The offseason continues to be a hard time for Tiger Nation. This time it was the loss of the main support Jinmo ‘Tobi’ Yang. It was a hard blow as he was the remaining member of the original Seoul Dynasty and Lunatic-Hai core. There were so many exciting moments during the last season. The open scrims against the Washington Justice, as well as the NeXT tournament, show the potential for this to be an even bigger year for the Seoul Dynasty.
Recap of Season 3
The Seoul Dynasty had many highs as well as lows when it came to Season 3. It started out with the big news that Junyoung ‘Profit’ Park, Seungtae ‘Bdosin’ Choi and Jaehui ‘Gesture’ Hong would be joining the team. COVID-19 threw a curveball into the mix, and the team started out in NA but then moved back to APAC. Which made the Dynasty not play any matches until Week 8 and then had to wait until Week 12 to get back on a regular schedule.
The mini-tournaments of the May Melee, Summer Showdown, and Countdown Cup didn’t have the best showing of the team. They went 1-3 in the regular matches but showed up better in the tournament playoffs. The finals match of the May Melee was one of the best matches of the season when it was the Seoul Dynasty versus the Shanghai Dragons.
Season Highlights
The highlight of the season had to be the Dynasty’s post-season run. Did the meta help them? Yes. But they figured out the meta. They still perfected it when other teams didn’t. It was the dark horse run, where they beat out so many of the teams who, in the regular season, beat them. Some said it was a miracle run, but for Tiger Nation, it was the team’s hard work paying off.
Because the team came in second, that meant no star adorned the Seoul Dynasty banner. The Dynasty did take Hanamura from the Shock in order for them to snag the W, so it wasn’t without a price for the two-time grand champions.
Returning Roster
DPS: Junyoung ‘Profit’ Park
DPS: Dongeon ‘FITS’ Kim
Main Tank: Jaehui ‘Gesture’ Hong
Main Tank: Minseo ‘Marve1’ Hwang
Off-Tank: Hyunwoo ‘Toyou’ Lim
Flex Support: Youngwan ‘Creative’ Kim
Head Coach: Changgeun ‘Changgoon’ Park
Tanks
The Seoul Dynasty have their three main tanks that they had last year. If the scrims show anything it seems as if Marve1 has gone back to his main tank role, leaving the off-tanks to Toyou. This is exciting as Toyou has shown great star power in the matches he has played. That alongside Gesture and Marve1 should have a strong front line for the team.
DPS
FITS and Profit made up the usual starting DPS for the Dynasty last season. These two players by the end of the season had great coordination with each other. Even though their hero pools overlap, they carved out a place for themselves. FITS held his own duo-ing with Profit showing how good he really is. This will be the third year with the Dynasty for FITS and though he is on teams with mega veterans, he himself is also a veteran of the league. If Profit is able to harness the playoff Profit form for the regular season, that could be deadly. It would be great to see some of their lesser-seen heroes get some more playtime such as Doomfist for FITS and Genji for Profit.
Support
Creative came in only at the tail end of the season but didn’t let anyone down. He popped off. His Ana sleep darts came through in the clutch in many instances. He is one of the players that has a lot of potential going into this season. He is the only flex support so it will be interesting to see how he handles the pressure as last year he had Bdosin alongside him.
New Pickups
DPS: Jongryeol ‘Saebyeolbe’ Park
Main Support: Taesung ‘Anamo’ Jung
In the off-season, the Seoul Dynasty let go of more players than they picked up. Joining the team were two of the veteran NYXL players of Saebyeolbe and Anamo.
Support
Anamo is here to step into the shoes of Tobi. In the tournament that Tobi watched he praised Anamo’s plays that he made. It looked like he was fitting in with the team. He is the only main support of the team so he has to work hard to integrate into the fold. The community has seen how strong Anamo can be, but also some of his weaknesses. Hopefully, the coaching staff can help fill in the gaps and make him even stronger than he was for the NYXL.
DPS
Saebyeolbe is an interesting pickup. His hero pools overlap with the other DPS. He is a veteran Overwatch League player, but so is Gesture and Profit. He was the captain of the NYXL, but Gesture was the captain for the team last year and continues on with the role this year. In the Washington Justice scrim, he played more as Profit was healing from a wrist injury and looked much better than he had in the NeXT tournament. Many have been hypothesizing that he is coming in as a player-coach, but it seems as if the Dynasty are going to have him play with the team. Tiger Nation will be living for the day that Profit Echo copies Tracer while Saebyeolbe is on Tracer as well.
Analysis of the Team’s Schedule
There is an article out already that breaks down the Seoul Dynasty’s schedule, which can be found here.
The schedule is broken up into four games each mini-tournament. And each weekend that they play, they will have two matches. Therefore there are no solo matches for the Dynasty in the regular season.
Most anticipated game of the year
The obvious answer to this is the Week 3 match against the NYXL as Saebyeolbe and Anamo will be facing their old team. Except, it is their old team in name alone. Their squad was all broken up with only Sunghyeon ‘JJoNak’ Bang left. Therefore the most anticipated match is going to be Week 7 against the Shanghai Dragons. The Dynasty and the Dragons are rivals in the sense that it is a heated grudge match. But when they face each other it is good Overwatch and the maps are close even if the scoreline isn’t.
The fact that Profit and Byungsun ‘Fleta’ Kim are now both MVPs, and Fleta still has that lingering connection to the Seoul Dynasty makes it a little more personal than the other matches. The Shanghai Dragons are predicted to be dominant again in the APAC region. The match will no doubt be a banger.
Player to Watch this Season
It would be easy enough to say Profit, Gesture, or even Saebyeolbe as they are established names in the Overwatch community. But honestly, so much of the Seoul Dynasty’s future is in the hands of players like Creative and Toyou. These two came up through the ranks of the T3 and T2 system that Gen.G built. They are the future of the team and the squad. The fact that both players were only really seen at the end of last season and left such a lasting impression is a good omen. Keep an eye out for Creative if he is on Zen or Ana as well as Toyou when he gets to play Zarya or D.Va. It will be the young blood that will help propel this team forward this season and in the future.
Keys to a Successful Season
Consistency. The Seoul Dynasty has always wrestled with staying consistent throughout the season. This is a much shorter season and each match matters. The Dynasty is going to have to not lose the matches they are predicted to win and upset some of the matches they were predicted to lose. There is hope, as Seoul have pulled off some epic wins. There is no buffer this year and the rankings, especially with the map differential, will be crucial.
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