A couple of San Francisco Shock’s Overwatch League players spend a lot of time on the bench—most notably, DPS player André “iddqd” Dahlström. Iddqd is a good Overwatch player by even high standards, and fans often wonder what he’s doing on the bench.
Overwatch League coach Brad Rajani posted on Reddit recently to discuss how San Francisco Shock has failed its benched players.
Related: LA Valiant’s benched Overwatch League players have a chance to prove themselves on the sister team
“We’re working on a plan to get both iddqd and all of our other backups regular scrim time against strong opponents, both as a way for us to track their growth [and] judge their merit for the starting lineup,” Rajani said. “Most likely this will take the shape of a sister team, because playtime for the starting lineup is precious and limited.”
According to Rajani the sister team, much like Los Angeles Valiant’s sister roster, will scrim against the main roster as well as other Overwatch League and Contenders teams.
“This has been a point of failure for us that we do plan to correct, but it takes resources and time to build out,” Rajani said.
San Francisco Shock’s Overwatch League team has 11 members, just one short of having a full second roster. Of those 11 players, around seven or eight play regularly—and one player, Matthew “super” DeLisi, has only recently come of age to play in the Overwatch League.
