Shanghai Dragons’ Geguri is the queen of small plays with big impact

Everything unfolds from Boston Uprising D.Va player Lucas “NotE” Meissner’s perspective—but it’s Shanghai Dragons’ Kim “Geguri” Se-yeon who’s earned our attention. The map is Ilios (specifically, Lighthouse) during stage three of the Overwatch League. Boston is up two maps; Shanghai’s got none.

Half-time is over. Boston and Shanghai roll out from their base camps, rushing to be the first to the capture point. Boston DPS Kwon “Striker” Nam-joo guards the point, and NotE points his rockets at Shanghai’s tank line. Striker’s the first to fall, just to the side of the Lighthouse capture point—a perfectly placed shot from Shanghai support He “Sky” Junjian knocks out the Tracer player. The first kill is important; it sets up the momentum for the rest of the round.

Related: Only three Overwatch League teams have been mathematically eliminated from stage three

NotE turns back toward Striker in an attempt to create space for Mercy player Kristian “Kellex” Keller to fly in for a Resurrect. But before he can get to Kellex, Geguri steers her MEKA directly at Kellex’s Mercy.

Once she’s booped Kellex out of range from Striker—being pushed outside of the five meter range from downed teammate cancels Mercy’s Resurrect—she turns her attention back to the capture point. Geguri isn’t worried about killing Mercy; the immediate threat of Striker’s Resurrect is over. Shanghai’s got the upper hand. Geguri takes care of the point, and it’s actually Sky and Shanghai tank Lee “Fearless” Eui-seok that take care of Kellex.

The moment isn’t particularly flashy. It’s a D.Va player colliding with a Mercy. There’s no kill, and its importance is easy to miss. But the elimination on Striker is a huge advantage to Shanghai, and bringing him back into the fight could have flipped the favor back to Boston. The Beantown boys were never really able to recover after that initial fight—and it’s that little play from Geguri that ensures the success of Shanghai.

Geguri’s boop on Lighthouse isn’t technically a “peel,” which is traditionally used to describe a moment where a DPS or tank hero takes the heat off a squishier ally. But the idea of her movement here is indicative of her ability to peel. Geguri is consistently throwing her MEKA around to save teammates in trouble. We can almost call this move on Ilios a preemptive peel, wherein Geguri is saving her teammates from potential damage done should Boston’s best player get revived.

The consistency of Geguri’s peel moments give the illusion that these moments aren’t even that special, when, indeed, they are. She uses D.Va and her peel abilities—the boop and Defense Matrix—in a way that regularly impacts her team’s survivability that it’d be exhausting to point them all out.

Later on Ilios’ Well section of the map, Geguri demonstrates the ultimate true peel. And again, it all starts from NotE’s perspective. Boston has control of the point, with Shanghai looking to make a slow push into the point. But NotE, who is now playing Roadhog, forces Shanghai onto the point by hooking DPS player Lu “Diya” Weida and attempting to swish him into the big ol’ hole in the center of the point.

And it would have worked if Geguri hadn’t dove in with her MEKA, booping NotE back from the well’s edge. Still hooked, Diya was pushed back with NotE—and he landed just outside the well’s depths. Bunched up on NotE now, Diya and Geguri are able to take down NotE instantaneously.

Of course, this particular peel didn’t matter much in the sway of the match. Shanghai wasn’t able to capitalize on that kill, and Boston remained in control of the pit. Shanghai lost the series to Boston, 3-1.

Peeling is an instinct for Geguri. She’s able to maximize her impact by playing defensively and protecting her teammates, a selfless maneuver that feels like a spidey sense for Geguri. Her ability to read what’s going on in any Overwatch match and react instinctively like this makes her—arguably—Shanghai’s most important player. Her style of D.Va is different than someone like Philadelphia Fusion’s D.Va player, Gael “Poko” Gouzerch, with his massiv Self-Destructs. Geguri’s play is understated, almost quiet—but her impact is loudly undeniable.