It may have had a disappointing end, but the Shock absolutely had a fantastic first stage. Making the stage playoffs for the first time is one thing, but smashing through the first two rounds and giving one of the best teams in the league a run for their money is something else entirely. The Shock had an excellent stage, and look to be top contenders in the long run.
The Good
The Shock’s regular season record may not be the most impressive thing in the world, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. The Shock had a notoriously tough schedule, with two of their three losses coming against the Titans and the Excelsior. Their final loss was a close game against the Gladiators, and so much has changed since that week one match. Their wins have been fairly dominant performances, especially in the postseason, where both Toronto and Philadelphia got eviscerated by the Shock’s aggressive playstyle.
The individual performance has been strong too. The Shock support line has cemented itself as one of the best in the league, and for good reason. Grant “Moth” Espe and Min-ki “Viol2t” Park are both amazing at the supporting role. Moth has firmly established himself as one of the best Lucio players in the league, while Viol2t has shown to be a very solid Zenyatta player. Dong-jun “Rascal” Kim, while not quite as dominant as his partners, has shown that he is a competent Brigitte as well.
The tank line has also been quite good. Jay “Sinatraa” Won and Matthew “Super” DeLisi have both played well, and they improved the longer the stage went on. Hyo-bin “ChoiHyoBin” came in with legendary D.Va bombs left and right, and Andreas “Nevix” Karlsson made solid appearances as well.
The Bad
This won’t take long. The Shock were very solid overall, but there were a couple of things that stood out as being less than stellar. The tank line was generally excellent, but there were some glaring consistency issues, especially earlier on in the season. Both Sinatraa and Super had some consistency issues that hampered the Shock in a few of their games.
Meanwhile, Rascal’s Brig, while not terrible, wasn’t top tier either. This wasn’t usually an issue, but against certain matchups it dragged the Shock down a little bit. These are obviously some fairly minor issues, however, which speaks volumes as to how successful the Shock’s stage was.
What to Work on for Stage Two
Honestly there isn’t a whole lot here either. The main thing that the Shock should focus on is consistency. Super and Sinatraa are the main culprits here, as they weren’t quite as consistent as one might hope. Experimenting with Min-ho “Architect” Park and Nam-joo “Striker” Kwon could be an option as the new meta rolls in.
But honestly, the Shock should just keep doing what they are doing. The Shock look like strong contenders right now, and the league should be scared in Stage Two.
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