Overwatch League Trade Centre: Recap - Part 2 - Upcomer
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Overwatch

Overwatch League Trade Centre: Recap – Part 2

Image of Michael Czar
Michael Czar
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Published: Sep 2, 2018 10:17 pm

This article is over 6 years old and may contain outdated information

Even with the lack of matches in this off-season, the time has been filled with a lot of moving pieces. In the Overwatch League, this time in-between seasons one and two will solidify the dark horse teams from the hopeless ones. If you’re wondering what this article is about, it is a continuation of the trade centre recap I just started. I am going over each team’s transfer news, individually in order of the season standings. I’m going to go over teams six through twelve in the standings, but if you’re curious to see how the top teams have traded, click here. Continuing where we left off…

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Philadelphia Fusion

Thank Jeff Kaplan himself I decided to split this trade centre into two parts, because if I wrote it all yesterday like I originally planned, I would have missed some trade movement from this team. Being such a diverse and gritty team, they showed their skills by making it to the Grand Finals. Should they risk taking new players or releasing their roster that got them that far?

To answer myself, no. But, they did release three players, including one of their bench players who proved his skills at the World Cup. While their releasing of Joe “Joemeister” Gramano and Jeong-Hwan “DayFly” Park weren’t big hits for the Fusion, they also released Georgii “ShaDowBurn” Gushcha.

Shadowburn was one of the more interesting players to watch in the league, but as Fusion had inconsistency, he fell out of the roster. He would get subbed in for multiple matches near the end of the season, but EQO kept the main roster spot over him. After a great performance for Russia in the group stages, people knew he deserved a first team spot in the Overwatch League. But the Fusion wasn’t one of them. This release isn’t too surprising, but now we have about a month to see which team he goes to and makes better.

Houston Outlaws

Houston was a time that was always interesting to watch but also never top tier. Their lack of a Tracer player really showed in the earlier stages, but also some unluckiness affected them. While they might be looking into free agency for another star players, they also didn’t have to make many changes. They did recently make a move, but not a major one. They recently released Russell “FCTFCTN” Campbell, a tank that saw little play in the league.

While FCTFCTN did admirably when he played, he just wasn’t as good as the multiple great tanks that are on the Outlaws roster. I can imagine him getting picked up in free agency as a backup tank in case of injury.

Seoul Dynasty

Seoul clearly knew what their problems were when it comes to the overall season. Their main tank role went to hell early on and led to many losses against lower teams. But, with the rumours of Fissure wanting to join a full Korean team, Seoul seemed like the perfect team. The rest of the players on the Dynasty are still above average, but the addition of Fissure seemed like a godly upgrade. So they simply went out and did it.

Besides the over-exaggerated hashtags, this tweet must’ve been the best thing Dynasty fans could have seem before the All-Star weekend. A player who not only they needed for his role, but someone known to improve his teammates. Fissure did that with a English speaking team as well, imagine him now that he can speak in his native tongue to all his teammates. This must make Seoul a top tier team for the second season, but I can imagine them grabbing some people in free agency.

San Francisco Shock

The Shock are a team that I expected to make more releases earlier on. The league knows them as the only team that stocked into young talent and knew wouldn’t be great for the first season. Their ages were the only reasons why most of the talent on the Shock weren’t on in Stage 1. As they grew up and got onto the roster, the Shock eventually would have to release their older rental players. Just before the All-Star break they released André “IDDQD” Dahlström, David “Nomy” Ramirez and Daniel “dHaK” Martínez Paz.

While Nomy and dHak both fit the older rental type, IDDQD was just on the cusp on making the starting roster. While he did make his debut on the last game of the Shock’s schedule, people knew he deserved a team that would play him. Much like Shadowburn on the Fusion, IDDQD simply needed a team that better fit him. But IDDQD needs to show his skills more to even have a chance to get signed in free agency.

Dallas Fuel

Nothing has happened with the Dallas Fuel as of yet in the off-season. But the key word in my previous sentence is ‘yet’. This has been one of the most active teams on Twitter. They made a lot of noise by announcing that news was coming, before releasing this tweet recently.

Mike Rufail is the team owner and CEO of the Dallas Fuel, so this is as direct of a source as you can get. People were surprised that only six of the previous roster were going to stay for the next season. While we already know of Seagull’s retirement, people think that star player Effect will be on the trade block. Effect’s skill is undeniable, but his attitude was very poor and partly led to the Fuel’s poor season. Besides that, honestly anyone could be kicked from the roster for a couple reasons. We’ll have to wait and see on the Fuel.

Florida Mayhem

Florida is in a similar situation to the Dallas Fuel, just with less hype. The Mayhem have made a similar announcement, with it also being from their management on Twitter.

While their tweet isn’t as surprising as the Fuels, their actions might be more interesting. They’ve clearly stated all three trade abilities in the tweet: re-signings, waiving and a big acquisition. While re-signings and waiving aren’t too weird for the second worst team in the league with a star player, this one big acquisition is a big question mark. This new signing could make it or break it for this team, and most players are improvements in this lineup.

Shanghai Dragons

This team has made wholesale changes, and that was needed. The Dragons have made the biggest change to their roster, more than any other team so far. They’ve released eight of their original players, all at the same time.

The only players who stayed for the second season on the roster are Weida “Diya” Lu, Se-yeon “Geguri” Kim and Eui-seok “Fearless” Lee. This change was needed, but harsh to do. We all expected a purge from Shanghai, but one person everyone didn’t expect to go was Gi-hyeon “Ado” Chon. This Korean player came in along with Geguri and Fearless in the middle of the first season to improve the team. While Geguri and Fearless were clear upgrades, Ado did the same thing, which made it so much weirder with his departure. But, with the rumours of other Korean rosters wanting him, he might be a cheap steal for a future expansion team.

And that’s all as of September 2, 2018. Lawrence and I will continue to post trade news as it happens, but I will continue this trade centre in October when free agency opens.

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Author
Image of Michael Czar
Michael Czar
Polish-Canadian game enthusiast. I've been entrenched in gaming for as long as I can remember, with my first game being Pokemon Yellow and my most played games being Borderlands 2 and Overwatch. I have a degree in Film Studies, but writing about esports just makes my job all the better.
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