The offseason is an intriguing time in any organized sport, and the Overwatch League is no exception. Many different teams made moves in the offseason. Some teams didn’t improve at all, and a couple arguably got worse. However, some teams really beefed up their roster in preparation for season two. Here are three teams that have greatly improved themselves.
Photo Courtesy of the Shanghai Dragons
The Dragon’s performance in Season One was memorable for all the wrong reasons. It was clear that something really had to change in order for the team to get their first win. The team elected to keep some of their better players (Weida “Diya” Lu, Se-yeon “Geguri” Kim and Eui-Seok “Fearless” Lee) while offloading the rest of the team and starting over. Picking up a good slug of Kongdoo Panthera seems like a decent move. Kongdoo Panthera has been one of the better KR teams for a while. They went all the way to the finals of Korean Contenders in season two, where they lost to Runaway, but second place in KR Contenders is nothing to scoff at. Min-seong “diem” Bae and Joon-hwan “GuardiaN” Cho have also joined the party.
The Dragons look pretty good on paper They may not be a top contender right away, but they could compete with some of the better teams in the league. The fact that the Dragons are even sniffing at contention in season two is a testament to how much this roster has been improved.
Photo Courtesy of the San Francisco Shock
The Shock went from being mid-table at best in season one to being high on many people’s power rankings, and it isn’t hard to see why.
In season one, the Shock had the makings of a pretty good team, but they often got bogged down by inconsistent or underperforming players. The Shock have upgraded almost every position on their roster in an attempt to fix this issue. High profile additions such as Nam-joo “Striker” Kwon, Dong-jun “Rascal” Kim and Min-ki “Viol2t” Park have really taken this roster up a level. The team also released some of the aforementioned underperforming players.
The end result is that the Shock have 12 players at their disposal, and almost all of their players could easily start on lesser teams. There are some questions about the team’s synergy, but the Shock have seemingly boosted their roster up a level.
Image Courtesy of the Los Angeles Gladiators
The Gladiators were pretty good in season one.
So, naturally, the front office decided that some massive improvements were in order.
A few high profile signings really cemented the Gladiators as a potential top contender in season one. Chang-hoon “rOar” Gye, Gui-un “Decay” Jang and Riku “Ripa” Toivanen will help to shore up the team. Bringing Byung-ho “Panker” Lee up on at two way contract definitely doesn’t hurt either.
These all new threats combine to make the Gladiators a fearsome foe to behold. There weren’t too many super obvious weaknesses for the Gladiators in season one, and any that were there were utterly eradicated with these signings.
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Featured Image Courtesy of The Los Angeles Gladiators
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