Overwatch League’s Season 2 is fast approaching, and with it, comes a new year full of wins, losses, sweeps and clutches. New teams have been introduced and their rosters have been revealed. New challengers now make the journey towards playoffs more interesting. But, in a whole year worth of games, some are definitely more interesting than other.
There have been some major changes this offseason. Sebastian “Chipshajen” Widlund was released, Christian “Cocco” Jonsson was transferred to a coaching position and Brandon “Seagull” Larned announced his retirement from professional Overwatch. This, however, allowed the team to make several additions: former London Spitfire support player Won-Sik “Closer” Jung, flex tank Richard “rCk” Kanerva and former Fusion University DPS Zachary “Zachareee” Lombardo.
The Dallas Fuel are ready for Season 2 of the Overwatch League, but the question that remains is: “are they ready for us?”
Stage 1
We start off, logically, on Stage 1, specifically the day after the inauguration. The team’s first official match of the year is set to be against the San Francisco Shock. This squad was a formidable opponent during the Inaugural Season, as of all four matches played throughout the year, the Fuel were able to defeat them only in Stage 1. Will history repeat itself this year? We’ll have to wait and see.
San Francisco has bolstered it’s forces a lot during the offseason, signing players like Myeong-Hwan “Smurf” Yoo, Dong-Jun “Rascal” Kim, Min-Ki “Viol2t” Park and Nam-Ju “Striker” Gwon. With players like this, the Shock are a force to be reckoned with.
Stage 2
What could be more important to Dallas fans, other than to establish that they’re the superior Texas team? Stage 2 has the perfect game to do just that.
No place is like Dallas, and what better way to have a match against the Houston Outlaws than on home soil. The most anticipated rivalry match of the year (move aside Battle for LA) will be coming to the Lone Star State. After remaining undefeated against the Fuel throughout the Inaugural Season, the Outlaws are looking to keep the title of Kings of Texas. But, will they be able to?
Houston has not done much during the offseason. Two of their players, Matthew “Clockwork” Diaz and Lucas “Mendokusaii” Håkansson were transferred to organization positions, Russell “FCTFCTN” Campbell was released and the only signing the team did was of DPS player Dante “Danteh” Cruz. The addition, even if small, is powerful.
Stage 3
Some of the new teams are surrounded by a cloud of mystery, as no one knows how they’re gonna perform together. Some others have people saying they’re going to be at the bottom of the boards already. But some teams already have some very high expectations to try to achieve. No other team in the league has been as hyped as the Vancouver Titans this season. Fans expect this team to climb the standings quickly as if they had already been in the League.
Vancouver will be fielding the whole roster of Overwatch Contenders Korea’s team RunAway, as well as Jung-Geun “Rapel” Kim from Team Element Mystic. This squad had one of the greatest comeback stories in all of Competitve Overwatch, and formed bonds so strong people call them a family. The introduction of this team to the Overwatch League also brings back a familiar face we saw on Stage 1& 2 of Season 1. Former London Spitfire DPS Dong-Eun “Hooreg” Lee will be back in he stage coming Season 2. A lot of teams have come into the League as fan favorites but fallen short of expectations.
Stage 4
We know everyone in the league aims high, but nobody aimed higher than the Los Angeles Gladiators. This is a team with true potential, and having a match of this caliber at the end of the season, could spell trouble.
After a rough start in Season 1, they managed to get their roster settled after the signing of Chan-Hyung “Fissure” Baek. They rose through the ranks and managed to get a spot in the Season Playoffs, where after a strong start, they lost to London Spitfire, who at the end earned the title of Champions. However, fans are still very happy with their team’s performance, because nobody expected it.
The Gladiators have had a very busy offseason with a lot of movement. They announced the release of four players: Chan-Hyung “Fissure” Baek, Luis “iRemiix” Galarza Figueroa, Jun-Sung “Asher” Choi and Ted “Silkthread” Wang, who is now retired. But with all this, it also brought the signings of Chang-Hoon “Roar” Gye, Riku “Ripa” Toivanen, Byung-Ho “Panker” Lee and DPS Gui-Un “Decay” Jang.
The release of Fissure has fans very worried about how the team might perform in the coming season, as it was thanks to him that the Gladiators really managed to take off. However, if that was the case, then this is something Dallas can use to their advantage.
Season Summary
It’s definitely not going to be very easy for the team to overcome some of the obstacles that are on the way towards playoffs. The Pacific division is pretty stacked. With other opponents like the Los Angeles Valiant, Seoul Dynasty and pretty much most of the Atlantic, there is a lot of effort that will be needed in order to reign supreme.
There is no doubt that they’ll give everything they have on the stage, and with Aaron “Aero“ Atkins’ coaching, there will be noticeable improvements. At the end of the day, the most important thing is for the boys to have a good time. And even though Seagull is not on the team anymore, we hope we see Seagull-man on the stage cheering on the squad once more.
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Featured Image Courtesy of Dallas Fuel.
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