Main Tank Musical Chairs
Kaiser hammers into a new tank spot and into our hearts
Rumors have been brewing and ears have been burning about the whereabouts of main tank Sang “Kaiser” Hoon after his departure from team RunAway two weeks ago. Kaiser left several hints for fans via Twitter that he would be joining a North American team after departing RunAway, alluding to financial reasons for his upcoming move. Now it appears that Kaiser and all his Earthshattering glory has officially joined Cloud9’s Overwatch roster.
The move appears to be a perfect fit in that Cloud9 had suffered a large opening themselves with the recent departure of their own main tank, Jeong Hwan “Selly” An. Kaiser, coming off a stellar series of performances on Reindhart in Apex Season Two, will now commandeer the main tank position, causing Daniel “Gods” Graesser to move into a flex style role that will be more DPS heavy.
Will it be a match made in heaven? There are some points of concern: the inevitable communication problems, though Cloud9’s experience with Selly should prepare them for this transition; Kaiser’s ability to handle the culture shock of moving to a new country; and finally, there is the issue that Reindhardt, Kaiser’s best hero, is currently out of the meta. But ultimately Kaiser is too good and we believe he will be able to handle the move with great aplomb.
But What About Runaway?
Marcus Powell: No denying it, he is a huge loss to the team.
As much as the team has tried to downplay it, Kaiser is a massive loss for Runaway. His Reindhardt is one of the best in the world and the attention he commands up front allows his flankers so much more room to move. But the big loss for this season is losing his Winston. While his Winston isn’t the same level compared to Miro, it is still very good and with the current dive Meta, having a good Winston is imperative. The loss of Kaiser has seen Runaway’s three dps players having to flex over to the mobile tank role. With the addition of Mirage they did gain a great Soldier 76 and Pharah player, but it leaves the team stuck as a triple DPS, making it difficult to flex.
Bumper is their only main tank as we have yet to see Kalios get any game time (due to contract issues). Kox and Runner are their supports leaving the 2nd tank duties to one of their 3 DPS players, who are all top players in their perspective dps roles. Having to switch Haksal to play Winston or Mirage to play D.Va (lets forget about Stitch and his Zarya) is a balancing act that Runaway has yet to get right and success in season 3.
Apex Season 3 has shown that success comes to those who can flex. As Runaway will most likely not make it to the round of 8, we’ll see if they can adjust, and flex, better in Season 4.
