Hey everyone! Welcome (back) to The OverSeer! Today, I'll be taking a look at the Guangzhou Charge and trying to figure out where they'll stand in the League in 2020. Before we begin, just a quick reminder that any of the rosters can certainly change after I've posted my articles, and although I'd have loved to wait till we got very close to the League's beginning to review them, it's just not feasible to do so given that there are 20 teams involved. Because of the time crunch and the urge to be as elaborate as possible without overdoing it, I decided to start writing these reviews about a month in advance, and I hope that explains the timing and nature of my posts.
Anyway, yesterday, I reviewed the Atlanta Reign, and today, we'll be doing the Charge, who took 7th place in my end-of-season power rankings for 2019. As usual, let's break this team down role-by-role and determine how good they'll be in Season 3 of the Overwatch League.
Anyway, yesterday, I reviewed the Atlanta Reign, and today, we'll be doing the Charge, who took 7th place in my end-of-season power rankings for 2019. As usual, let's break this team down role-by-role and determine how good they'll be in Season 3 of the Overwatch League.
TANK
The Charge currently have Rio on main tank, and Cr0ng on off-tank.
In the 2019 season, Rio was a mainstay on Guangzhou's starting lineup, and although many people thought he was a pretty good Reinhardt during Goats, he only really stood out to me on Wrecking Ball. His Winston was fine, his Orisa was okay, and his Rein was probably above-average, but his Hammond was quite amazing. He was active and highly disruptive, since he kept engaging his enemies as soon as he had his cooldowns available, which helped buy a ton of space for his teammates. I think Rio will dominate in a Wrecking Ball-centric meta, but other than that, I don't consider him a major threat.
Off-tank player Cr0ng is heading in from O2 Blast, and he is mostly known for his D.Va and Zarya play. I've actually watched him play a fair bit during the Goats Meta, when he was mostly playing Zarya and also some Hanzo. I remember O2 Blast running this weird 'Hanzo Goats' comp, subbing out D.Va for the Japanese archer, and relying on Grav-Dragons to win team fights. Anyway, the point is that Cr0ng is pretty good at Zarya because of his aim, and D.Va because, well, he's an off-tank player, but I don't know how well he plays Roadhog and Sigma. Also, the off-tank landscape is quite rocky this season with a bunch of talented players, so I really doubt Cr0ng will be able to go big right-off-the-bat.
To sum up the Charge's tank duo, I think their success is going to be very meta dependent. I can see them doing well in Dive or maybe a Rein-Zarya meta, but during Double Barrier, they might not be up to the task. Rio's Wrecking Ball and Cr0ng's D.Va and Zarya are really competitive, but they need to up their game on the other heroes they're expected to play if they want to be noticed and have a big impact on the League. Right now, I think they're in the bottom half of tank lines, but certainly not one of the weakest.
DPS
The trio of Eileen, Happy and nero comprises the Guangzhou Charge's damage lineup for 2020.
A Chinese DPS player who's been on this team since 2019, Eileen is proficient at flanker heroes, being quite comfortable on Doomfist, and being well-accustomed to Genji as well. He can also play hitscan heroes, but I don't rate him very highly on those, but if he's on those flankers, he can have a few pop-off moments here and there. However, we have yet to see him play consistently well and prove that he's actually worth fielding just for his flanker picks, because so far, we've seen him being either brilliant, or not useful at all.
Happy is a hitscan specialist, and he put up some nice shows for us on his comfort pick, Widowmaker last year. He aims really well, and has great positioning sense, so in metas that include hitscan heroes, he should be a great player to field. I'm a little worried for scenarios where shield break and again, high-sustain picks come into play, because Happy doesn't do a good job on non-hitscan heroes (with maybe Hanzo as an exception).
Probably the most surprisingly-good addition to this roster from last year, nero is a flex DPS player who can play a variety of projectile heroes at a high level. His Pharah play was quite entertaining to watch in Season 2, since he has an assassin-like playstyle, focusing more on finishing off backlines and low-health targets rather than applying pressure to the enemy frontline. I think he played a great Mei as well, managing cooldowns efficiently, and walling-off enemies to cut them off from their team. He should be an ever-present damage dealer on the Charge's lineup, and the only way he can be beaten is if he's outclassed, because his hero pool is so diverse that you cannot beat him simply by counter-picking against him. There are, arguably, a handful of projectile players that are evidently better than nero, but he's still up there for sure.
In summary, Guangzhou's DPS players are pretty good, with most of my faith being with nero, but I don't think Eileen and Happy are versatile enough to assert dominance against many other DPS players in the League. They both will probably be strong in mirror matchups, but if they're forced to swap off their heroes of choice, they will likely be in a tough spot, prohibiting them from contributing much to their team. I've seen them play in the 2019 season, and I've also got an idea of how the game might played in 2020, so I'm holding off on calling this trio a top-notch DPS line as of now.
In summary, Guangzhou's DPS players are pretty good, with most of my faith being with nero, but I don't think Eileen and Happy are versatile enough to assert dominance against many other DPS players in the League. They both will probably be strong in mirror matchups, but if they're forced to swap off their heroes of choice, they will likely be in a tough spot, prohibiting them from contributing much to their team. I've seen them play in the 2019 season, and I've also got an idea of how the game might played in 2020, so I'm holding off on calling this trio a top-notch DPS line as of now.
SUPPORT
The Charge's main supports are Chara and neptuNo, whereas their flex supports are Shu and Wya.
In 2019, Chara was the mainstay main support for this team, and he lived up to his reputation as an aggressive Lúcio, trying to find angles to get as much damage as possible onto the enemy team. He, surprisingly, was quite the opposite as Mercy, as he focused simply on healing and damage boosting his Pharah partner all the time. Unfortunately, his performance on neither of those heroes was worth writing home about, so I honestly don't rate Chara very highly among the League's main supports. Picking up aggressive main supports seems to be on the Charge's bucket list all the time, and I'm backing up that claim by sharing my thoughts on neptuNo, who left the Philly Fusion and joined Guangzhou this off-season. Now, whoever has followed the League for at least a year knows that neptuNo is the OG 'Bloodthirsty Support', as DoA likes to call them. He's known for opting to gun down squishies as Mercy, supposedly because of his FPS background, and although he gets the job done, he can get carried away and lose his life at times. His aggression is at a similar level on Lúcio, except that neptuNo focuses on finishing off targets rather than just dealing a ton of damage to them while he's playing the Wallriding Wonder. I like his pickup because he's a veteran of the League, and he's also an in-game leader, which is a role he can carry out maybe better than Chara; as for his rating as a main support, I'd say he's one of the better ones in the competition, but not one of the best.
Shu has been on Guangzhou's roster since the beginning of the 2019 season, and he's one of the most aggressive flex supports I've seen in the League. Whether it be on Ana, Moira, or Zenyatta, Shu dishes out tons of damage, which sometimes means his teammates don't get enough healing, but he makes up for it by confirming those kills and winning the team fight anyway. His offensive nades on Ana, excessive right-clicking on Moira, and consistent damage output on Zenyatta make him almost a pseudo-DPS despite being slotted in as a support. I think this playstyle is slightly risky, but it's worked out very well so far, so Shu is going to be just fine, and I believe he's still a very good flex support despite all the new talent coming into the League this year. Joining him on the same role is Wya, a Chinese player who has been promoted by the Charge from their academy team, T1W (The One Winner). Now, Wya's best performances seem to have been during the early Zen Goats Meta, so he must be a pretty good Zenyatta. I don't know how good he is on Ana and Moira though, since I haven't seen him play much. Still, we can assume he's been recruited for his Zen play either way, since Shu's best performances have been on Ana and Moira, and the coaches might just be trying to strengthen that hero's position on the team. Anyway, like we've been doing for players I don't have much of an idea about, we're going to assume Wya to be an average flex support in the League, which might be a misplacement, but that's the fairest way to handle such ambiguity in my opinion.
To sum up the Charge's support line, the players forming it are some of the most aggressive supports in the League. I don't know if this is a planned coaching decision or just a coincidence, but at a macro level, I don't think these players are going to form a top-notch backline by any means. I don't think any of them is bad or a weak player, but many other names spring to mind when you think of who else in the League is going to be playing their roles. This team's best support is probably Shu, whose mechanics are very good, followed closely by neptuNo, who's not only a good main support, but also has great mechanics, shotcalling experience and leadership skills. Despite that, I don't think they're going to shine a lot as a unit of 4, and that's because Chara and (seemingly) Wya are not very impressive players, and we have to consider their skill levels too if we're talking about team averages.
THE RAW LOOK VS. REALITY
Alright, there's realistically two ways this season can go for the Charge. On paper, I don't think this team should even make the Play-Ins. Rio and Cr0ng don't cover a wide variety of tanks really well, and additionally, Happy and Eileen are specialists, meaning they're only good at pure hitscan and flanker heroes respectively. If they are countered, or their playstyles are countered in-game, they have trouble recovering from it, and that's a major problem.
Realistically though, recent metas in Overwatch only permit for about 6-10 heroes to be played, and there are generally 2 or 3 fixed strategies that people don't exactly counterpick against, which benefits the Charge. If you know which one out of Eileen/Happy to field alongside nero, I think you've won half the battle, and can win almost any mirror matchup providing you adopt an aggressive playstyle and make sure the tanks do their jobs semi-decently at the very least. Even if you field the right players on DPS and support, Rio and Cr0ng aren't a very scary tank line, at least not in the Double Barrier Meta, so considering how right things can go for Guangzhou, I'd say they'll make a Play-In appearance if they're given favourable metas, like Dive or Rein-Zarya.
In summary, the only question for the Charge is whether or not they'll make the Play-Ins. They're not a bottom-tier team, and can't realistically be a bottom-tier team this season, but neither can they have a convincing Top 10 run unless the meta heavily favours them, in my opinion. The Charge have been praised a lot on online forums and by analysts of all kinds, but I think this team will need some luck in addition to their skill, in order to push through and become a very threatening team.
I hope those takes weren't too hot for all of you, and if they weren't, please share this post around and subscribe to my blog for more similar content! If you disagree with some of the points I made, please share your opinions in the comments section, but remember to be polite and respectful to keep the conversation healthy. That's it from me for now; it's time to take a short break before reviewing the LA Gladiators, but you can be sure I'll be back, so thanks for reading, and I'll see you soon!
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