The Hero Bans could definitely be worse for the Seoul Dynasty. This could be in part that the Overwatch League is split into two regions of APAC and NA. There are more NA teams and therefore more NA matches. When the hero playtime is looked at, if all of the NA teams are on the same meta, that is what will be hit the most. Overlapping heroes such as Ashe of course would have a very high playtime as both regions would be using her. Therefore even though Ball was rampant in APAC, with NA not touching Ball in their regular matchings of the Summer Showdown it was less impacted in the overall hero time used. Here is how the Countdown Cup hero bans might impact the performance of the Seoul Dynasty in their next four matches.
Support Ban: Lucio
Lucio is the signature hero of Taesung ‘Anamo’ Jung. Though he hasn’t been playing much of Lucio lately. The Dynasty has been putting him on a lot of Brig and Mercy. It has been Youngwan ‘Creative’ Kim that has been doing more of the flexing. Neither Ana nor Zen was hit so the support core that Seoul has been using stays intact. The beloved Lucio/Moira that NA has championed was the one that got hit. If anything that is a positive for the Dynasty as now they can set the pace of the match much easier without a Lucio on the other side of the field.
DPS Bans: Echo and Ashe
The DPS bans hit both of the Seoul DPS players. Both Junyoung ‘Profit’ Park and Dongeon ‘FITS’ Kim play Ashe. Of course, Profit is also the Echo player on the Dynasty. At the end of the Summer Showdown, FITS already was playing a bit of McCree over Ashe. Though FITS might favor Ashe, he can do just as much damage on McCree.
For Echo, Profit can be impactful on the hero, but his Pharah is just as good. With Echo out, there will no longer be that extra tank available to prolong the fights. The main source of comfort has always been more the core of the Tracer, Sombra, Pharah, Mei, McCree/Ashe. With only Ashe being taken out of that equation there are not going to be many adjustments to the heroes that FITS and Profit like to play.
Both of the heroes that are taken out are just power crept concepts of other heroes. Echo is similar to Pharah while Ashe is a ‘better’ McCree. That means that these two DPS being taken out doesn’t drastically do anything to the meta unlike the previous hero bans with Tracer and Sombra out of the mix.
Tank Ban: Sigma
Sigma has been a good hero for Hyeonwoo ‘Toyou’ Lim. There are many times that his accretion has stopped an ability or ultimate from going off. That being said, Seoul has been playing a lot of Ball D.Va where they have seen quite a bit of success. Though Sigma out of rotation could mean that Seoul will switch it up with Jaehui ‘Gesture’ Hong more in the line up with Winston D.Va dive now that double shield is out.
Hero Bans
The Countdown Cup hero bans may make or break a team. It is that variable that is hard to define before seeing the teams play without these four heroes in rotation. On paper, these four heroes being taken out does not look like it will be that detrimental to the Dynasty. There is always the possibility that the meta that creeps to the forefront because of these hero bans might counter the Ball/D.Va that Seoul has been favoring lately. Luckily it seems as if the bans are more impactful to NA than APAC for the upcoming Countdown Cup.
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