MVP? MVP?! - Who Leads The Overwatch League 2021 MVP Race?
Three stages down, one more to go, and before the end of the season, several kings to the crown. At the end of each year, one of the most anticipated moments for the Overwatch League is deciding the winners of the season’s most anticipated recognitions, Rookie of the Year, Role Stars, Coach of the Year, and the most coveted of all, the regular season MVP.
It’s a huge honour, a signifier that above all else, to be chosen as the player who was the most valuable to the Overwatch League for an entire season. In previous years, they were the players who outshined their peers with their incredible and innovative gameplay, almost revolutionary in a sense. Not only were they the standard, they elevated it, and were the players who signified the highest level performance and narrative development throughout the season.
Think of Seonghyun "JJonak" Bang’s mastery of Zenyatta throughout the 2018 season, and how his story of diamond in the rough streamer to overnight franchise star was the core behind him and the NYXL’s popularity in that inaugural year. Or Byungsun "Fleta" Kim’s almost three-year-long journey of escaping the shackles of underperforming teams, to finally fully realize his infinitely flexible firepower and who helped lead the Shanghai Dragons to become the regular season champions.
Click to enlargeThese were players who defined greatness in their respective seasons, their stories and gameplay that played a significant factor in the identity of the Overwatch League for that year. That’s the weight behind choosing an MVP, that’s the meaning behind this award, and for this year, the competition couldn’t be tougher.
It’s hard to choose the player whose story and gameplay defines a season, simply because there are a strong handful of players in 2021 who deserve to have those journeys highlighted and recognized. While the public nomination pool will most certainly feature a wide assortment of players for fans to pick their favourites, the true pool is that final four or five group, the players who everyone can consider to be the strongest candidates for the trophy. Who are the players that have the best chance of taking the title, who are those standouts, who as time moves on, become the ones to define OWL 2021?
The Main Character - Dallas Fuel’s Fearless
Arguably the front runner in the MVP discussion, for the most part, all of the attention this year has gone to Eui-Seok "Fearless" Lee and the rest of his team on the Dallas Fuel. While their inability to repeat a strong performance in the Summer Showdown could be a considerable blight on the argument for Fearless as an MVP candidate, it’s still impossible to ignore the impact seen in the first two tournaments.
Fearless has been described as the main character, he’s the protagonist of OWL 2021, and it’s very easy to see why. Record-breaking statistics and glorious performances on Winston and Reinhardt showcase his flashiness to the audience in game, and it's his leadership on the Dallas Fuel, that’s been a huge factor in their legendary franchise turnaround this season. Fearless is the leader, the beacon, the bedrock, he’s been everything Dallas has needed and more in a season where the going is as tough as it gets. It’s his performance that really solidified that Dallas are a threat to take it all this season, and he was key in their May Melee against the Shanghai Dragons, pulling off excellent displays of playmaking and cool-headedness.
The Promised Prodigy - Chengdu Hunters’ Leave
In the Overwatch World Cup 2018, the community saw a Team China unlike anything ever seen before. For the first time, they saw a collection of Chinese players that adequately reflected the abundance of talent available in the region, and saw a group of young and hungry individuals wanting nothing more than to showcase the ability to perform with some of Overwatch’s best. While this may be remembered more as Xu "guxue" Qiulin’s breakout tournament more than anything else, we would be remiss not to remember Huang "leave" Xin’s absolute domination over the majority of the competition that World Cup.
After a quiet debut season with the Hunters in 2020, this year Leave has been absolutely living up to the expectation he set for himself, following his performance in that 2018 World Cup. Flexibility has always been Leave’s biggest strength, but this year his level of adaptation to play a variety of heroes for Hunters has been one of the biggest keys to their success.
Really only matched in calibre by a player like Fleta, Leave’s prowess and stability between heroes like Tracer, Echo, and Ashe, are what makes the Hunters such a deadly team to fight against. Quite simply, he is just incredibly good at the video game, and with age has come an increased refinement of talent and discipline. Much like Fleta from last year, Leave’s gameplay this year has been an actualization of years of promise, that finally, China’s flex star child is here to destroy on the world stage and show to the world just exactly what the best of the best truly looks like.
Untouchable - Shanghai Dragon’s LIP
It’s truly staggering to think about the amount of talent on display with the different damage players in the Overwatch League. In a role that is already the flashiest, the most highly contested, it’s such a competitive role, that it’s an insurmountable task to distinguish most players from their peers. But that type of feat makes it even more impressive when Jae-won "LIP" Lee consistently is able to put himself on top, above all the others.
LIP is scary. His traditional hitscan heroes are all fantastic. His Ashe, McCree, Widowmaker, and Tracer, the essential toolbox for any great player, are all in his wheelhouse, ready to be pulled out at a moment’s notice to completely decimate the competition. LIP is a force of nature on his own, but what truly makes him a terror to behold in the server, is his Sombra. He is currently uncontested as the best Sombra in the world and is essentially unbeatable in most scenarios. Like the hacker herself, LIP downloads the enemy team’s data on Sombra, predicting and reporting in on their movements, building up his EMPs in a timely manner most Sombra players can’t even begin to match, and pulling off exceptionally clutch hacks and ults to stifle, suppress, and eliminate the enemy team.
While he sits next to a former MVP candidate and might not get a lot of the recognition comparatively, LIP’s performance this season has been enough to truly warrant a discussion, where might possibly see the first team to host two-season MVP’s on the same starting lineup. It’s a real possibility, and should the Countdown Cup see repeat performances out of LIP and the rest of the Shanghai Dragons, we could see the beginning of a new dynasty for the Overwatch League.
Sleeper Pick - LA Gladiator’s Shu
Every competition needs a dark horse, an underdog to cheer for, and so far, the MVP candidates have come from teams who have at the very least appeared in the grand finals of a tournament. All eyes are on the Dallas Fuel, the Shanghai Dragons, and very briefly, the Chengdu Hunters. However, we may be overlooking a player who’s been putting in the numbers and performances of an MVP calibre season, but he’s just on a team that quite simply isn’t pulling it together enough to really capitalize on. A flex support who does everything he can and more, but who is somehow just below the radar, it’s quite possible that someone like Jin-seo "Shu" Kim, should get a potential nod for the trophy.
Firstly, if IBM Watson is to be trusted, then Shu is a top 3 support player in the league, and not too far off from the likes of current support leader, Min-chul "IZaYaKI" Kim. He sits at number two for Baptiste and Ana on Watson’s leaderboard, and if that weren’t enough, statistically he leads the league on damage and final blows for both heroes as well. Shu might be the most criminally underrated player this season, so much so that he’s putting in top numbers and still getting overshadowed on the credit for it.
Where is the love for Shu, the acknowledgement that he might be one of the best things his team has to offer? A player who is still going above and beyond to surpass the league on the most played flex support heroes, on a team who hasn’t even reached a top-four spot for Hawaii. Do not discount Shu, do not forget about Shu, and most importantly, do not leave Shu out of the conversation for MVP.
