The day before stage four of the Overwatch League begins, more news comes out. With one professional player retiring, another big prospect got signed. It seems the introduction of 2-2-2 lock has reinvigorated the league, but not enough for some players.
So, let’s begin with the retirement. Sang-beom “Munchkin” Byeon has officially retired from the Overwatch League.
An original Dynasty changes
Munchkin retiring basically makes the Seoul Dynasty a completely different roster from their inaugural season roster. For those who didn’t know, Munchkin was part of the original Lunatic-Hai roster that became the first season Seoul Dynasty. However, since season one was such a disappointment, they decided to make some big changes for season two. Adding a lot more depth and developing a second starting six players helped. But at the same time, this second roster played better and more consistently than the original roster. And with the GOATs meta, Munchkin never saw much playing time.
Even in stage three, which saw more DPS plays and more variety in compositions, he didn’t fit in. Mixed with his unfortunate tenosynovitis (a disease causing inflammation and other issues in his hands), it seems that he decided it was time to end his career. They announced this on Twitter as well, via the Seoul Dynasty page.
[ Thank you, Munchkin ]#RoarOn #OWL2019 pic.twitter.com/BntWbHSlhd
— Seoul Dynasty 🐯 (@SeoulDynasty) July 25, 2019
An intriguing prospect signs
One of the most impressive underdog runs in the Overwatch World Cup came last year, with the Chinese national team reaching the finals. That entire roster got rave reviews, with almost all starting players making it into the Overwatch League the next season. But one of these players was too young for the league.
That will soon change, however. Huang “leave” Xin has been signed by Chinese Overwatch League team Chengdu Hunters.
Leave proved himself to be a very capable flex DPS player, dominating plenty of teams on the way to second place in the 2018 Overwatch World Cup. Even with this signing, though, he still is too young to play in the main league this season. This is a signing for the future, for next season’s Hunters. And with his performance and clear synergy with Chinese coaching and teammates, it’s hard to see this not working out well. He’s a star player being signed to the team that would fit him the easiest. This is a good signing for an underdog team, and it might even lead them to playoffs next season.
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