After another day of calmness in the Overwatch League, another big move has happened. The Philadelphia Fusion have signed Danish hitscan DPS Niclas “sHockWave” Jensen, formerly of the Vancouver Titans and Montreal Rebellion. Jumping into the league just last year, Shockwave has proven to be a great DPS player for Vancouver and had interest over the off-season. However, it seems the Fusion were looking for a replacement for the DPS they released over the off-season. Shockwave fits that role and surprised many with signing to the Fusion.
He SHOCKED everyone with his Overwatch League debut last year, now he'll be rounding out our already terrifying DPS lineup in Philadelphia for the 2021 season…⚡️
Give a huge welcome to Fusion's newest addition, @sHockWaveOW! pic.twitter.com/xg3VrLSD75
— Philadelphia Fusion (@Fusion) November 23, 2020
How Shockwave arrived here
As still a young player in the league, Shockwave has a good amount of experience. He played a lot for European Open Division team Raspberry Racers, with a break to play two weeks in North American Contenders. After the Montreal Rebellion disbanded, he rejoined the Raspberry Racers and led them to promotion by winning the league in April this year. He played for a portion of their first season in Contenders, but got picked up by the Vancouver Titans after their troubles.
As he joined the Titans, he immediately made a strong impression. In his first game against the Toronto Defiant, his Echo play brought the Titans one map away from defeating them. Yet, the Defiant did eliminate them from the May Melee. Unfortunately, the quickly assembled Titans team didn’t improve much over the season and finished second last in the standings. Shockwave was consistently one of their best players, and the Philadelphia Fusion noticed.
The Fusion’s retooling
It’s fair to say after last season that the Fusion were close to winning it all. Finishing so high in tournaments constantly was not lucky in their case. However, the unluckiness of losing so frequently when it mattered most did have an affect on their off-season. Who the team has kept and released show that, and how the Fusion want to retool and make that change to win it all. Especially with the big signing of Mano, it’s the clear the Fusion have a plan on how they want to adapt. Shockwave, while not expected from the fans, does make sense as a great bench player. Whether he gets time in games or not, we’ll have to see.
