The Overwatch League offseason was exciting due to a record number of free agents on the market, but fans continue to want to snag a fight as they can. To refresh the winter, the San Francisco Shock and the Dallas Fuel decided to repeat their historic Grand Finals showdown of the 2022 event.
Although the finals came to an end with a 4-3 score line in the Fuels favor, so were all eyes on the Shock on Dec. 26. The team released part of 2023 roster before the showmatch started with the new San Francisco squad in Korea.
The Shock will be recruiting, next year, more rookies out of O2 Blast, Overwatch Contenders South Korea and a veteran known for his support dominance.
Tank Choi Max Su-min and DPS Chae HeeSang Hee-sang, who were just shy of a dominant win on the Pacific Showdown, will join the 2023 Shock team. Their two most successful rookie pickups go through the country, and many expected that San Francisco will pick them up – this year, the company acquired O2 Blast in its academy, which gave them the happiest pick of the Contenders warlords.
WE ARE YOUR 2023 SHOCK, SAN FRANCISCO | @Ow_Heesang | @OW_MAX1 | @SEjFiNN | @vinda_im pic.twitter.com/N82XXwRXR.
“San Francisco Shock” December 27, 2022
Together with support Park Vindaim Jun-woo, who spent last year as a member of the Seoul Dynasty. Before that, he was also a part of O2 Blast on loan in 2021 and won a few championships in parallel with other phenoms.
Oh FiNN Se-jin is also taking to play play next year. To nothing surprise, San Francisco managed to retain Resigning 2022 Rookie of the Year and MVP Kim Dong-hyun.
Fans immediately noticed that Park Viol2t Minki was absent on the official announcement tweet.
That said, five players are enough to build a roster, only till the end of March. Shock needs to add more players before the season begins at an unrecognizable date.
The Dallas Fuel had the choice to reassemble some of the championship roster for the match. There was a bittersweet moment for Dallas fans considering that some of the roster was dispersed throughout the offseason. Fuel supports Han ChiYo Hyeon-seok and Kwon Fielder Joon recently joined the Atlanta Reign, but they dripped their blue jerseys one last time for the event.