In this Overwatch League offseason, we have had a record number of players who have decided to leave for free agency. But this has not made fans lower their expectations in any way.
San Francisco Shock and Dallas Fuel organized a replay of their historic duel at the 2022 Grand Finals to give their fans something different.
San Francisco Shock and its unexpected announcement
Recall that the Grand Final was a very dramatic win by Dallas Fuel with a close 4-3 score, but all eyes were on the December 26 game.
The reason is simple; fans were anxious to see San Francisco’s new lineup, as the organization decided its 2023 squad before this Showmatch began.
This team’s lineup will now feature several extremely talented rookies and a veteran known for his role as Supper extraordinaire.
WE ARE YOUR 2023 SAN FRANCISCO SHOCK@Ow_Proper | @Ow_HeeSang | @OW_MAX1 | @SEjFiNN | @vinda_im pic.twitter.com/N82ExXXwRX
— San Francisco Shock (@SFShock) December 27, 2022
New faces
We start with tank Choi “Max” Su-min and DPS Chae “HeeSang” Hee-sang, both well-known players in the OW2 scene who just won the Contenders Pacific Showdown.
Admittedly, all fans expected this to happen at some point. So, it was no surprise to them that San Francisco announced this pair of players.
Recall that, at the beginning of 2022, San Francisco Shock picked up the O2 Blast team as their academy team. This granted them the first pick among the Contenders leaders.
Earlier this year, San Francisco acquired O2 Blast as their academy team, which gave them the first pick among the Contenders’ leaders.
Rest of the team
They will be joined by Support Park “Vindaim” Jun-woo, who played last season with Seoul Dynasty. In addition, oh “FiNN” Se-jin returns to the team in the same backup role.
While 2022 rookie of the year and league MVP Kim “Proper” Dong-Hyun, remains in the team’s ranks heading into 2023.
We all noticed the absence of Shock Park “Viol2t” Minki, the team’s veteran Support. This makes us think that Viol2t and San Francisco Shock decided to go their separate ways in 2023.
Remember that according to Overwatch League rules, teams can close their lineups with a minimum of five players. This means that the Shock is already closed, but it is no secret that the team will have to add more players before the deadline at the end of March.
The San Francisco Shock lineup is as follows:
- FiNN
- Proper
- HeeSang
- MAX
- Vindaim
About Dallas Fuel
While the spotlight was certainly on the Shock, the Dallas Fuel also opted to retool part of their championship lineup for the show match.
This has been a bittersweet situation for Fuel fans, as players have taken entirely different paths throughout the league this off-season.
Although Supports Han “ChiYo” Hyeon-Seok and Kwon “Fielder” Joon signed with Atlanta Reign a few days ago, they decided to don the blue jerseys of the Fuel for the last time in this show match.
Header: Overwatch League | San Francisco Shock