Fantasy owners rejoice, for the Overwatch League makes its return this weekend. Assuming there are no sudden last minutes changes, fantasy leagues will finally get to have games as well. Teams may have some suboptimal lineups at this point in the season, just to be able to field a full team. However now that there are 16 games this week, there is a whole new set of players that teams can look towards to strengthen rosters. Some Pacific Conference teams are making their first appearance this weekend, while others will try to replicate their fantasy success from week 1.
Players to Watch This Weekend
DPS
Byung-sun “Fleta” Kim, Shanghai Dragons
Familiar face, new place. Fleta brings his talents to Shanghai in hopes to find a little more success than he previously had with the Seoul Dynasty. His incredible hero pool brings insane amounts of options for the Dragons, and opens the team up to several different strategies. The only potential issue Fleta may have is battling for playtime with several other talented DPS players. Most notably Fleta will most likely contend for the flex spot alongside Jin-hyeok “DDing” Yang. While it is unlikely DDing will steal all of the playtime from Fleta, other fantasy scores have suffered when players share time. The game may be late, but it will be worth tracking which DPS players get a shot at starting.
Kai “KSP” Collins, Los Angeles Valiant
In a season filled with extremely talented rookies, KSP is one those rookies that took the league by surprise. Although he was a late addition to the Valiant, his first match with the team was an incredible display of his talent. He excelled on both McCree and Widowmaker, leading LA to a decisive win over the Dallas Fuel. Most importantly, KSP currently had the highest weekend score of the fantasy season on HIGHNOON.GG, and 2nd highest on DraftBuff for all DPS. Keeping a tab on a player with his incredible ceiling will be vital to a successful season ahead.
Charlie “Nero” Zwarg, Guangzhou Charge
Nero finished off the second half of last season helping Guangzhou pull away from the rest of the middling teams. The Charge truly came into their own once the DPS line began to click. While he will be sharing time with fellow flex-DPS Ou “Eileen” Yiliang, it is the division of labor that will be worth watching this weekend. Eileen played primarily Sombra and Doomfist when the team needed, and the Charge swapped Nero back in for characters like Hanzo and Pharah. The playtime between the two could be completely meta-dependent, creating a little more incentive to watch these early morning matches.
Tank
Ding “Ameng” Menghan, Chengdu Hunters
As a potential “sleeper” pick early in the season, the Wrecking Ball master finally gets a chance to perform. There is no doubt that the Hunters will make their Season 3 debut with some incredibly wacky composition. Their team is uniquely flexible, and that trait has allowed them to play things out of meta to some amount of success. These chaotic compositions allowed for Ameng to succeed on more aggressive heroes like Wrecking Ball, and potentially create serviceable fantasy numbers.
Ki-cheol “Cr0ng” Nam, Guangzhou Charge
Cr0ng has an amazing situation for him for fantasy OWL. He is the starting flex-tank, for a strong team, with no other player to compete for the spot. With D.Va still avoiding bans, one of the best fantasy heroes is at his disposal. Cr0ng was one of the standouts from 02 Blast, and in a region with Element Mystic and Runaway, it can be easy to get overshadowed by other talent. So far, the rookies in the league have stepped up and it will be Cr0ng’s turn to see if he has what it takes.
Eui-seok “Fearless” Lee and Ji-won “Stand1” Seo, Shanghai Dragons
This main-tank duo will be one to watch for many matches to come. Fearless has had a shot in OWL before, but never really got a chance to shine. As a part of that 0-42 Inaugural Season team, Fearless is hoping his second chance will bring far better results. On the other hand, Stand1 joins Shanghai from Contenders, looking to prove to the world he is ready for OWL. Both tanks are hungry, and both should be on fantasy radars for this reason. Main-tanks typically are not great fantasy performers, however, this Shanghai team looks quite strong and a strong team around a main-tank can prove to be valuable.
Support
Tao “Coldest” Xiodong and Huichang “BeBe” Yoon, Hangzhou Spark
The most interesting and fantasy-relevant match to watch starts with the positional battle between Hangzhou’s flex-supports. A top-5 support from last year, BeBe has plenty of rosters relying on him to start. Unfortunately for BeBe owners, he is competing with Coldest – one of the strongest players to come out of Chinese Contenders last year. The winner of this position battle will be a highly valued fantasy asset, as long as Hangzhou continue their above-average play from last year.
William “Crimzo” Hernandez, Dallas Fuel
In their opening weekend, Crimzo was one of the few bright spots for the Dallas Fuel. Crimzo came away from that weekend as the highest-scoring support, despite only joining the team very recently. Much like KSP, it is important to see if Crimzo is able to produce similar numbers week-in and week-out. If Crimzo is able to perform at an elite fantasy level while being on the Fuel, he can be one of the most sought after supports in fantasy OWL.
Minki “Viol2t” Park, San Francisco Shock
Last but not least, is the support that went AFK in the first week of OWL. Without a doubt, Viol2t was one of the best rookies of 2019, and looks to continue his dominance from the flex-support position. That is, if he plays. The good news for fantasy owners and San Francisco fans is that Viol2t did play in the recent show match against the Seoul Dynasty. If there is a small take away from those joke games, it is that Viol2t looked to be back in playing form, and the fans will get to see if that is true come Saturday.
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