San Francisco Being San Francisco, The Shock Being The Shock
After suffering a semifinal defeat during the Summer Showdown, the San Francisco Shock are back to their championship-winning ways. With a convincing victory over the Philadelphia Fusion, the Shock roar at the top of the Countdown Cup. A scream of reaffirmation and one that silences any doubters that they are not the kings of North America. No matter the metagame, no the matter the players, no matter the practice, the Shock are always the Shock, and they cannot help but be themselves through it all.
There is something about championship teams and their ability to adapt on the fly. For the Shock this week it crystalised with Kim "Rascal" Dong-jun. With little to no practice and a worrying amount of playtime coming into this incredibly important tournament, Rascal looked impressive this weekend at the Countdown Cup. In hindsight, the move makes perfect sense. Not only has he been historically a strong projectile player, especially on Genji, but he was the defacto Mei player for the team throughout the season. This helps contextualise why the eureka moment seemed to happen late. With more direct and brawl-y compositions coming back into vogue late into the tournament, this positioned Rascal into becoming the ultimate ace-in-the-hole for San Francisco.
Throughout their run at the Countdown Cup, Rascal was that catalyst for the Shock. On more vertical maps like Temple of Anubis, Hanamura and Numbani, Rascal took centre stage with Genji. One important thing to note is that having Rascal in the roster didn't hinder the Shock returning to their double-shield compositions. On more flat and linear maps like King's Row, Rascal returned to his wheelhouse and piloted Mei to suit the Shocks interests in more Reinhardt focused compositions.
Take, for instance, the team's performance against Philadelphia on King's Row against the Philadelphia Fusion. On attack, Rascal and the Shock prefer the Reinhardt centric, more brawl oriented composition. However, on defence, the Shock attempt to read the room. On their first round of defence, Rascal pilots Echo, which combined with their support line of Baptiste and Zenyatta results in a team composition that not only can race the enemy shields down if they opt for a double-shield look, but also plays well into dive archetypes with the damage amplification from Echo on top of Zenyatta's Discord Orb. This makes it painful for any tank pressure to come Shocks way.
Click to enlargeOn their second round of defence, the Shock now knows that Philadelphia are more dive learning and change the play from Rascal playing Echo to Rascal playing Sombra. This more heavily punishes the enemy tanks as well as dissuades their Genji from being too aggressive. If you think this familiar, you'd be correct, given the time the Shock nearly always brings a wide range of compositions to the table.
They used the Bastion school of thought to keep the momentum on their side against the 2019 Vancouver Titans in the grand final.
They matched the Stage 3 Shanghai Dragons on their triple-DPS composition and nearly beat them.
On top of the rotating door of metagames that the Hero Pool system has brought to Overwatch, head coach Park "Crusty" Dae-hee continues to impress and improve, however, we are not merely talking about the Shock's performance at the Countdown Cup. No, this is big picture stuff. Not to discredit his effort and the coaching staffs preparation that was pivotal in their championship run this weekend, but when Crusty, again, echoes that they're looking that the big picture, the league should be scared.
- Read More - What Watching The Countdown Cup Felt Like
This is the head coach of the defending world champions, the same head coach that took the Boston Uprising and made them a playoff team, the same head coach that has managed to keep the roster afloat with not one but two-star players departing. Somehow, Crusty still has the mental bandwidth to plan for the future, and from what he's said publicly it involved their newest acquisition, Sean Taiyo "ta1yo" Henderson.
Click to enlargeWhatever that pans out to be does this not carry the same intentions that the same team did with Matthew "super" DeLisi, and Jay "sinatraa" Won back in 2018? To bank your season's results on the backs of two young players was bold, but appreciated, and look how that paid off. The Shock were gifted two of the best western players in Overwatch to date, one of which is still with the roster, but both had significant roles to play in San Francisco's 2019 regular season dominance and championship title win.
Let us also not twist words, this isn't a direct comparison between ta1yo and sinatraa, they're two very different players, but how they were brought into the team, the resources put into them, and how they both might pan out is what is being compared. This should not a surprise anymore. The Shock has a formula for success, and they are replicating it before our very eyes.
From top to bottom, San Francisco is built for rings. This future sight was even under a different head coach, but someone the Shock always find their centre. This is the Shock, no matter how much changes around them, they always seemed bound for success both in the short term and in the long term. They are the team to approach a match with a notebook packed with sticky notes and page markers. However, it's not any one thing. It isn't just one element that makes up Shock's periodic table; it's the perfect mixture of equal parts confidence, coaching, skill, and trust that can be found among any truly great team.
Images via Blizzard Entertainment