In this post, I will cover three teams instead of the normal two teams per post. This is due to wanting to fit all the teams into 10 posts. As such, next post will also cover the three final teams. These three teams are all located in China and are new to the Over \watch League. Because of this, man players were not quite known to the usual fan base and were ranked low in many Overwatch personalities' power rankings. However, since he end of Stage 2, many of these new teams have shattered expectations and have proved that they should not be looked down upon. Starting us off is the Guangzhou Charge.
Guangzhou Charge
The Charge were a wild card coming into the new season. They had a miss-matched roster consisting of Koreans, Chinese, and British players. For many Overwatch players, analysts, and writers, the Charge averaged 15th out of the 20 teams. While not last, the Charge ended Stage 1 3-4 and was ranked 11th. The Charge have multiple players on a two-way contract, and because of that, they will not be mentioned in this roster run down.
Coaching and Management
With Sonny Xiao as CEO, The Guangzhou Charge is owned by financial and entertainment conglomerate Nenking Group, who also own the Guangzhou Long-Lions of the Chinese Basketball Association. The team's head coach is Hyojin "J1N" Cho, a South Korean Coach who played for MiG Frost and AF .Blue before becoming a coach for Solution Gaming and Meta Bellum. J1N is assisted by Sungwoo Hong and Seung-min "Tydolla" Jung.
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| Tydolla (Left), J1N (Center), Sungwoo (Right) |
Players
Tank
Starting the tank roster off is Seung-pyo "Rio" Oh. Rio is a South Korean player formerly of Afrreca Freecs Red and both Meta sister teams (Athena & Bellum), though he did not see many victories outside of show matches. The only other tank player is Hong-joon "HOTBA" Choi. Before being signed to the Charge, HOTBA played for the Philadelphia Fusion and LW Red. Though he is mainly a tank player, HOTBA has been known to swap to the damage role and can play both roles very well. HOTBA also brings his prior League experience that some expansion teams do not have.
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| Hong-joon "HOTBA" Choi |
Damage
Starting the Damage category off is one of the only Chinese players on this team that is not part of a two-way contract: Ou "Eileen" Yilang. Playing for LGD Gaming for the majority of his Overwatch career, Eileen was hailed as a player with amazing and flashy plays. While Jung-woo "Happy" Lee is under the Damage roster, he is known to play some tank and support characters, allowing him to be quite flexible when the team chooses a certain composition. He saw many tournament wins while playing under Element Mystic and a 3rd place standing for Meta Bellum in Overwatch's official tier 2 tournament. Finley "Kyb" Adisi is certainly the odd one out on this roster. Since he is the only British player on the team, having to adjust to the Korean and Chinese languages would be a real challenge for anyone. Kyb saw mixed success on his previous teams of Reunited, Cloud9 EU, Those Guys, and the London Spitfire's academy team, the British Hurricanes.
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| Ou "Eileen" Yilang |
Support
Acting as team captain is Jung-yeon "Chara" Kim. Chara saw mixed success while playing for Meta Bellum in his 20 months of being in the competitive scene prior to being on the Charge. The second and last support player is Jin-seo "Shu" Kim. While he did play for larger named teams such as Meta Athena and Toronto Esports, he did not see much victory
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| Jung-yeon "Chara" Kim |
The Guangzhou Charge have exceeded many people's expectations for an expansion team with such an odd roster. Can they continue proving themselves during Stage 2 or will they fall to the bottom of the standings where so many people believed them to be?
The second team to be covered is the team who's branding is based entirely on an anime: The Hangzhou Spark!
Hangzhou Spark
To add on the nerdy-ness of being a professional gamer, the Spark has opted to place their branding as an homage to an anime by the name of "A Certain Scientific Railgun" where the main character can make a railgun - like blast using her finger guns ... because its anime. In any case, the Spark's preseason ranking was surprisingly high, placing just above average at 9th. Their Stage 1 record is currently 3-4, and because of how many maps they have lost, they are 13th in the overall standings. And if you ask me, they probably have the best color scheme in the League with the pink and cotton candy blue.
Coaching and Management
The Spark is owned by Chinese social platform Bilibili that revolves around animation, comics, and games, and has Rui Chen as the owner of the Team. Rui Chen acquired help from Muho "Mask" Lee, the former coach for X6-Gaming where he saw many tournament wins. Mask is assisted by Seung-jun "Sup7eme" Han, another Korean coach that came from moderately successful team Seven. The second assistant coach is Gao "YinDong" Hang, a former player and coach for LGD Gaming.
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| Muho "Mask" Lee |
Players
Tanks
Starting us off is Xu "guxue" Qiulin . Guxue was a relatively unknown player until he played for team China during the Overwatch World Cup, where he impressed everyone with his tank play and game sense. Though he played for LCD Gaming prior to entering the League, it wasn't until the World Cup that he came on everyone's radar. Subbing for guxue is Da-un "NoSmite" Jeong, a former X6-Gaming player who came along with coach Mask during his acquisition. Next on the list is Seong-Wook "Ria" Park. Prior to the Spark, Ria was on X6-Gaming, RX Foxes, and Bon's Spirit Gaming.
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| Xu "guxue" Quilin |
Damage
Kyeong-bo "GodsB" Kim starts off the damage category where he too, came from X6-Gaming. Besides guxue, Cai "Krystal" Shilong is the only other Chinese player on the Spark and though he did not come from X6, Krystal saw some success while playing for Miracle Team One and T1w. Jun-Ki "Bazzi" Park is a third player in this damage roster and came with assistant coach Sup7eme from team Seven. Joining Bazzi from team Seven is Jaehwan "Adora" Kang who, despite coming from Seven, did not see much success with his other previous teams.
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| Kyeong-bo "GodsB" Kim |
Support
Ho-jin "iDK" Park starts the support roster. He previous teams included Afreeca Freecs, Lunatic-Hai and his more successful team, Lucky Future Zenith, winning multiple tournaments against teams like LGD Gaming. Another former member of Seven is Hyeong-Geun "Revenge" An, though like his teammates, only saw a little success on that team. Rounding out the support category is Hui-chang "BeBe" Yoon. Like Ria and others, BeBe saw decent success while playing for X6.
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| Ho-jin "iDK" Park |
With the supports finally finished, the Spark's large roster comes to a close. Up next is everyone's favorite wild card, the Chengdu Hunters!
Chengdu Hunters
The Chengdu Hunters have quickly become the lovable goofs in Overwatch League. They pick surprising compositions and have the talent to back them up. But when push comes to shove, they can play the standard compositions and still be a force to be reckoned with. During the preseason, the most optimistic speculator placed them at 16th. Because of this, they had the worst average power ranking of the 20 teams. The team had a rough start to the season due to a few of their players having Visa troubles - one was flat out denied and others were not processed in time.
Coaching and Management
The Hunters are owned by Huya Inc., one of China's largest game streaming services, and operated by the successful League of Legends organization Royal Never Give Up. Acting as head coach is Xingrui "RUI" Wang. RUI coached another OWL team the Shanghai Dragons, but left mid way through their win-less season due to health reasons. Well RUI is back and assisting him is Chang "Ray" Chia-Hua, a coach for the semi-successful Flash Wolves Overwatch team.
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| Xingrui "RUI" Wang |
Players
Tank
Starting the tank line is Ding "Ameng" Menghan. At first, it seemed that Ameng could only play one tank character, but that was blown out of the water after a few spectacular games that have made him a contender for the best tank player in the League. He achieved this despite a few victories playing for teams like Legend Young Blood, Moss Seven Club, and Big Time Regal Gaming. Due to Visa issues, Wei "jiqiren" Yansong arrived mid-stage and could still hold his own in despite such little play time with this teammates. Jiqiren came from the astounding Chinese team Miraculous Youngsters (MY) and moved to Team CC after Youngsters disbanded. The third tank player is Luo "Elsa" Wenjie who has seen multiple wins while playing for Black Ananas and LinGan e-Sports before signing with teh Chengdu Hunters. The fourth and final tank player is Ma "LateYoung" Tianbin who joined jiqiren on MY and later, Team CC.
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| Ding "Ameng" Menghan |
Damage
Lo "Baconjack" Tzu-Hen starts off the Damage category. He was a former Team Fortress 2 and Counter-Strike player. In early 2018, he left his team Flash Wolves to play Player Unknown's Battlegrounds, but returned to Overwatch after being asked to play for the Hunters. Next is Yi "JinMu" Hu. JinMu was a Chinese streamer who first played for LaoYinBi before switching to Moss Seven Club, and Big Time Regal Gaming with Ameng. Zhang "YangXiaoLong" Zhihao (Yang) brings this list to an end. Yang, like Backonjack, left Overwatch after failing to qualify for a team in Season 1, but has returned to be on the Hunters. Yang played with jiqiren and LateYoung on MY before joining Triple Six Legend as the team's coach.
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| Lo "BackonJack" Tzu-Hen |
Support
Li "Yveltal" Xianyao is a former player for LinGan e-Sports where he saw decent success in minor tournaments but only played 3rd-4th in major tournaments. Guan "Garry" Li is the second support player. Garry has seen mixed success when playing for his former teams Lucky Future and its sister team Lucky Future Zenith. Rounding off the support line-up is Kong "Kyo" Chunting who has seen little success playhing for GodLike, iG.Fire, and Team CC.
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| Li "Yvetal" Xianyao |
With these three teams down, only three more remain: the Seoul Dynasty, Shanghai Dragons, and the Vancouver Titans.
The 2nd Season of the Overwatch League has started and can be watched
HERE on Twitch.tv, htough Stage 2 begins April 4th. Games go from Thursday to Sunday, with four games per day. You can also watch past games
HERE on YouTube. The Overwatch League has its official merchandise located
HERE in the event you find a team that's worth cheering for.
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