By Blizzard Entertainment

Seoul Dynasty

Joined Overwatch League: July 2017

Division: Pacific

2018 Recap

The Dynasty started the inaugural Overwatch League season with plenty of experts picking them to win the league championship based on the strength of the team’s roster. Seoul got off to a good start in Stage 1, putting together a 7-3 record, but the team failed to qualify for the Stage Playoffs due to map differential. Stage 2 was another strong showing for the Dynasty, as they again posted a 7-3 record, but again missed the opportunity to compete for a stage title due to a map-differential deficit. Seoul was unable to sustain their success in Stage 3, limping to a 5-5 mark. Still in season playoffs contention heading into Stage 4, the Dynasty took another step backwards, losing four of their first five matches before landing at 3-7 for the stage and 22-18 overall on the season.

2018 TEAM STATS AND LEAGUE RANKINGS

Roster Analysis

Find out what the casting team thinks about the Dynasty’s lineup.

More: 2019 Roster

Keys to Success

Overwatch League analyst Josh “Sideshow” Wilkinson offers his thoughts on what Seoul needs to focus on this season:

• Seoul had a number of things to fix after their disappointing 2018 season. Signing a talented main support who could handle Mercy and shotcalling was a priority, and the addition of Seung-Soo “Jecse” Lee should help enormously. His mechanics are strong, he has excellent communication and leadership, and he may be dominant enough to enforce the wishes of the coaching staff even when competing with the personalities of the storied veterans. He is emotional, though, as we’ve seen in Korean Contenders playoff games, and may have a propensity to go quiet when the pressure is on; Jecse cannot go absent in key matches throughout the season.
• Seoul should also have fixed their main tank problem from 2018, with the spot now filled by Chan-Hyung “Fissure” Baek and Min-Seo “Marve1” Hwang. Both of these players are huge upgrades over the musical-chairs situation that resulted in Je-Hong “Ryujehong” Ryu and Jin-Hyuk “Miro” Gong rotating in that role last season, but there is a serious discussion to be had over who should start. Marve1 is experienced, aggressive like Fissure, and has pre-existing synergy with new off-tank Min-Hyuk “Michelle” Choi, and it may be worth fielding the tank duo from Lucky Future Zenith
• If Ryujehong ever rediscovers his form from early 2017, Seoul will once again have a scary backline to contend with. Part of this relies on Ana returning to the meta, but part of it requires Ryujehong to not rest on his laurels and grind harder than the talented new blood coming into the scene. His former teams always relied on his skill and synergy with the other support to carry them through fights. If he fades into mediocrity like Miro last year, it will be tough for Seoul to make playoffs.
• Seoul have made some significant coaching changes for 2019. Ho-Cheol “Hocury” Lee moved to a general manger role and rebuilt the coaching staff from the ground up. He has chosen Dong-Gun “KDG” Kim, a Korean esports veteran who spent time coaching Overwatch in Europe, as head coach. Underneath him is former player Ju-Hyeop “WhyNot” Lee and Chang-Geun “Changgoon” Park, the manager-turned-coach who helped lead GC Busan to an APEX Season 4 victory and the London Spitfire to the Overwatch League championship. These look like promising changes, and now Seoul’s coaches need to be on the same page and create a system that the players respect. Whatever the starting roster or chosen style, the team needs to believe in it.

Catch the Seoul Dynasty in action in their season opener against the Los Angeles Gladiators on Thursday, February 14, at 7 p.m. PST. All 2019 season matches will be available live and on demand on overwatchleague.com, the Overwatch League app, our Twitch channel, MLG.com, and the MLG app.