Down a player, the Vegas Eternal subbed in team GM AVALLA. Was it a safe bet or did the team roll snake eyes?
The any% speedrun of a winless season continues for the Paris Vegas Eternal. An unforeseen problem that comes along with having a five-player roster reared its ugly head for Vegas, as the team was required to find a substitute for support Josh "MaltheL" Gonzales. Rather than forfeit, the team made a bit of Overwatch League history. Subbing in at support was Vegas Eternal General Manager Kim "AVALLA" Kyoung-Ey.
This marks only the fourth-ever woman to play for an Overwatch League team, following in the steps of Se-yeon "Geguri" Kim and NYXL's Haley "Halo" Hamand and Yunhee "Aniyun" Chi. And you know what? AVALLA's play at support today was one of the few bright spots for an absolutely terrible Vegas squad.
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"I don't think anybody predicted that MaltheL can't play, AVALLA gets subbed in, Lukemino moved to DPS, and they somehow improved," said OWL commentator and former player Scott 'Custa' Kennedy. In reality, he wasn't wrong. On a team that's been a comedy of the errors since its relocation from Paris, today's performance should be seen as a bright spot--even in a loss.
Why? The sheer fact that neither AVALLA on support nor a support player in Luke "Lukemino" Fish playing DPS played particularly bad for Vegas Eternal. Sure, this game saw the typical sandbagging we see in foregone conclusions. Loose play from the London Spitfire on a day that most definitely felt like a surefire win included a TP-Reinardt Shatter. But not only did AVALLA and Lukemino both sub and switch when needed, they made a bad team look slightly better.
Playing on Lucio and Kiriko, AVALLA more than held steadfast in the heat of battle. Kunai kills and a few absolutely clutch Sound Barriers had her more than holding down the fort. In all honesty, it was a team that looked as if it was playing looser and--despite a sure defeat--were having fun with it.
Was it an ideal situation? Of course not. However, credit where it's due for Vegas not forfeiting the match while having one short of a full roster. This doesn't take away that Vegas is woefully awful and may very well go winless in the 2023 season. Unlucky for them, Vegas and the bad luck LA Valiant will not play during the Spring Qualifier stage.
The winless speed run continues, as Paris next face Atlanta, God help them.
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