The 2019 offseason was for the Florida Mayhem, like other teams, about changing up their roster and staff in preparation for the 2020 season. For the Mayhem that meant making a sweeping change of their roster towards a full Korean team. They released all their non-Korean players, and didn’t renew the contracts of 5 of their players. They did pick up DPS Kim ”Yaki” Junki and Flex Support Gang ”Gangnamjin” Namjin. Read about the changes and more of the Florida Mayhem in the preview for the Overwatch League 2020 season.
Recap 2019 season
In Stage 1 of Season 2, the Mayhem announced they had signed Off-Tank Caleb ”McGravy” McGarvey. The day before the start of Stage 2 the Mayhem announced that they planned on changing to an all Korean roster. With that, they put all their non-Korean players on non-active. After Stage 2, the Mayhem traded McGravy and two of their academy players for the LA Valiant’s Main Tank Koo ”Fate” Panseung, making this trade they’ve added a solid main tank to their roster. He played a total of 12 plus hours on Reinhardt making Fate a crucial player during the GOATs and 2-2-2 meta in 2019 season. The Mayhem signed Flex Support Lee ”Byrem” Seongjoo, meanwhile also releasing three of their players. In Stage 3 the Mayhem continued acquiring new players to complete their all Korean roster. They signed three new Korean contenders players and hired a new Head Coach, Assistant Coach and Analyst. Despite the many changes in the 2019 season Mayhem didn’t find much success, they ended the 2019 season with a 6-22 record and placed last out of the 20 teams. But Stage 4 showed that they were clearly going in the right direction.
Returning Roster
Main Tank: Koo “Fate” Panseung
Main Tank: Choi “Karayan” Sanha
Off Tank: Lee “Gargoyle” Beomjun
Main DPS: Ha “Sayaplayer” Jungwoo
Flex DPS: Lee “BQB” Sangbum
Main Support: Choi “Kris” Junsoo
Flex Support: Lee “Byrem” Seongju
The Florida Mayhem released their previous Tank players Koo ”xepheR” Jaemo and Yoon ”Swon” Sangwoon, Support players Park ”RaiN” Jaeho and Jo ”HaGoPeun” Hyeonwoo and flex DPS player Choi ”DPI” Yongjoon. It has been revealed that former Head Coach Oh ”Unread” Namhun had been released earlier in the 2019 season as well.
Fate was a well-needed change for the Mayhem, it was a step into the direction of an all Korean roster. He is known for his good Reinhardt plays, and has grown a lot over the 2019 season with the Mayhem. Are the Mayhem going to let Fate play over Karayan or are they keeping him in the starting six?
Karayan did not get the chance to show off his Tank skills last season, he didn’t play more than 10 minutes. Will we see Karayan on stage more in the 2020 season?
Gargoyle has an insane Roadhog play, having an average 93% hook accuracy on Hollywood during a match. Making him one of the best and most dominant Roadhog players within the 2019 season.
Sayaplayer is known for his top Hitscan plays, his aim insanely good. The last season was rough for him because of the GOATS meta, making him unable to show off his Widowmaker skills. Now that the double shield meta is over, Sayaplayer has a chance to pop off on his signature Hitscan heroes again.
BQB‘s Sombra skills are out of this world, fans didn’t see much of him during the 2019 season due to him being on the bench a lot. When he got the chance to show the fans what he is made of he showed up with good plays on Zarya, Hanzo and Mei, making him a versatile player.
Kris has been in the Mayhem’s starting six consistently for his veteran leadership and shotcalling abilities, Kris and Gangnamjin have been a duo since the 2019 season, are they going to be a duo again or will the Mayhem up another duo up in the starting six?
Byrem is going to be with the Mayhem for another season, despite mixed results within the 2019 season the Mayhem is giving him another chance to show what he can do as flex support.
New Pickups
Head Coach: Kim “KuKi” Daekuk
Assistant Coach: Kim “DOX” Minseok
Main DPS: Kim “Yaki” Junki
Flex Support: Gang “Gangnamjin” Namjin
New Head Coach Kuki has a good amount of experience within the Overwatch League. In July 2019 he retired as a pro-player and started his career as coach of the Korean Contenders team RunAway. Yaki and Gangnamjin both played on the RunAway Roster that Kuki coached. Assistant Coach DOX was previously the coach for the Korean Overwatch Contenders team MVP Space.
With all the new pickups and changes, their 2020 season roster looks significantly different from their starting 2019 season roster.
Analysis of team schedule
The Florida Mayhem’s schedule is a balanced one. There is enough time for the players to recover from travelling long distances for matches. Going from Atlanta to Paris with a three-week break is a decent amount of time to prepare and possibly fly out earlier. That way they can get used to the time change. There is only one game in Paris, with a week to recover and practice again before going to the Toronto Homestand. With no other Homestands outside of the USA or Canada, it looks like the Mayhem have a good and well-spread schedule.
Homestand locations and dates
Miami Homestand
Venue: Watsco Center at the University of Miami
Where: Coral Gables, Florida
Date: March 14-15, 2020
Orlando Homestand
Venue: Full Sail Live Venue at Full Sail University
Where: Orlando, Florida
Date: May 16-17, 2020
Most anticipated game(s) of the year
Of course, the Homestand games the most anticipated games for the Mayhem fans. They go against a whole new Paris Eternal on their first Homestand day. On July 5, they are up against the 2019 season champions the San Francisco Shock, this is a game to look forward to. Fans will be anxious to see if the new coaches can lead their team to a victory against the 2019 Champions.
Player to watch in the 2020 season
Yaki and Gangnamjin are the players to watch out for this season. They are new to the team, fresh from the Korean Overwatch Contenders. Yaki and Gangnamjin showed good potential during the Korean Overwatch Contenders making it a logical move to pick them up for the 2020 season.
Key to a successful season
“The key to success is to focus your conscious mind on things we desire not things we fear.”
―
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