A new Overwatch League report states that a whopping 40% of OWL general managers believe the San Francisco Shock will once again repeat as champions for the third year in a row.
As the Overwatch League heads into its fourth season, one team has emerged as the greatest of all time: The Shock. With two straight season victories under their belts and numerous tournament wins along the way, the squad is battle-hardened and ready to win yet another.
In total, eight of the twenty GMs from across the league believe that the Shock will win again, amounting to forty percent. Behind, the lone team in second place, the Shanghai Dragons, scored ten percent. Ten other teams were also voted to win it all, but clearly the Shock were the overwhelming favorites.
Additionally, with the league’s two regions, 75% of GMs believe the Shock will emerge first in the West while 50% believe the Dragons will rule the East.
Should the Shock complete the hattrick and finish their third season in a row as champions, we’ll be looking at the first-ever OWL dynasty team.
Part of the GMs choices can likely be viewed in part to the amount of talent the Shock have on their roster. Both Nam-Ju ‘Striker’ Gwon and Min-Ki ‘Viol2t’ Park were among the most-picked MVP predictions.
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Three Shock tanks were also voted as being the best in the league: Myeong-Hwan ‘Smurf’ Yoo received five votes, Hyo-Bin ‘Choihyobin’ Choi had three and Matthew ‘Super’ DeLisi had two.
Finally, their coach, Dae-Hee ‘Crusty’ Park received 14 votes for the best in the league. Just five other coaches received any votes at all.
With the upcoming Overwatch League season beginning in April, fans will be able to see even more interregional play than ever before with a series of four tournaments throughout the year.
These tournaments will have the best Western teams fly to Hawaii to go up against the top East squads – something that wasn’t possible in season 3. As such, we should be getting a much better picture of how teams stack up against each other, especially with three of last year’s final four: Philadelphia, Seoul and Shanghai competing in the East.
Let’s see if the Shock can once again pull it off or if they buckle under these newfound expectations.