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San Francisco Shock become back-to-back Overwatch League champions

They've done it again! The San Francisco Shock are on top of the Overwatch League world for the second year in a row after defeating the Seoul Dynasty in the Grand Finals.

Ozzie Mejia

October 10, 2020 11:40 AM

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The Overwatch League concluded its season in the early hours of Saturday morning. The San Francisco Shock had to fly halfway around the world to face off against a very game Seoul Dynasty. But even in what's been a tumultuous season, the Shock have proven to be the best team in the world. They prevailed 4-2 over the Dynasty to win their second consecutive Overwatch League championship.

The Grand Finals was a series of momentum shifts. The Shock took an early 2-0 lead after winning on Oasis and then winning on Seoul's map pick of King's Row. It didn't look like the Shock would be stopped after Seoul picked Hanamura, but Junyoung "Profit" Park and Jaehui "Gesture" Hong had been on this big stage before. The former members of the world champion London Spitfire helped their new Dynasty team take the third map with, as well as the fourth on Watchpoint: Gibraltar.

There was ultimately no answer for Overwatch League Grand Finals MVP Namju "Striker" Gwon. He led the way for the Shock, as they took Busan to force tournament point. The Dynasty made one final run on Hollywood, but ultimately couldn't overcome the Shock's lockdown defense and the Shock became the first back-to-back world champions in Overwatch League history.

This has been a wild season for the entire Overwatch League, mainly due to the COVID-19 pandemic forcing the remainder of the season to unfold online. The San Francisco Shock had their own turmoil to deal with on top of that, which included their 2019 Overwatch League MVP Jay "Sinatraa" Won announcing his retirement from Overwatch to go play competitive Valorant. However, Striker had a breakout season, as did Seonchang "ANS" Lee and Minki "Viol2t" Park. 2019 MVP candidate Matthew "Super" DeLisi also stepped up both in-game and from the bench as the team's spiritual leader and helped rally the Shock for this unusual playoff atmosphere.

The Overwatch League Grand Finals took place in South Korea, where the two top North American teams went into a two-week quarantine period prior to play. The Shock ran the table from the upper bracket and never lost. The Dynasty lost to the Shock to open the playoffs, but went on a run from there, shutting out the Philadelphia Fusion and knocking out the Shanghai Dragons. For their victory, the San Francisco Shock take home $1.5 million USD and specialized apparel delivered in a custom Rimowa suitcase. The Seoul Dynasty leave with $750,000 USD.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?