At this point the Shock’s lineup is pretty much set in stone. Their starting starting six play in pretty much every situation as of right now, with the exception of occasional appearances from Min-ho “Architect” Park. It’s pretty obvious why the six starters are there, but what would happen if they were all suddenly benched for some reason? How would the Shock do then?
Image Courtesy of the Overwatch League
First, a refresher on what players the Shock actually have on the bench, because forgetting is understandable considering how little playing time most of them have gotten.
The Shock currently feature four players that aren’t in the starting lineup. Min-ho “Architect” Park is a flexible DPS player who essentially had his job taken by Dong-jun “Rascal” Kim. Nam-joo “Striker” Kwon was an offseason pickup who is also a well respected DPS player. He was largely thought to be the potential replacement of Jay “Sinatraa” Won, a thought that nowadays looks laughable. Myeong-hwan “Smurf” Yoo was signed for similar reasons, as the hope was that he could shore up the Shock’s main tank position. Of course Matthew “Super” DeLisi turned it on in season two, and Smurf has found little playing time. Finally we come to Andreas “Nevix” Karlsson, the Shock’s off tank for most of season one. Hyo-bin “ChoiHyoBin” Choi has been the Shock’s D.Va of choice for a while now, and Nevix has no role to fill.
First of all the Shock would need to keep two players from the normal starting roster around for obvious reasons. Grant “Moth” Espe and Min-ki “Viol2t” Park are the obvious choices, as they are the only two true support players on the roster.
Image Courtesy of the Overwatch League
Please note that this is assuming a GOATs meta (which is likely to be the Shock’s initial strategy in stage three regardless).
Most of the roles here are fairly obvious. Architect was the Shock’s Brigitte player before Rascal came to call, and he was pretty good at it. Didn’t set the world on fire, but definitely a solid choice. Obviously the Shock believe that he is worse than Rascal at the hero, or he at least doesn’t work as well with the Shock as of right now. But Rascal not playing would not make the Shock significantly worse.
Striker is not known for his Zarya play.
He’s not atrocious at her (few Tracer players are) but he’s not revered for his Zarya play.
This is a direct downgrade from Sinatraa as of right now no matter how you slice it. That’s not even an insult to Striker; he’s just competing with one of the best Zarya players of all time. And Zarya players are just getting better and better overall. It’s not really fair for Striker, who has gotten very little playing time. It’s hard to imagine Striker having too much immediate success as of right now.
Image Courtesy of the San Francisco Shock
Smurf has been seen briefly in the Shock uniform, and his appearances were…not super impressive.
He was initially brought in to potentially replace Super, who had a rough first season, but it very quickly became apparent that the starting role would be a dogfight between the two main tank players.
Super obviously won, and he’s gone on to be an integral part of the Shock.
Smurf shifting into the starting lineup would be a sharp downgrade in more ways than one. Super is amazing, yes, but Smurf did not look good at all when he was playing. Furthermore, Super is incredibly integral to the Shock’s hyper aggressive playstyle. Losing him (and Sinatraa, for that matter) would be a huge blow to what makes the Shock…well, the Shock.
Nevix was actually not a bad D.Va player at all, and that’s saying a lot considering the situation he was forced into.
The Shock initially lacked a D.Va player entirely, and the job fell to Nevix. Nevix has switched roles a lot in his Overwatch career, and he took up D.Va duties rather well. He was a bright spot for the Shock during their less than stellar first season.
The fact that the Shock signed and immediately played ChoiHyoBin is a testament to who the better D.Va player is, but Nevix is more than serviceable, and wouldn’t hurt the Shock too much if he played.
Honestly…probably not very.
Architect and Nevix have proven themselves, but Striker and Smurf would be massive question marks. Reinhardt and Zarya are extremely important for any team to be able to properly play GOATs. Smurf never looked fantastic, and it’s hard to tell exactly how good Striker would be in a permanent Zarya role at this level. They probably wouldn’t be bad (not with that support lineup) but the tank line wouldn’t be great, and the lack of Super and Sinatraa means that this team would play very differently.
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