Overwatch League Preseason Power Rankings

The fourth season of the Overwatch League starts this weekend and fans have been giving their takes on how teams will rank.

Power rankings are a fun way for folks to predict what they think will happen within the season, who will come out on top and who might have trouble winning matches.

The OWL recently announced their own preseason rankings, which use IBM Watson, an AI algorithm.

OWL partnered with IBM to create an objective ranking system that pulls in all sorts of data and creates a tier list of teams and players. The AI uses the most important data from previous matches and balances each factor to determine the rankings.

Read more: What you need to know about watching the 2021 Overwatch League season

Every week, the OWL will provide a comprehensive list of the top performers in the league.

What an AI doesn’t have is the ability to predict the future, which is why traditional power rankings are here to stay. Here are Nerd Street Gamers’ 2021 OWL power rankings.

1. San Francisco Shock

Few will be shocked that the San Francisco Shock reign supreme on most fans’ power rankings. They’ve had a lot of success in the past two years, and even though they lost star tank Dongjun “Rascal” Kim to the Fusion, they’re still the team to beat.

The additions of Brice “FDGoD” Monsçavoir, Charlie “nero” Zwarg and Lim “Glister” Gil-seong are all strong pick-ups who have ample experience in the OWL. The team will look to claim their third consecutive grand finals victory this year.

2. Shanghai Dragons

Once a team who couldn’t even win a match, now the Dragons are high on most fans’ lists because of a few key factors.

The Dragons did a lot of winning last year in the Asian region, and they’ll look to continue that streak this year, and improve upon their fourth-place overall finish.

There are quite a few star-studded players on their roster. Minseong “diem” Bae is one of the best hitscans in the league, and he is joined by Byung-sun “Fleta” Kim, Lee “LIP” Jae-won and Joon “Erster” Jeong on the DPS line. The entire team is stacked, and fans expect them to do well this year.

Photo credit: Overwatch League

3. Philadelphia Fusion

The Fusion are suffering from an abundance of visa issues, but they are committed to their players, and have already made some emergency pick-ups that give fans hope that they’ll be taken care of in the absence of key players who might not be available for the first few matches.

Tank Jongjun “HOTBA” Choi returns to the team along with Jin-mo “tobi” Yang, who were most likely brought on to fill in the gaps left by players stranded by visa issues.

In the past, the Fusion have done a lot of winning in the regular season and then choked in the playoffs, so fans are hoping that the Fusion have figured out what is needed to push them over the edge to finally win a grand finals title.

4. Dallas Fuel

The Fuel finished the 2020 season with a 9-11 record, and there is no flaw that fans could point out as an issue entering this season.

This year, their roster is stacked with excellent players like DPS Kim “Sp9rk1e” Yeong-han, tank Choi “Hanbin” Han-been and support Seungsoo “Jecse” Lee.

Unfortunately for the Fuel, Jung “Xzi” Ki-hyo was forced to return to Korea and retire from Overwatch for this season in order to treat some health issues. Even without Xzi in the roster, fans are confident that they have a winning roster. The Fuel take on the Outlaws on Friday in the first match of the season, so fans will get an early look at how the Fuel perform.

5. Los Angeles Gladiators

Four new team members join the Gladiators this year, including three supports and a tank. Their DPS lineup remains unchanged.

Kim “birdring” Ji-hyeok is the player to watch on the Gladiators. He has a grand finals title under his belt from his time on the Spitfire, and he is a dangerous sniper. Tank Indy “Space” Halpern remains one of the best and most veteran off-tanks in the league and should provide a healthy dose of confidence for his team.

Photo credit: Overwatch League

6. Atlanta Reign

The Reign’s roster looks a bit smaller than it was last year, but there is no shortage of talent left on the team.

One of the biggest rookie pick-ups this off-season was DPS Oh “Pelican” Se-hyun. He has a few Contenders tournament wins under his belt, so fans are expecting his transition into the league to be seamless.

Rumor has it that the Reign have been winning a lot of scrims. Although winning scrims isn’t necessarily an indicator of how a team will perform once the season starts, it has fans paying attention to the team.

7. Seoul Dynasty

Unfortunately for Dynasty fans, the results haven’t met their expectations so far. When the OWL started, many thought that the Dynasty would be the team to beat since they were based in Korea. While it is true that there is an abundance of Korean talent in the OWL, the Dynasty can’t seem to find their groove.

As far as consistency goes, the Dynasty are one of the most unpredictable, so it is fitting that they’re just about in the middle of the list. They could fare very well, or they could fall to the bottom. It is always a toss-up with the Dynasty.

8. Florida Mayhem

Kim “KuKi” Dae-kuk is one of the best coaches in the league. Although the Mayhem have had their troubles in the past, there has been improvement since the team moved to an all-Korean roster in 2019.

The Mayhem placed fourth in the North America playoffs last year, which isn’t a bad spot considering the Mayhem had been a bottom-tier team before their big roster shake-up. In fact, they were dead last in the 2019 regular season.

Unfortunately for the Mayhem, they lost star DPS player Jeongwoo “Sayaplayer” Ha, but they still have Sang-bum “BQB” Lee, who has proven himself as an asset to the team. They also picked up Min-seok “OGE” Son, who is a quality tank player.

With KuKi at the helm, there’s no predicting what the Mayhem have up their sleeves this year.

Photo credit: Overwatch League

9. New York Excelsior

There’s always a good chance that the NYXL are going to do well in any given season as long as they have Sung-hyun “JJoNak” Bang on their team. The first recipient of the OWL MVP award, JJoNak has been a staple in the NYXL roster, and his performance hasn’t suffered much over the years. He is still one of the best support players in the league.

The rest of the roster, however, is new. Because their roster is almost completely new, there’s no easy way to predict how they’ll perform. Their roster is DPS-heavy, so their strategy might be to reach into their bench for any given situation, but synergy might take some time with this brand new roster.

10. Washington Justice

The Justice also have a mostly new roster this year. The Justice didn’t perform well last year, and retirements and visa issues caused a lot of strife for the team.

This year, the team had arguably the best rookie pick-up in Kim “MAG” Tae-sung. Paired with Junho “Fury” Kim, another solid tank player, the duo might prove to be the deciding factor in winning fights.

Taehee “Jerry” Min is also a fan-favorite who joined the Justice this year. He will bring to the team a wealth of experience and hopefully a ton of the clutch plays he is known for.

Read more: Here are 5 Rookie of the Year contenders this Overwatch League season

11. Boston Uprising

The Uprising had some terrible luck when Terence “SoOn” Tarlier retired from Overwatch after visa issues prevented him from joining the team. He has now moved over to VALORANT and leaves the Uprising with one less DPS.

There is no shortage of decent players on this roster, even without SoOn. Kelsey “Colourhex” Birse is a fun DPS to watch, and he is backed up by fan-favorite Cameron “Fusions” Bosworth.

Kim “Valentine” Byeong-ju is also being talked about on social media as one of the better rookie pick-ups, but the Uprising have an uphill battle to climb to reach a top-tier ranking.

12. Guangzhou Charge

The Charge have a roster stacked with experienced players and two rookies, Choi “ChoiSehwan” Se-hwan and Zou “MYKaylee” Zijie.

There are no stand-out players on this roster, but there is some good experience behind these players, and they might be able to improve enough to become a contender for the grand finals, but fans aren’t expecting anything amazing coming from them this year.

13. Chengdu Hunters

One of the few teams with a full roster this year is the Hunters, who have an all-Chinese team. There are a couple of names whom fans will recognize on this roster such as Wenjie “Elsa” Luo, Menghan “Ameng” Ding and Hu “Jinmu” Yi, just to name a few.

Beyond them, it’s hard to know what the Hunters are thinking with this 12-man roster. Hopefully fans are in for a surprise this year and the Hunters can pull some neat tricks out of their sleeves, but there’s no telling what this team will do with such a large roster of players.

Photo credit: Overwatch League

14. Houston Outlaws

Fans were absolutely stoked when Jake “JAKE” Lyon announced his return to the Outlaws. It is unclear whether JAKE will take to the stage, or whether he will stay behind the scenes as a player-coach, but fans are hoping to catch a glimpse of him in action this year.

The Outlaws have a good DPS lineup in João Pedro “Hydration” Goes Telles and Kyle “KSF” Frandanisa, Jungwoo “Happy” Lee and Dante “Danteh” Cruz, but fans are less sure about their tank and support lines.

Enrique “Joobi” Triana skipped Contenders and came to the Outlaws straight from collegiate play, and their tank duo are both rookies. If the Outlaws develop synergy and keep cool under pressure, they have a good shot at being a top-tier team.

15. Hangzhou Spark

Another roster that is rich in player count is the Spark. They have many really solid players on their team, but their roster is a mishmash from a bunch of other teams, with only three players returning from last year.

Synergy is a big question mark with the Spark. Five of their 11 players were picked up for the 2021 season. Their roster is fairly experienced, so fans are hoping that they can come together and dominate their way to the top.

16. Toronto Defiant

The Defiant have some proving to do with rookie supports Soon-jae “ANSOONJAE” An and Jeong-su “Aztac” Park. If the duo can synergize well, they might be able to boost their team to the top, but fans are still waiting to see what they’ll do this season.

Andreas “Logix” Berghmans is the sole player returning to the Defiant this year, but he is joined by notable players such as Sumin “SADO” Kim, Heesu “Heesu” Jeong and Minhyuk “Michelle” Choi, who are all excellent players.

17. London Spitfire

The Spitfire have had a really hard time gaining any ground since their inaugural season grand finals victory. Their roster has been a revolving door, and this year is no different. The entire roster was released in the offseason, and the team is starting anew once again.

When general manager Ysabel “Noukky” Müller told fans in a video “It’s very unlikely that we’re going to be a top five team and compete for the final,” it didn’t instill much confidence in their fan base.

Attitude is a big part of the team’s success, and when a GM is telling their fans not to expect much, one has to wonder how the players feel.

18. Paris Eternal

Once a great team, the Eternal have fallen from grace after the release of most of their team, and all of their French players. Their fans were not happy, and general manager Kyoung Ey “AVALLA” Kim was left to pick up the pieces and create a roster that had a chance at excelling.

The team suffered a complete overhaul, and there are still questions about the stability of the organization as a whole due to the drastic roster moves, but AVALLA has done the best she can with what she was given.

Players will be looking up to OWL veteran Alberto “NeptuNo” González Molinillo for guidance, and he could be the shot-caller for the group, but fans are concerned that it won’t be enough to make them a contender for the playoffs.

19. Los Angeles Valiant

The Valiant made their fans very angry this year after Arran “Halo” Spake reported that they were selling the team and moving to the East division. Although the Valiant didn’t exactly sell the team, they did indeed drop the entire staff and roster, and make the move to Asia.

Their roster is now entirely Chinese, and they even recruited former Spark player Cai “Krystal” Shilong who angered Spark management by lying to them, missing practice and adopting a bad attitude in practice.

This team has disaster written all over it, and they have very few fans left to support the team due to their recent moves.

20. Vancouver Titans

Fans were divided last year when the Titans dropped their entire roster mid-season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the players’ Twitter profiles told a different story. For many players, they felt “free” once released from the Titans. The org announced a new roster a short time later.

Three of the players from that roster are still with the team today, but with the exception of Jiri “LiNkzr” Masalin, there are no notable players on the roster. Few people are expecting anything from them this year.