OWL 2022 Power Rankings- #3 Chengdu Hunters

Cutting down the formerly flexible roster.

Chengdu has opted to only retain the typical starters of their team. The extra Support and DPS were cut from the roster shortly before the start of the season.

Chengdu Hunters 2022 Roster

Tank

Qui “GA9A” Jiaxin
Ni “Daizi” Yuandong

Refraining from running Wrecking Ball compositions for the fourth year in a row is going to be tricky. Luckily in the meta of Dive and/or Bubble compositions, Chengdu have Tanks for that. GA9A will serve as their well experienced Winston player, also holding a role as more of a team leader. After several close successes last season, GA9A looks to lead his team into supremacy in the East this time around. Daizi will join Chengdu as the team's only rookie this season. He will be pushed front and center early on for his well known Zarya skills from Contenders. This line has the typical makeup of Main Tank/Off Tank. This being said, flexibility may be sacrificed. What Daizi is good at, he is very good at. There are still several heroes he's not known to play though. D.va has been a very frequent Off Tank in the Overwatch meta and if the time comes for her to solo Tank in Overwatch 2, Chengdu may have to go back to their old off-meta style again.

Support

Tan “Nisha” Li
Zhou “Mmonk” Xiang

This is one of the more stable backlines in the league and could be the key to the Hunters' success. Nisha and Mmonk are the backline that do exactly what they should. They blend into the team and often go unnoticed in the grand scheme of the match. They aren't the flashiest with Ana Sleep Darts or Lucio Boops, but they consistently enable their team to survive and carry through attacks. Other than the Shanghai Dragons, Chengdu might have the most reliable Support line in the Overwatch League.

DPS

Yi “JinMu” Hu
Huang “leave” Xin

League All-Star JinMu and 2021 League MVP leave are a duo to be envious of. JunMu, regarded as the world's best Pharah player has a few tricks up his sleeve. His Genji was what he made his name on years ago in the Overwatch Dive meta. Leave will compliment that well with his high level Tracer and Cassidy play. Individually they are both extremely talented players, but because of JinMu's limited hero pool, and a bit over overlap between himself and leave, they don't have every tool they may desire. Hopefully this season we'll see them in a position to work off of each other rather than trying to make something work despite each other.

Coaches

Zhang “yaoxie” Jihang

No longer having Xingrui “RUI” Wang may mean no more off-meta style from the Hunters. No only that, but RUI was a name thrown around for Coach of the Year for the last two years. His originality and meta calling skills are unmatched in the league. Luckily, yaoxie did work with the legendary coach last year and work as his Assistant Coach. This may not mean off-meta gameplay and compositions, but it certainly could mean the ability to hold the same style of practice and development that the team is used to.

Chengdu Hunters 2022 Power Ranking

Chengdu comes in at the top three because of all the quality pieces they were able to retain since the last season. Though they've lost some of their former pieces, everything that brought the team to two Stage finals last season is still present on this team. Though they may be easier to read with a smaller roster, they should still be expected to be seen in Stage tournaments.

Be sure to check out our other power rankings for the 2022 Overwatch League!