OWL Season 2: Top 20 Teams Countdown

#18 – Boston Uprising | #19 – Washington Justice | #20 – Chengdu Hunters

Next on our list at #17 is our second returning team from Season 1, the Florida Mayhem. After a lackluster 11th place finish in the overall rankings last season, Florida has their work cut out for them. The current Mayhem roster consists of only three returning Florida players, being TviQ, Sayaplayer, and SNT (formerly known as aWesomeGuy). New additions to the line up include a couple of players from Seoul and London, as well as several players who are brand new to the Overwatch League. Let’s take a look at this updated roster before their first Season 2 match against the Atlanta Reign on February 15th.

Florida will be fielding four DPS players with their new roster. One familiar face is TviQ, the Swedish projectile DPS star who has been with Florida since their first match. Known primarily for his Junkrat, Pharah, Tracer, and Genji, TviQ has a wide array of heroes at his disposal to play when the meta calls for it. The other returning star from Florida’s Season 1 lineup is Sayaplayer, the incredibly talented Korean Widowmaker player. While he also flexed onto heroes such as Tracer, McCree, and Soldier: 76, Sayaplayer made his mark on the League with his incredible picks as Widowmaker. Despite Saya’s raw talent, Florida was not able to come together around him to do what the team needed when it counted. However, with a new roster made up of mostly Korean talent, this could provide a team dynamic for Florida that may let them flourish with Sayaplayer in Season 2.

Finishing off the Mayhem’s DPS lineup includes two new players to the League, BQB and Apply. There is not a lot we know about these players, but there does seem to be a bit of role overlapping with these new additions. Apply is a projectile DPS who specializes in Genji and Pharah, two heroes that TviQ is known to be comfortable on. Apply is also under a two-way contract with Mayhem Academy, so there is a reason to believe that Apply may not see much time on the main stage. BQB, a star player from the X6 roster, specializes in hitscan heroes including Tracer, McCree, Widowmaker, and most notably Sombra. While on X6 BQB performed quite well, but only time will tell how his skills will transfer to the Overwatch League. Having to compete for a spot on a roster with Sayaplayer might make it difficult for us to see BQB on the main stage.

Moving to the tanks, two players will be filling the main tank role for Florida. SNT was the starting main tank for the Mayhem for the latter portion of Season 1 and showed up excellently on Winston, Orisa, and Reinhardt. Florida’s second main tank will be Swon (formerly known as Butcher), another Korean who also played on NRG Esports as well as KongDoo Panthera and KongDoo Uncia. Since Swon does not have any direct Overwatch League experience, we can safely assume Florida will start running with SNT due to his past time with the other Mayhem players. Currently, the only enrolled off tank for Florida is xepheR, the former backup tank player for Seoul Dynasty. xepheR is known to be strong with D.Va, Zarya, and Roadhog, which will fill-in the tank lineup for Florida quite nicely. However, due to most of his time spent in Zunba’s shadow in Season 1, xepheR will have a lot to prove with Florida.

Wrapping up with the support players we have two fresh faces to the Florida Mayhem, HaGoPeun, and Kris. HaGoPeun was a backup support player known for his Zen, Ana, and Sombra for the London Spitfire, however, he spent most of his time on the bench behind the starting support players. However, with only Kris as a secondary support player, we should see a lot of HaGoPeun from Florida this season. Kris is a former Meta Athena player who specializes in Lucio, Zen, and Mercy, and should mesh well with the hero pool of HaGo. While they may not be the most seasoned of Overwatch League players, these support players should provide a solid enough foundation for the Mayhem.

While the new Florida roster may look entirely different from how they did in Season 1, based on where the team started in the Overwatch League they have plenty of room for improvement. This mostly Korean roster could be beneficial in helping to give Sayaplayer the proper support he lacked in the inaugural season. While a lot of the new additions are not as familiar with the Overwatch League, they could prove to be more of a threat than some may realize. But based on what we know of Florida for now, it’s hard to say how well the team will do next season.

Image Via: Heroes Never Die