The Defiant Just Signed A Future Rookie Of The Year Candidate - Now What?
Fresh talent has always performed well in the Overwatch League. 2020 saw the league’s “worst generation” kick in the doors of the Path to Pro with a dominance that didn’t dare wait for the torch to be passed. Snatching it from the experienced veterans of the game, these rookie players snapped the torch over their knee and blazed their own wildly successful trail. Kindred spirits in many ways, the Toronto Defiant are looking to perform a similar task in their 2021 season attempt.
With two seasons under their belts and nothing to show for it, the Defiant are looking to take some calculated risks during the offseason and they’ve finally shown their hand with their acquisition of South Korean DPS ace, Lee "Na1st" Ho-sung. What happens now that Toronto has a young, rookie weapon that will be in the discussion for rookie of the year? Do the Defiant have the weapons to reshape their narrative? Will it even matter?
Expected to be the architect of the new-look Defiant, head coach Kim "KDG" Dong-gun has opted for in his words “a gamble.” That gamble comes by way of a promising rookie DPS player from South Korea. Debuting on Meta Bellum and cutting his teeth on Philadelphia Fusion’s academy team, Fusion University, and T1, Na1st has been a name that carries with it some serious respect and acclaim. Undoubtedly high on the offseason rookie list, many assumed the Philadelphia Fusion had long term plans for the young prodigy much in the same way they facilitated 2020 rookie of the year winner Kim "Alarm" Kyung-bo’s path to the stage. However, speculation and concern has already started to slowly creep up following the move.
Click to enlargeStruggling to stay in the mix alongside T1 this year, many wonder if Na1st has had a dip in performance that correlates with the teams relatively lacklustre showing. However, we have to remember all of the shifts in narratives we had this year around players the community wrote off as less-than and replaceable. The Toronto Defiant are a new team, not only in their own respects but for Na1st as well, and with that should come with a fresh start. Whatever the case may be, we have to reshape how the competitive Overwatch League community conceptualises player comparisons. Someone is only as good as their team allows them to be. This only rings more true when we begin to look at T1’s play.
With Overwatch Contenders winding down, many teams these last few months have been scrambling to qualify for the biggest stage in amateur Overwatch, The Gauntlet. T1 threw their name into the hat and was painfully consistent with their track record this year. They were good enough to stay within Contenders proper, but rarely were they a team that was going to make a deep run. During their final match before having their Gauntlet dreams dashed, T1 looked lethargic in their attacks. Specifically, on Numbani’s first point, T1 aims to play this passive, Excelsior-esque style that does not allow Na1st to shine. Even their match against Gen.G Esports earlier this year during the 2020 Season 1 playoffs, T1 refused to make a proactive move. It’s difficult to even pick apart positioning when they just allow Gen.G Esports point control for free.
Even with a cursory review of some of T1’s games, it is blatantly obvious that the team had some weak spots which hindered the shine of some of their greatest stars. Na1st seems to be one of those victims of circumstance when you think back to how promising he looked in the past.
However, this also isn’t the first time Toronto Defiant have onboarded young South Korean players to change their luck. Their franchise debut in 2019 took the core of O2 Ardeont and placed them alongside some Overwatch League free agents to create a solid team that had room to grow. Unfortunately, the team didn’t net much in the way of results and the vision seemed to have been scraped heading into 2020. This has drawn some concerns with the team in general and could hint at more systematic problems. In short, even with a potential star rookie alongside bulletproof teammates, how much will it even matter in the long run?
Addressing the elephant in the room for a moment; the Toronto Defiant have had promising rosters before and somehow they’ve always fallen apart. The 2019 Overwatch League season saw them start with a promising South Korean roster and an underdog mentality. Sadly, they ended with a 17th place finish in the regular season amid roster turmoil. Echoing a familiar feeling, the 2020 season saw a shift more towards a western mixed roster with memorable names like Brady "Agilities" Girardi, Lane "Surefour" Roberts, and Park "KariV" Young-seo. Again, Toronto failed to meet expectations again and finished 15th in the regular season.
Perhaps this year is different. Perhaps the Defiant can finally stabilise and begin to set a course for success. The league would always benefit from having more playoff contenders, but there is a real possibility that structural problems better reveal themselves and continue to plague this team for the third year. With the sudden departure of assistant coach and analyst, Dennis "Barroi" Matz, optics on this front continue to raise eyebrows. This all would frankly be the biggest disappointment yet because there is so much to be excited about for this roster.
Click to enlargeDon’t let the framing of this fool you, the Toronto Defiant have some serious punching power even if we narrow the lens to just their DPS lineup. Not only do they have Na1st who has shown to be a fantastic flex DPS in his own right, but they have criminally underrated DPS veteran Andreas "Logix" Berghmans and Jeong "Heesu" Hee-su who tails KDG from the 2020 Fusion roster. Just the DPS alone is nothing to be mad at, but then you add in the context of the fresh support line, the main tank who has proven himself through multiple metagames--this roster is impressive.
Then you look at the leadership, one that carries a proven track record. We’ve seen what KDG can do with the Philadelphia Fusion, leading them to a frankly dominant regular-season finish, and more loosely with the 2019 Seoul Dynasty, a team that finished in the upper half of the league and made a respectable run through the play-in qualifiers for playoffs. The 2021 iteration of the Toronto Defiant, on paper, frankly looks incredibly promising.
Even though early power rankings might not reflect this overall positivity, the expectations around the Toronto Defiant have never been higher. When you look at the coaching staff, KDG is the most decorated head coach they’ve had. The roster looks the best it has ever looked and now place alongside that a potential rookie of the year candidate. It will be difficult to argue that the Defiant should shoot up the rankings with how strong the field is at the moment, but there is a real chance that this is the roster that turns it all around for the Defiant and finally makes them a destination for fans and future talent alike.
Now it’s up to the Defiant to decide what comes next. On paper, it all looks great, but the final verdict is out until the pen hits the parchment. What story will you write for us next year, Toronto? How will we remember Na1st’s debut season?
Your move.
Image via Blizzard Entertainment