Guangzhou Uprising Puns

>#Overwatch League 2019 Season >#### > >---

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Something I've often seen come up in discussions on places like r/nba is the difference between a Franchise GOAT and the best player to ever suit up for a franchise. At first glance, there may not seem to be a difference, but here's an example to illustrate: Michael Jordan, as we know, won six championships with the Chicago Bulls and is without a doubt Chicago's franchise GOAT. He was the heart and soul of that team and absolutely put the Bulls on the map. That said, after his Chicago tenure, he actually played a few comparatively lackluster seasons with the Washington Wizards after being well past his prime. In doing so, he arguably became the greatest overall player to ever suit up for Washington, but that doesn't necessarily make him Washington's franchise GOAT - they didn't even make the playoffs either of those seasons!

There are a few other basketball examples of this: Hakeem Olajuwon, who won two championships for the Houston Rockets as far and away their best player, spent his last year with the Toronto Raptors, and might just be the best overall player to have worn a Raps jersey despite only being there for a year. LeBron James might be the best player to ever suit up for the Miami Heat, but Miami's franchise GOAT is probably Dwyane Wade - and so on.

Naturally, I got to wondering how this would translate to the comparatively much younger league we follow here - in other words, I asked myself: Who is the franchise GOAT for each team, and, separately, who is the best overall player to have suited up at any one point for each team? The league only existing for four years plus frequent roster turnover has made this distinction less clear cut and the picks not super obvious, but I decided I'd try to put some names forward and thought it could give us something new to discuss while the outside world continues to go up in flames during this long, plodding offseason. Sometimes the names overlap; sometimes they don't. Some of them I have no idea about and would be keen to hear takes on.

Please note that I'm not counting players signed for Season 5 but who have yet to play for a given team re: the 'best player to suit up' distinction.

So to start with -

Teams with relatively straightforward answers

Philadelphia Fusion

• Franchise GOAT: Carpe
• Best player to wear jersey: Alarm

This one is arguably the easiest. Carpe has been Fusion's franchise player from minute one and he's been there for every incredible high and heartbr

Unfortunately, it seems like the regional split is here to stay for the 2022 season, so I thought I’d look at how long it’s been since the OWL teams have played each other. The last time all of the teams were together was the end of season 2, in 2019!!!

NYXL: haven’t played the Dallas Fuel since Stage 3 Week 4 Day 3 (7/29/19)

LA Valiant: haven’t played the London Spitfire since Stage 3 Week 4 Day 2 (7/27/19)

Vancouver: haven’t played the Hangzhou Spark since Stage 3 Week 2 Day 1 (7/13/19)

Atlanta: haven’t played the Guangzhou Charge since Stage 2 Week 3 Day 4 (5/21/19)

Dallas: haven’t played the Seoul Dynasty since Stage 2 Week 3 Day 3 (5/20/19)

LA Gladiators: haven’t played the Guangzhou Charge since Stage 2 Week 2 Day 3 (5/13/19)

London and Philadelphia: haven’t played each other since Stage 2 Week 2 Day 3 (5/13/19)

San Francisco: haven’t played the Guangzhou Charge since Stage 2 Week 2 Day 2 (5/12/19)

Paris: haven’t played the Guangzhou Charge since Stage 2 Week 1 Day 1 (5/4/19)

Washington: haven’t played the Seoul Dynasty since Stage 1 Week 4 Day 3 (4/9/19)

Toronto and Chengdu: haven’t played each other since Stage 1 Week 4 Day 1 (4/7/19)

Florida and Guangzhou: haven’t played each other since Stage 1 Week 3 Day 1 (3/28/19)

Seoul: haven’t played the Boston Uprising since Stage 1 Week 3 Day 1 (3/28/19)

Houston and Hangzhou: haven’t played each other since since Stage 1 Week 2 Day 2 (3/22/19)

Boston and Shanghai: haven’t played each other since since Stage 1 Week 2 Day 2 (3/22/19)

It’s crazy to think that EVERY team hasn’t played atleast one of the other teams since season 2 of the overwatch league! Anyways hope you enjoy these useless facts :)

##Rumour Tracker Halo Tracker

The Shanghai Dragons have defeated the Atlanta Reign 4 - 0 in a first-to-4 to win the 2021 Season Grand Finals. By winning the Grand Finals, the Dragons have won $1.5 million. The Reign earn $700,000 for taking second place.

#Grand Finals Week Standings

#Regular Season Standings

Roster Construction Rules for the 2022 Overwatch League Season

OWL2022 will also officially be on an "early build" of OW2, as confirmed by several Blizzard devs (including Aaron Keller on the Grand Finals stream).

China as of July 1, 2030; map does not show ongoing uprisings or military offenses

Disclaimer: Although I very much dislike the Chinese government, any scenario even approaching a second Chinese civil war will cause widespread death and destruction, which is worse.This is meant to be a semi-escapist scenario, which I hope is at least theoretically possible (certainly not plausible, at least not within the given time frame).

Plot:

In the aftermath of the Sino-American War (2026-2028), unrest grew across the people's republic--particularly in Hong Kong, a former British colony brought under Chinese rule in 1997. In the past decade, the central government had embarked on a quest to 'integrate' the city, arresting pro-democracy leaders, rewiring the city's already-flawed democracy to shut out opposition, and cracking down on a variety of civil liberties. Although the protests had been more-or-less suppressed after the passage of the National Security Law in 2020, the attempted Chinese invasion of Taiwan brought about an economic downturn which finally sent Hong Kong's economy crashing, and the subsequent war period would see some demonstrations against the Chinese government.

As the war drew to a close with Taiwan granted diplomatic recognition by much of the international community, Chairman Xi Jinping sought to draw inwards--cleansing China of internal opposition, rebuilding its economic and military strength, and eventually bringing about the Chinese Century. Unfortunately for Xi, this dream would never come to pass--just 2 months after the signing of the Singapore Accords, Xi Jinping would suffer a stroke while meeting with local leaders in Fujian, planning to celebrate the 'reunification of Fujian Province' (China had taken Kinmen and Matsu Islands during the war). He would pass away just 2 days later.

In the aftermath of the death of Xi Jinping, the Chinese Politburo was thrown into chaos. Xi had no anointed successor, having expected to rule China for far longer. With reformists chomping at the bit to retake power and reverse some of Xi's...problematic decisions, hardliners seeking to continue his legacy, and various other factions within China seeking to attain all sorts of privileges, benefits, and agreements, Xi's long-time No. 2 Wang Qishan was installed. Largely a placeholder until China's political system

I don't want to step on anybody's toes here, but the amount of non-dad jokes here in this subreddit really annoys me. First of all, dad jokes CAN be NSFW, it clearly says so in the sub rules. Secondly, it doesn't automatically make it a dad joke if it's from a conversation between you and your child. Most importantly, the jokes that your CHILDREN tell YOU are not dad jokes. The point of a dad joke is that it's so cheesy only a dad who's trying to be funny would make such a joke. That's it. They are stupid plays on words, lame puns and so on. There has to be a clever pun or wordplay for it to be considered a dad joke.

Again, to all the fellow dads, I apologise if I'm sounding too harsh. But I just needed to get it off my chest.

After the chaos of the Second Weltkreig and as the warlord era is coming to a close, the power balance in China has bowed to two major forces at play to succeed the legacy of the Qing Empire. And after the Japanese intervention in the content has come to a close, and the Sun of the Japanese empire sets, the future of China suddenly seems a little more clear.

In the North, in the former lands of Fengtian, as well as lands taken from the Shangdong and surrounding cliques is what many consider to be the true successor state of China. Authoritarian Democratic in nature, the Beyiang government has a troubled history tied closely with their five color flag. At first their young republic was integrated with a restored Qing monarch, Asin Goro Puyi, but after a failed coup by the power-hungry monarch, the Beyiang Republic was re-established in it's place. With ties close to Germany, the forces of the Beyiang Government of the Republic of China seeks to unify China under the banner of five colors, free from the legacy of the Qing emperor.

Meanwhile to the south, in the Chaos of the KMT uprisings, many factions had warred with one another for dominance over the party. After much chaos and destruction, the Federalists in Guangdong had largely taken control of the situation, and had conquered the surrounding warlords to establish the Guangzhou Government of the Republic of China. The nation is currently under a Social Democratic president, while adhering to the three principles of the people and the ideals of prominent Federalist theorists from the Warlord era. They may not be backed by foreign powers, but their unshakable ideals aim to lead the white flower to victory over the tyrants in the north!

The chaos of the Warlord era is coming to a close. Who should unify China of these two major powers?

View Poll

Ideally I don’t think most people wants a region split next year, but they way things are looking it’s probably going to be the most practical option. The league doesn’t seem to have the infrastructure (or the will) to create a bubble for next year, and the 2020 Homestand/travel model seems off the table completely. Most likely I think we at least see a soft region lock, possibly with travel allowing for cross-regional regular season games later in the season, and having cross-regional tournaments like last season.

My main question, however, is this: with the LA Valiant heavily rumored to be returning to NA, does it make more sense to split the league into 3 divisions rather than 2 regions?

Here’s what that might look like:

Asian-Pacific Division:

• Chengdu Hunters
• Shanghai Dragons
• Hangzhou Spark
• Guangzhou Charge
• Seoul Dynasty
• Philadelphia Fusion
• New York Excelsior

NA-Pacific Division:

• Vancouver Titans
• San Francisco Shock
• Los Angeles Gladiators
• Los Angeles Valiant
• Dallas Fuel
• Houston Outlaws

Cross-Atlantic Division:

• Paris Eternal
• London Spitfire
• Toronto Defiant
• Boston Uprising
• Washington Justice
• Atlanta Reign
• Florida Mayhem

Instead of two rather lopsided divisions, you’ve now got 3 pretty evenly sized ones.

The main issue I think would be tournaments; it may be logistically challenging to get teams from 3 divisions into a 4-team bracket, but I’m sure it could work (maybe have a wild-card play-in bracket with the runners-up from each division?).

Other than that, I think it works quite well. No more lopsided scheduling, and teams can decide if they want to play online or host their own live events.

What are your thoughts?

Do your worst!

I'm surprised it hasn't decade.

For context I'm a Refuse Driver (Garbage man) & today I was on food waste. After I'd tipped I was checking the wagon for any defects when I spotted a lone pea balanced on the lifts.

I said "hey look, an escaPEA"

No one near me but it didn't half make me laugh for a good hour or so!

Edit: I can't believe how much this has blown up. Thank you everyone I've had a blast reading through the replies 😂

It really does, I swear!

Buenosdillas

They’re on standbi

Building exploding and on fire in the background NOTHING TO SEE HERE FOLKS. MOVE ALONG. THERE ARE DEFINITELY ZERO ISSUES RIGHT NOW WITH ACTIVISION-BLIZZARD ENTERTAINMENT. NOPE. I HAVEN’T THE FAINTEST CLUE WHAT YOU ARE SPEAKING OF. In case you’ve been living under a rock, the Blizzard side of Activision-Blizzard is a complete and utter shitshow right now. From labor violations to way too many sexual harassment lawsuits accusing notable figures in the company… they aren’t the best company to be associated with right now, which is why a lot of sponsors have been pulling out of the Overwatch League (Supposedly they have more lined up?), adding some uncertainty to its future along with talks of delaying the 2022 season so that it is played on Overwatch 2. Nonetheless, we shall take some time to look at the contenders for this season and laugh at the failures.

#THE FAILURES:

Los Angeles Valiant: I mean what did you expect. The Immortals Gaming Club is one of the cheapest organizations in eSports and it definitely showed this season. Dropping EVERY SINGLE PLAYER AND COACH JUST WEEKS BEFORE THE SEASON STARTS because they couldn’t get Visas to compete in Asia (Maybe you shouldn’t have agreed to compete in Asia then!) They signed a second rate chinese roster last minute and got completely and utterly destroyed in basically every single match. 0-16 is their final record. They never won more than two maps in a single game. They are just the second team in the history of the Overwatch League to have never won a single match the entire season, only joined by the 0-40 2018 Shanghai Dragons. Such a gold standard of failure that pissed off all their fans and ruined their credibility as an organization.

Vancouver Titans: Ever since their massive shitstorm that ended with them releasing their Runaway-based roster last year, the Titans have been one of the worst organizations in the Overwatch League. They at least won a COUPLE of games last year from the talents of Shockwave, Shredlock and KSAA, but they are one of the few teams in North America that actively got worse. They picked up some Atlanta Reign castoffs in FRDWNR and Fire who did alright, but they didn’t find a suitable replacement for KSAA after they let him walk in free agency. Changing main tanks to Changsik mid season after Shredlock retired doesn’t really help them, and as a result they get a poorus 1-15 record.

London Spitfire: London went for a different strategy this season. After their acad

Pilot on me!!

Dad jokes are supposed to be jokes you can tell a kid and they will understand it and find it funny.

This sub is mostly just NSFW puns now.

If it needs a NSFW tag it's not a dad joke. There should just be a NSFW puns subreddit for that.

Edit* I'm not replying any longer and turning off notifications but to all those that say "no one cares", there sure are a lot of you arguing about it. Maybe I'm wrong but you people don't need to be rude about it. If you really don't care, don't comment.

I won't be doing that today!

[Removed]

Map Score Added (MSA) is a metric I created and have been using for pickems in the second half of the 2021 Season (T-17th SS, T-4th CC). I want to post a bracket here using the metric to predict every match in the playoffs. I don't necessarily agree with all of these picks/results, but I've found this to be an interesting and informative exercise.

 

Before we get started let's take a look at the final rankings by MSA for the 2021 season and go over a couple of caveats with the metric.

 

 

The model calculates a map score added for each team for each game type. The overall rating is the result of a weighted average of a normalized score across all types. The individual map type scores are what actually go into predicted each map and match, which will give more accurate results than just using the above ratings. Some additional caveats/biases/issues:

• It is trained on the entire season at once, all games are weighted equally, and attempts to account for opponent strength, so losing to Florida in stage 1 hurts Chengdu more than it probably should
• The only way it relate NA to APAC is through the handful of Hawaii games. Trust the relative strength within a region more than the strength across regions
• It is meta independent, if the current meta favors Justice, it has no information on this and will still think Justice are bad
• It has no information on external factors, it can not account for Pelican playing on ping, NA teams traveling to hawaii, Chinese teams traveling to Shanghai, etc. It also has no idea that Shanghai and Dallas had already locked 1st place going into the Countdown Cup and had eased up their practice schedule.

 

Given the above information we can start looking at the matchups and predicted results.

 

**Simul

You take away their little brooms

This morning, my 4 year old daughter.

Daughter: I'm hungry

Me: nerves building, smile widening

Me: Hi hungry, I'm dad.

She had no idea what was going on but I finally did it.

Thank you all for listening.

There hasn't been a post all year!

Why

See stickied comment for notes about this thread.

#Table of Contents

• About this Megathread
• Important Dates
• Confirmed Roster Changes (Current / Additions / Departures)
• Confirmed Coaching Changes (Additions / Departures)
• New to the 2021 Season
• References

#About this Megathread

This thread will reflect all official player and coach changes after August 22nd (the end of the 2021 Regular Season). All changes will be referenced by official communication by teams, Blizzard, or the player of discussion. Unofficial sources and rumors will not be listed.

#Important Dates

>Oct. 2, 2021: Deadline by which teams must exercise any options they may hold to extend existing player contracts.

>Oct. 9, 2021: Players whose contracts expired after the 2021 season become free agents.

>Oct. 10, 2021: Teams may begin signing free agents to contracts for the 2022 season.

>Jan. 3, 2022: Deadline for all teams to have a minimum of five players signed to season-long contracts for the 2022 season.

>March 1, 2022: Deadline for all teams to have a minimum of six players signed to season-long contracts for the 2022 season.

#Confirmed Roster Changes

Last year, 10 players swapped teams during the middle of the season under various circumstances. This year, that number surprisingly dropped to 0. Here were the moves from last year:

Architect: Shock —> Spark

Twilight: Titans —> Shock

Jjanu: Titans —> Justice

Stitch: Titans —> Justice

Haksal: Titans —> Excelsior

Slime: Titans —> Dynasty

Kruise: Eternal —> Defiant

Krystal: Spark —> Charge

Paintbrush: Gladiators —> Fuel

Decay: Fuel —> Justice

Additionally, the number of mid-season pickups also dropped this year to just 10 11, from 28 last year. Last year’s pickups:

Paris Eternal: Fielder

Toronto Defiant: Numlocked, Kruise, Zykk

Boston Uprising: Punk, mikeyy

Washington Justice: Jjanu, Stitch, Decay

Atlanta Reign: Saucy, Ir1s

Dallas Fuel: Paintbrush, Onigod

LA Gladiators: Kevster

SF Shock: Twilight, Ta1yo

Vancouver Titans: Dalton, Tsuna, KSAA, ShRedLock, Roolf, CarCar, Shockwave

Hangzhou Spark: QoQ

Seoul Dynasty: ToYou, Slime

Guangzhou Charge: Krystal

NYXL: Haksal

#This year’s pickups:

Toronto Defiant: Aspire

Paris Eternal: Dridro, Vestola

Dallas Fuel: Pine

Shanghai Dragons: WhoRU, Develop

Vancouver Titans: ChangSik

SF Shock: ANS

Chengdu Hunters: TAROCOOK1E

Houston Outlaws: Dreamer

NYXL: Kalios

Thoughts on this? Anyone I missed?

Edit: added ANS

Just a few stats that may interest some of you about "winning a title in OWL".

There are now 10 teams that have won something at some point in the history of the league since the recent Gladiators win:

• SF Shock: 2 championships (2019 / 2020), 3 stage titles (Stage 2 2019 / May Melee NA 2020 / Countdown Cup NA 2020)
• London Spitfire: 1 championship (2018), 1 stage title (Stage 1 2018)
• Shanghai Dragons: 5 stage titles (Stage 3 2019 / May Melee APAC 2020 / Countdown Cup APAC 2020 / June Joust 2021 / Summer Showdown 2021)
• NYXL: 2 stage titles (Stage 2 2018 / Stage 3 2018)
• LA Gladiators: 1 stage title (Countdown Cup 2021)
• Dallas Fuel: 1 stage title (May Melee 2021)
• LA Valiant: 1 stage title (Stage 4 2018)
• Paris Eternal: 1 stage title (Summer Showdown NA 2020)
• Guangzhou Charge: 1 stage title (Summer Showdown APAC 2020)
• Vancouver Titans: 1 stage title (Stage 1 2019).

The 10 teams that never won a stage title or a championship are: Atlanta Reign, Boston Uprising, Chengdu Hunters, Hangzhou Spark, Houston Outlaws, Florida Mayhem, Philadelphia Fusion (sadge), Seoul Dynasty, Toronto Defiant, Washington Justice.

Finals appearance:

• 7 times: SF Shock (Stage 1 + 2 + 3 + Playoffs 2019, May Melee NA + Countdown Cup NA + Playoffs 2020), Shanghai Dragons (Stage 3 2019, May Melee APAC + Summer Showdown APAC + Countdown Cup APAC 2020, May Melee + June Joust + Summer Showdown 2021)
• 4 times: Philadelphia Fusion (Stage 2 + Playoffs 2018, Summer Showdown NA + Countdown Cup NA 2020), NYXL (Stage 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 2018)
• 3 times: Vancouver Titans (Stage 1 + 2 + Playoffs 2019), NYXL (Stage 1+2+3+4 2018)
• 2 times: London Spitfire (Stage 1 + Playoffs 2018), Chengdu Hunters (Summer Showdown + Countdown Cup 2021), Seoul Dynasty (May Melee APAC + Playoffs 2020), Dallas Fuel (May Melee + June Joust 2021)
• 1 time: Hangzhou Spark (Countdown Cup APAC 2020), Guangzhou Charge (Summer Showdown APAC 2020), Paris Eternal (Summer Showdown NA 2020), LA Valiant (Stage 4 2018), LA Gladiators (Countdown Cup 2021), Boston Uprising (Stage 3 2018), Florida Mayhem (May Melee NA 2020).
• 0 time: Atlanta Reign, Houston Outlaws, Toronto Defiant, Washington Justice.

That means despite being the 3rd best team in finals appearances, already half the league has won a title before the Philly Fusion.

Out of the 8 teams in the playoffs, the players on those team represent a combined 19 different teams from last year. The exception? 0 players in this year’s playoffs were on the Toronto Defiant last year. Here’s the breakdown, in reverse order of 2020 regular season placement:

Boston Uprising: Jerry (Justice)

Washington Justice: Decay (Justice), Ttuba (Justice)

Vancouver Titans: Shockwave (Fusion)

London Spitfire: Glister (Shock)

Houston Outlaws: Rapel (Fuel), Jecse (Fuel)

Toronto Defiant: NO PLAYERS IN PLAYOFFS

Chengdu Hunters: Molly (Dragons), Jinmu (Hunters), Leave (Hunters), Lateyoung (Hunters), Ameng (Hunters), Yveltal (Hunters)

Dallas Fuel: Doha (Fuel), Closer (Justice)

Atlanta Reign: Edison (Reign), Gator (Reign), Hawk (Reign), Massa (Reign), Ir15 (Reign)

Seoul Dynasty: Tobi (Fusion)

Hangzhou Spark: BeBe (Justice)

LA Gladiators: Birdring (Gladiators), Kevster (Gladiators), Mirror (Gladiators), Space (Gladiators)

LA Valiant: Kai (Reign)

New York Excelsior: Whoru (Dragons), Mano (Fusion), Hotba (Fusion)

Florida Mayhem: Fate (Dragons)

Guangzhou Charge: Shu (Gladiators), Nero (Shock)

Paris Eternal: SP9RK1E (Fuel), Hanbin (Fuel), Fielder (Fuel), FDGoD (Shock)

San Francisco Shock: Rascal (Fusion), ANS (Shock), Ta1yo (Shock), Super (Shock), Choihyobin (Shock), Smurf (Shock), Viol2t (Shock), Twilight (Shock), Moth (Gladiators)

Philadelphia Fusion: Carpe (Fusion), EQO (Fusion), Fury (Justice), Poko (Fusion), Alarm (Fusion), FunnyAstro (Fusion)

Shanghai Dragons: Fleta (Dragons), Lip (Dragons), Fearless (Fuel), Void (Dragons), LeeJaeGon (Dragons), Izayaki (Dragons)

Let me know if I missed any!

Edit: added Closer

We are almost 75% through 2021 season. I went back through the https://overwatchleague.com/en-us/news/2021-player-contract-status to write a list of potential free agents. Remember, that this isn't 100% accurate because contracts statuses could have changed during the last offseason. Example being Yaki's 2020 existing contract was changed to a 2+1 now.

ATL
Gator
Hawk
Edison
lr1s
Masaa

Boston Uprising
ColourHex
Fusions
Punk

Chengdu Hunters
Leave
Ameng
Lateyoung
Yveltal

Dallas Fuel
Doha

Florida Mayhem
https://imgur.com/gallery/7GjofUC

Guangzhou Charge
Cr0ng
Rio

Hangzhou Spark
m1ka
Coldest

LA Gladiators
Birdring
Kevster
Mirror
Space

NYXL (big maybe on Jjonak since he might have renegotiated)

Philadelphia Fusion
Poko
FunnyAstro

San Francisco Shock
Ans
Ta1yo
Twilight

Seoul Dynasty
Fits
Profit
Gesture
Marve1

Shanghai Dragons
Izayaki

Vancouver Titans
Roolf
Dalton

When I got home, they were still there.

What did 0 say to 8 ?

" Nice Belt "

So What did 3 say to 8 ?

" Hey, you two stop making out "

After reading the various posts and tweets on this subject I decided I wanted to take a look at strength of schedule for myself. In the table below I have two types of SoS:

1. Raw - The sum of the RMSA of each opponent on your schedule
2. Adjusted - The sum of the RMSA of each opponent on your schedule, with RMSA being calculated with all games you played in removed from the calculation.

The writeup and code can be found here: https://github.com/rd11490/owl_tutorials/tree/master/strength_of_schedule

The writeup and code for calculation RMSA can be found here: https://github.com/rd11490/owl_tutorials/tree/master/rmsa