Tag: Over League

The Over Blog: Atlanta Reigns From Above With Their Roster Announcement!

by Maridon

The Atlanta Reign organization of the Overwatch League announced their roster through a video today. To be perfectly honest, I was not a big fan of their presentation, and that was mainly because of the last person announced – on top of that, I feel that the sound clip they used for his announcement was mocking the competitive scene.

Most of the roster consists of contenders players, and one person that will sound very familiar if you were a fan of competitive Overwatch before Overwatch League. I dug deep to see what I could find out about each of these players to hopefully provide some insight into who they are!

First is the most popular player on Reign, defran. Hailing from Denmark, he made a name for himself on Selfless Gaming, being one of the main reasons Selfless Gaming was as successful as they were. He was part of a DPS duo with a player you may have heard of before, sinatraa, who helped Selfless top the leaderboards from February 2017 to May 2017, capturing titles in Rivalcade Weekly’s to Overwatch Rumble tournaments. They also placed top three in several Alienware Monthly Melee tournaments. Other than his accolades, many people know him for the controversy he brung on himself and his team. In June 2017, defran was suspended from all Blizzard events for throwing games. He admitted to throwing games because he was looking to escape professional Overwatch and that scrimming made him “very depressed and bored”.

I enjoyed watching defran up and until this point. I get that he was losing his feelings toward professional Overwatch but throwing games is not the right way to go about leaving the scene. Defran, was signed by NRG to become part of the streaming team. Until the announcement today, I was under the impression that he was still a part of NRG. This troubled past has me questioning the Reign but I really hope it works out for them.

Erster is a Korean DPS play that has most recently played for Lucky Future Zenith. This team is the reigning back to back Contenders champions of China. He has been a part of winning teams since 2017 with Ardeont then moving on to Luck Future Zenith.

NLaaeR joins Mistakes (when he gets signed) and ShadowBurn as representatives from Russia playing in Overwatch League. NLaaeR is the team’s third DPS. He started his professional gaming career with a Russian CS:GO team but was VAC banned (Valve Anti-Cheat System) which ended his career. In his Overwatch career, he played with the Contenders team Last Night’s Leftovers, who have seen middle of the road results.

DACO is a Korean flex player who played for Element Mystic. In Contenders season one, they ended up in 5th place and season 2 in 3rd place. I am excited to see how DACO will lend his flex expertise to this brand new franchise.

Gator is Atlanta’s only US representative. He’s a tank player that formerly played for GOATS. This team gained a small bit of popularity when Gator was actually banned for boosting and xQc was asked to fill in for him.

Pokpo is a Korean tank player that played alongside DACO on Element Mystic. He is known for his Winston, Orisa and Reinhardt play.

Kodak is a German support player. The signing today makes him the other German play in Overwatch League. He was a part of the German World Cup roster this year and also played for 6nakes and 123.

Masaa is a Finnish support player and rounds out the roster. Recently he played for Team Gigantti. His team placed 2nd in Contenders season 1 and 3rd-4th place in season 2 after winning their group.

This Atlanta team has some very talented Contenders players… with a touch of controversy. I am excited to see how these Contenders players match up on Overwatch’s biggest stage!

The Over Blog: The Shanghai Fire Sale

by Maridon

With the Overwatch League All Star weekend coming to a close, it’s time for the real off-season to start. What a way to start it then… by going on a fire sale. That is exactly what the Shanghai Dragons did.

First, let’s start off with the players that were not let go. The Overwatch League’s only female player, Geguri maintains a spot on the roster. Her first game on the Overwatch League stage was her April 4th loss against the Dallas Fuel. She chose D.Va 86.6% of the season followed by Zarya who she was known for playing at a mere 5.8%. Toxic and I were very excited to see the gender barrier broken so quickly in this sport and will continue to support her moving forward. I still need to get my hands on a Geguri jersey!

Diya is another player that lives another day on the Dragons roster and was the biggest name on the team before Geguri arrived. Known for his Tracer and Widow play, Diya posted a 6.76 final blows and 12.85 eliminations per 10 minutes. Those numbers aren’t so good when you compare them across the league. Rank 44 and 85 respectfully. Don’t let those numbers hurt your outlook on Diya. He will be an asset to this now rebuilding team.

The last player to keep their job is Fearless. He came on board with the signing of Geguri and Ado. Mainly playing Winston throughout the season (75.3% pick rate), Fearless was one of the few flashes in the pan for Shanghai. I am excited to see how he will perform with the new team!

Now onto the players/coaches Shanghai dropped. At the time of this article, Shanghai dropped ten personnel on 9/2/18. Altering,Freefeel,Fiveking,Roshan,Xushu,Ado,Sky,Daemin along with Kong and Nai8 on their coaching staff. When I seen this news I had mixed emotions. For one, the Shanghai Dragons season was dreadful. They needed a change and I am sure people were expecting it. What I wasn’t expecting was the Dragons to cut Ado.

Let’s start with Ado. He played mainly Tracer and Genji (39.2% & 37.9% pick rate). I understand that the meta has shifted away from dive slightly but Ado showed a lot of promise. He posted 6.92 final blows and 13.25 eliminations per 10 minutes. That is statistically better than where Diya was at. I am thinking the shifting meta is the reason the Dragons cut him. I would be surprised if one of the new teams passes him up.

Altering was Shanghai’s main healer. He predominantly played Mercy in season one picking her 74.5% of the time. Of all healers in the Overwatch League, he was number one in healing with 11,574.02 healing per 10 minutes.

Freefeel was Altering and Fiveking’s counter part playing off-heals. Mainly choosing Zenyatta (88.3% pick rate), he had 7141.17 healing per 10 minutes, ranking in at 30. Freefeel saw the most playing time of the support players on the Dragons.

Fiveking was a back-up main healer that was subbed in for Altering from time to time maining Mercy and Lucio (55.9% and 41.9% pick rate).
Sky was a Zenyatta player that never really seen much playing time for the Dragons. He is the only player on the Shanghai roster that will be competing in the World Cup. He will be representing China. Good luck Sky!

Roshan mainly played Winston for the Dragons this season (77.2% pick rate). Roshan was seeing the spotlight every game until Fearless and Geguri showed up. This release does not surprise me.

Roshan’s wingman, Xushu who was a D.Va main (76.7% pick rate) also got the cut. Xushu’s playing time was cut with the the entrance of Geguri.

The last of the players that were cut is Daemin. Daemin was brought in to fill Diya’s roster mid-season when Diya had to tend to “Family Issues” back home in China. He mainly played Tracer and Junkrat (29% and 26.7% pick rate) during his short stint with the team putting up some pretty lackluster numbers. Final blows 5.69 and eliminations 11.66 per 10 minutes.

This firesale that the Dragons hosted was something well needed. They retained the talent that produced. Shanghai has a lot of work ahead of them and the good news for them is that they aren’t the only team making cuts. As of 9/2/18, 5 other teams made roster cuts including Janus of NYXL and Mistakes of the Boston Uprising. There is talent out there in free agency and Shanghai has the space to make some good moves!

More talk about these roster moves will be coming to you in this week’s edition of The Over League Podcast!