Shanghai Dragons Epic DPS Players Swap to Tank and Support
The Shanghai Dragons are swapping Fleta and diem from DPS to Tank and Support for the 2023 Overwatch League.
As the 2023 Overwatch League debut draws closer, more details are starting to emerge from teams about the rosters they’ll be running. In a surprise twist that has some people scratching their heads, but no less excited, the Shanghai Dragons announced that Kim "Fleta" Byung-sun would be taking their main tank role and that Bae "diem" Min-seong would be filling one of their support roles.
Fleta and diem are both extremely skilled players that have a long history of excelling on countless heroes. Fleta earned his MVP award during the 2020 regular season along with a Role Star acknowledgement in Damage for his performance. Fleta is also the only player in the Overwatch League to have an official statistic named after him. The Fleta Deadlift is when a single player accounts for over 50% of their team’s final blows in a map.
While diem hasn’t brought home any Overwatch League awards personally, his Achievements throughout his time in Contenders and then with the Dragons speak for themselves. Seven first place results, two seconds, one third and nothing below that.
It remains to be seen how Fleta and diem do in their new respective roles, but anyone betting against them might want to think twice. There’s a reason ‘Fleta is Meta’ keeps coming back around whenever he takes the stage. It’s also not unheard of for DPS players to swap to a tank role. Dante “Danteh” Cruz also made the switch from DPS to Tank when he joined the Los Angeles Gladiators, though he does have a bit of tank experience from the Overwatch 1 era despite his overwhelming playtime as a DPS.
Since the changes from two tanks to one in Overwatch 2, there’s a lot more responsibility on the tank player. Fleta has always been mechanically skilled and able to react in high pressure situations. Only time will tell if he’s able to dominate in this role the same way he does on Widowmaker or Genji. His support partner in diem, however, will be interesting to see unfold as diem has no prior experience on support in the professional setting. But with Kang "Gangnamjin" Nam-jin backing him up, they should still be setup for success for the 2023 season.
