In the community’s wildest dreams, back in 2016, no one would’ve thought that in 2020-2021 there would be a team that had housed such Overwatch Royalty as the Seoul Dynasty. All teams in the Overwatch League have had their standout players, but in the history of the Dynasty, there has been the bringing together of standout players on multiple legendary APEX teams. Here are the APEX teams that influential players came from before becoming a Seoul Dynasty player.
Lunatic-Hai
The most obvious and the name that is most associated with the Seoul Dynasty has to be Lunatic-Hai. Though in Season 4 there will be no surviving members of the original core left, it will be interesting to see if their narrative continues to live on with the Dynasty. When most think of Lunatic-Hai, names like Jehong ‘Ryujehong’ Ryu, Joonhyuk ‘Zunba’ Kim, Jinhyuk ‘Miro’ Gong, and Jinmo ‘Tobi’ Yang come to mind. But players such as Gido ‘gido’ Moon, Jaemo ‘xepheR’ Koo, Byungsun ‘Fleta’ Kim, and Sangbeom ‘Munchkin’ Byeon were also technically Lunatic-Hai before joining Seoul.
The legend of these players, surely, influenced the name of Seoul to be the Dynasty as Lunatic-Hai was a Dynasty of Overwatch. To have the core of Lunatic-Hai was a boost in gaining fans but also marketability as fans were just happy to see the team together. Many of the core members’ names hold a lot of weight in the community and command respect from many pro players.
Kongdoo Panthera
Kongdoo Panthera has always been a worthy rival of the Lunatic-Hai team as they even faced off in the Season 3 APEX grand finals. The team is well respected. Chanhyung ‘Fissure’ Baek, Jihyeok ‘birdring’ Kim, and Dongjun ‘Rascal’ Kim were the most well known/fan-favorite players on the team. Birdscal is a DPS pairing that will live on in the hearts of the community for ages. When Fissure joined the team that was an amazing moment in which fans could see the duo of the Kongdoo main tank alongside his former adversaries of Zunba, Ryujehong, and Tobi.
This was the start of the mixing of APEX rosters to create fantasy cores that APEX fans never thought could actually happen. Though the purity of the original roster was yearned for, the pairings that could’ve been in APEX was happening, in reality, all because of the Overwatch League and the Seoul Dynasty.
GC Busan
The wave of GC Busan players, who during the APEX days were the Kryptonite of Lunatic-Hai, joined at the beginning of Season 3. This was not the first time that GC Busan were integrated into the Dynasty franchise as a couple of the staff/coaches were from GC Busan previously. Jaehui ‘Gesture’ Hong, Junyoung ‘Profit’ Park, Seungtae ‘Bdosin’ Choi were the first players of GC that came into the Seoul Dynasty.
Profit has always been a stand out DPS player that was heralded as one of the best during APEX and the Overwatch League. Gesture had a well-known aura in APEX, but really exploded in the Overwatch League with his personality and swag. The most well-known components of GC Busan to then London Spitfire are now Tigers shocked many fans. The two-time royal roaders came into the team as the majority to the solo Lunatic-Hai representation of Tobi.
If anything Season 3 showed how the mixing of APEX rosters can have amazing effects as the Dynasty were able to make it all the way to the grand finals. To see the players that destroyed Lunatic-Hai was jarring at first, but their ease of integration into the team was the closing of one era. No longer was it the grudges of the past, but the beginning of a common goal to win.
LW Blue
It may be surprising but Jongryeol ‘Saebyeolbe’ Park was not the first LW player to be on the Seoul Dynasty. Jinwoo ‘Gambler’ Heo was the first member of the LW organization to join the Dynasty in Season 1 as a main support. Gambler was favorably looked at along with Gyeongho ‘Luna’ Jang by the fans during the APEX era. It was heartbreaking that neither of the two supports had joined the NYXL alongside their teammates when the inaugural season rosters were announced. Gambler brought the Mercy play to the team, though it may be hard to think that Tobi after his successful Mercy play this past season, was not comfortable on the hero back at the beginning. He was the Orange Juice player who helped dish out the sass quotient for the team in Season 1.
Saebyeolbe is often compared to Ryujehong when it comes to leadership and respect amongst players in the league. He is a pillar in the community and a veteran player. He is a light of positivity that shines through the toxicity. As the face of the NYXL it was insane to think of a Seoul Dynasty SBB. It wasn’t out of the question as in the OWWC SBB did play in a mixed roster of Lunatic-Hai members and LW. It is no secret that the squads have a close friendship with each other. The announcement that Saebyeolbe was going to be a Tiger is mind-blowing as two iconic Tracers of himself and Profit will be sharing the same team.
Combining Rosters
At this point, all that is missing is a representative member of Runaway to join the Seoul Dynasty at one point for the team to have had an integral member of each of the legendary teams of APEX. As the seasons of the Overwatch League continue on the old core rosters are splitting and fracturing. The Dynasty have had so many iconic players pass through their halls. No doubt Gen.G and the Seoul Dynasty as the seasons of the Overwatch go on, will continue to look to add those iconic players to their franchise.
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