Last year’s Overwatch League championship team will be looking a little different when the sixth season kicks off in 2023, but fans will likely be pleased to see a few familiar faces reprising their iconic roles.
On Jan. 1, the Dallas Fuel officially introduced its 2023 roster over a series of posts on social media. Three players and an award-winning coach will be leading the charge alongside a few new talents, all with a shared connection to an iconic Overwatch Contenders team.
Damage dealers Kim “SP9RK1E” Yeong-han and Kim “Edison” Tae-hoon will be returning to Dallas next year, hoping for a repeat of their stellar performances across the season and postseason. Edison especially shined at the end of 2022, going head-to-head on Sojourn against some of the league’s best. SP9RK1E offers a flexible roster of heroes that the Fuel clearly wanted to hang on to.
Tank Choi “Hanbin” Han-been will also be heading back to Dallas in 2023. Last year, he shared stage time with main tank Lee “Fearless” Eui-seok depending on what heroes were demanded of the duo. This year, he may get center stage all to himself.
Dallas managed to keep an integral part of its franchise success in head coach Yun “RUSH” Hee-won, who will be coming back for his third year leading the Texas darlings. As a former coach for Contenders Korea team Element Mystic, RUSH has repeatedly gathered talented players who spent time on the team.
It’s not too much of a surprise to see Lee “MCD” Jeong-ho added to the 2023 Fuel roster, considering the former Boston Uprising flex support spent a considerable amount of time on Element Mystic back in the day. He’ll be joined in the backline by rookie Kim “Bliss” So-myung, a dynamo that most recently played for O2 Blast and Gen. G.
These reveals weren’t a huge surprise to fans who tuned in to the showmatch Fuel players had against the San Francisco Shock last week, which teased the addition of Bliss and MCD to the 2023 Dallas roster.
After winning the 2022 Overwatch League championship, many fans hoped that the iconic Dallas Fuel roster would stick together. Shortly after the historic win, management announced that every champion on the Fuel was an unrestricted free agent, able to hear and accept offers from any team in the league.
As a result, main tank Lee “Fearless” Euiseok headed off to lead the Houston Outlaws while supports Kwon “Fielder” Joon and Han “ChiYo” Hyeon-seok were snapped up by the Atlanta Reign. Damage dealers Kim “Doha” Dong-ha and Kang “guriyo” Min-seo, who both saw minimal stage time in 2022, were released from the Fuel earlier in the offseason and are still free agents.
