Seoul Dynasty sign main tank Smurf to roster

The Seoul Dynasty have signed main tank Yoo “Smurf” Myeong-hwan, formerly of the San Francisco Shock. After the 2021-22 Overwatch League’s off-season moves so far, including Seoul’s former main tank Hong “Gesture” Jae-hee retiring, this move helps re-tool the Dynasty roster.

[ Welcome, @smurf_ow ] pic.twitter.com/KttlM3Lu8X

— Seoul Dynasty 🐯 (@SeoulDynasty) October 21, 2021

Smurf’s path to the Dynasty

Smurf has a reputation of consistency, going from prospect to helping the 2019 Shock to their championship pretty quickly. After winning in Pacific Contenders for team Ardeont, he moved to North American Contenders team OpTic Academy, the Houston Outlaws academy team at the time. When the San Francisco Shock were looking to improve at the end of the inaugural Overwatch League season, they traded for Smurf from the Outlaws. Then, in 2019, they slowly but surely worked him into the roster alongside Matthew “super” DeLisi. While super’s Reinhardt was top-tier, as advertised, Smurf was the Winston player for the team. This rotation between two top-tier main tanks was one of the key reasons the Shock performed that well and lasted so long. From 2019 to 2021, two championships later, Smurf became a proven starter.

When the Shock decided to pivot after losing their chance at the three-peat, the team stuck with super over Smurf. After browsing the market, he joined the Seoul team that he beat in the grand finals in 2020.

Seoul’s future

When Seoul announced that they were keeping their DPS duo of Park “Profit” Joon-yeong and Kim “FITS” Dong-eun, they established a core heading into Overwatch 2. But, after starting their careers together and winning the inaugural season, the duo of Profit and Gesture finally split up. Gesture’s retirement leaves a significant hole in the Dynasty, but Smurf is a great replacement. He’s just as experienced, has also won championships and is arguably more flexible than Gesture was.

The only questions left for Seoul are how Smurf blends with the core, along with what other tanks the Dynasty sign. If he can work with another rotation situation like he had on the Shock, he can help the Dynasty.