BY RYAN RUTKOWSKI / VN STAFF WRITER
The 2020 season of the Overwatch League begins Feb. 8 as teams prepare to make their mark in the esports world.
Now in its third, and arguably most important, season, the league looks to introduce localization as teams will travel around the world to battle for the championship.
Many teams have made changes to their rosters in the hope that they can ascend to the top of the league.
The Atlanta Reign, New York Excelsior, Philadelphia Fusion, San Fransisco Shock, Seoul Dynasty and Vancouver Titans have the best chances to be among top six teams in the league.
The Reign return most of their roster.
With the additions of Kim “Edison” Tae-Hoon and Hugo “SharP” Sahlberg, they will bolster their damage-per-second, “DPS”, lineup and be a top contender this year.
The Excelsior also return most of their core lineup with the exception of the off-tank role.
Taehong “MekO” Kim has left to join the Houston Outlaws and is being replaced by both Dong-wook “BiaNcA” Kim and Hongjun “HOTBA” Choi.
They’ve also added some aggression in the DPS category with Lee “WhoRU” Seung-jun.
The Fusion may have made the most exciting moves this offseason.
They added star off-tank Junho “Fury” Kim and rookie support Kyung-bo “Alarm” Kim to play alongside DPS stars Jaehyeok “Carpe” Lee and Josue “Eqo” Corona.
If the Fusion can find the coordination they lacked last year, they could easily be the league’s top team.
The reigning champion, Shock, did not make any big moves this offseason.
They look to perform on the back of their star play from 2019 league MVP Jay “sinatraa” Won on DPS.
The Shock return as heavy favorites for the 2020 title.
The Dynasty made large acquisitions in the offseason, signing top-tier DPS player Junyoung “Profit” Park, his tank counterpart Jaehui “Gesture” Hong and aggressive support Seungtae “Bdosin” Choi from the London Spitfire.
These players look to represent Korea and bring the Dynasty a title for the region.
The Titans may have made the most controversial moves of the offseason bringing in fan-favorite Jehong “ryujehong” Ryu and Chanhyung “Fissure” Baek.
The addition of Fissure, combined with the removal of Sangbeom “Bumper” Park, breaks up a strong core of players that have been together since 2017 when they played on a team called Runaway in Korea.
Each team mentioned, as well as others, could take the league by storm.
The first matches begin in Dallas and New York next week.
Over the next seven months, teams will travel from China to France and play on stage for thousands while being broadcast online to hundreds of thousands.
This season will be monumental, not only to gauge the success of the Overwatch League, but for esports as a whole.
