The June Joust is just around the corner and that means that hero pools are back in the rotation. As seen from last year, hero pools can dramatically impact how a team performs. The Seoul Dynasty ended up second overall in the May Melee with two additional wins during the fourth week of the prelims. In this tournament, four heroes are banned. For the DPS both Tracer and Sombra will be out of the meta, while Reinhardt and Zen will be on the bench for tanks and support. How will these hero bans impact the Seoul Dynasty in the coming weeks?
The banning of Tracer and Sombra is a huge hit for the Seoul Dynasty. Many times Junyoung ‘Profit’ Park and Dongeon ‘FITS’ Kim in the May Melee were seen on these two heroes. Both Tracer and Sombra pair well with the aggressive playstyle that Seoul have. The synergy between Jaehui ‘Gesture’ Hong’s Winston dive with then DPS duo finishing the kills allowed Seoul to grab any points during the first tournament of the Overwatch League Season 4.
Courtesy of the Overwatch League (Season 4 Week 4)
The positive is, that the Seoul Dynasty’s DPS lineup is very flexible. Even when Tracer and Sombra were in the hero pool, Seoul was pulling out Genji, Pharah, McCree, and Echo. In Season 3 Ashe and Widow are always on the table for the Dynasty players to pull out when needed. The best opinion would be if Pharah and Ashe became the meta, as those are definitely heroes that Seoul players feel comfortable on. Tracer has been a hero that Profit can hard carry on, as he is one of the best in the world. Without that edge, the Dynasty are going to have to out strategize their opponents instead of purely out mechanizing them.
It will be doubtful that this hero pool change will allow Jongryeol ‘Saebyeolbe’ Park into the starting 6. He is known for Sombra, Tracer and he has played Widow. But that is not enough to consider putting him in over Profit or Fits. Even Saebyeolbe’s Hog has been quite good in the past, but with the performance that Gesture put on in the playoffs last season, it is doubtful the fans would see Saeybeolbe put in for off-tank either.
Reinhardt is less of a loss for the Seoul Dynasty. Yes, the team has played Rein in the past, but their bread and butter have been Winston and Ball. This does mean that the community will see even less of Minseo ‘Marve1’ Hwang as of the two main tanks he is the most designated Rein player. Depending on the comps, it wouldn’t be unheard of a Marve1 Gesture duo if the Dynasty decides to bring Hog back into their strategies.
The biggest difference will be when playing Winston and Ball, Gesture will no longer have his DPS to help with damage when it comes to the dive without a Sombra or Tracer. That could make Gesture’s aggressive playstyle very dangerous to the point of people calling his dives feeding. Unless that is something the coaches planned around, Gesture could look really bad without the healing orb or backup DPS. The Dynasty will need to help focus on keeping Gesture alive in this meta.
Courtesy of the Overwatch League (Season 4 Week 4)
To lose Zen is not as bad as the DPS loss and not as good as just losing Rein. Youngwan ‘Creative’ Kim has made some amazing plays on Zen, taking out players by one-shotting them with Zen’s orbs. Creative is not a Zen one trick. His Ana is just as good as the community has seen some of his sick sleep darts. The fans have not seen Creative on many other heroes but Zen and Ana, so it will be interesting to see if this will put Creative on Bap or Moira this tournament rotation.
The hero pools for the June Joust could have been way worse for the Seoul Dynasty. It is the flexibility of the players on the roster that save them from being in the weeds. But it will all come down to the strategies and meta. No doubt that will be the determining factor to how successful they can be in this tournament. The Seoul Dynasty does need to face both the Chengdu Hunters and the Shanghai Dragons this rotation, and a Pharah battle Profit vs. Byungsun ‘Fleta’ Kim and Hu ‘Jinmu’ Yi sounds like amazing Overwatch to watch.
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