas Eternal. In matches against other teams, they took maps, and even looked like it could be possible for them to win more games. They have much more work to do before ever being able to take games off of Pro-Am tournament teams, but with the abilities the players already posses right off the bat, its possible to see some quick and drastic improvement from them fairly soon.
Tank
- Domenic “Kwari” Akwari
Every team needs to have a strong Tank to hold the frontline and lead the team. So Valiant's goal is going to need to be making Kwari that guy. As of now, Kwari takes far to much pressure from other Tanks and teams, especially in modern brawl compositions. He's not the stonewall they need him to be to free up the DPS and Supports to do their jobs with less pressure on them. He doesn't need to become some kind of huge playmaker, just a big enough threat to warrant attention from the enemy team.
Support
- William “Lyar” Ohlstein
- Nolan “Paintbrush” Edwards
- Christopher “Cjay” Smith
If a team is going to only have a single substitute player, Flex Support might be the best role to double up on. Flex Support has a larger hero pool than Main Support does, and with how difficult it is to master Flex Support characters, its good to have two Flex Support players with slightly different hero pools. Cjay and Lyar are going to be filling different purposes on that Flex Support role, and we'll see exactly what that is as the season goes on.
Paintbrush on the other hand is an experienced Overwatch League player. He spent some time with the Dallas Fuel in which it was obvious he needed some more time in Contenders before he was really ready to perform. He's had plenty of time now to hone his abilities, and he does look better than the last time we saw him. He brings his new skills to a new team, and is the closest thing they've got to a veteran player to look to for advise on league play.
DPS
- Alex “Seeker” Taylor
- Brandon “NOS” Zepeda
The DPS line of the LA Valiant isn't terrible, but they're no independent playmakers either. They need to be enabled by their team to really make anything happen, so the team's success will rely on them be protected and performing well. It isn't ideal, but there's nothing saying this team can't work on, and perfect, their macro play to ensure they work better as a team than relying on individual skill.
Los Angeles Valiant 2023 Power Ranking
This obviously isn't a team with much to show yet, but that doesn't count them out of the odds. There is potential for this team to find wins against middle, and even higher level teams judging by the Pro-Am results. They aren't one of those teams that will have to claw for a win. They are absolutely going to find a few wins minimum. Based on their schedule, there is an opportunity to see them in one of the tournaments in a surprising way, similarly to what we saw with the Vancouver Titans last season. Everybody should keep an eye on this team, just in case.