With the Overwatch League 2023 season on the horizon and the Pro-Am highlighting both league and Contenders talent, let’s take a look back. From 2018 to 2023 and the multitude of talented players who’ve come through the Overwatch League, here are the top five players of all time.
Defining the top players isn’t easy, but this list focuses on team success, individual success, and lasting impact on the scene and the league. If a player has all of them, that’s what makes them the best of the best, and missing out on one of the three will put you lower on the list.
Honorable mentions:
- Lee “Carpe” Jae-hyeok
- Kim “Shu” Jin-seo
- Yoo “smurf” Myeong-hwan
- Matthew “super” DeLisi
In descending order, here are some of the best Overwatch players ever.
5) Bang “JJoNak” Sung-hyeon
When it comes to team success and lasting impact, it’s hard not to put JJoNak in the top five. As someone with almost no LAN experience before OWL, JJoNak quickly cemented himself as the best support in Overwatch for 2018.
In a meta where Mercy and Zenyatta were key, JJoNak was the best Zenyatta player in the world. He was the bar for players to reach, and so much so that he won the first ever Overwatch League MVP. He wasn’t a one-season-wonder either, having a strong 2019 season as well.
However, with his lack of post-season success and his slow decline into retirement, he’s staying at number five.
4) Kim “Proper” Dong-hyun
Out of all the recent talent in the Overwatch League that have shot their way into the top-tier, Proper is the best one. The only player in OWL history to win both Rookie of the Year, Role Star, and MVP in the same season. Great success both in Korean Contenders and in the Overwatch League. Already someone that players fear despite only being in the league for one season.
The only downside to his history so far is his lack of a title in the league, but if he keeps up his form, he will get one. His three second-place finishes in one season show the ability to succeed in high stakes environments, and he was one map away from winning the 2022 championship as well. As for now, his flexibility and success regionally put him just ahead of JJoNak.
3) Lee “Fearless” Eui-Seok
The protagonist of the Overwatch League, Fearless is both the best story in the league and the best tank in league history. From the winless 0-40 Shanghai Dragons to Chinese Contenders and back up to Shanghai to success, his journey with the Dragons alone was amazing to see. Then, he joined the Dallas Fuel and developed even more, helping lead his team to deep playoff runs regularly.
With the changes Overwatch 2 introduced, fans worried about how Fearless would fit in. He didn’t see much playing time over the 2022 season, until he played in the season playoffs and won Grand Finals MVP in 2022. He doesn’t have the same achievements as the players below him on this list, but he deserves the number three spot.
2) Park “Profit” Joon-yeong
These top two players can be interchangeable, but both have very similar careers. Both are players who’ve been in the mix since the inaugural season. However, Profit was the first to get to the top, part of the inaugural champions London Spitfire.
His gameplay on heroes like Tracer, Genji, and Hanzo have some of the highest peaks fans have ever seen. Not only that, but he has one of the clutchest moments in league history with his 4k Pulse Bomb on Volskaya, winning playoff MVP in that 2018 championship run.
Profit has had the most success early on in his career and very recently, reaching the Grand Finals in 2020 and winning the Kickoff Clash in 2022. However, his consistency as one of the best DPS in the game has remained since his debut.
1) Kim “Fleta” Byung-sun
The only thing you need to know about Fleta is that he has a statistic named after him for how good of a player he is. The Fleta Deadlift (when a player has 50 percent or more of a team’s final blows) came to fruition when his stellar play on the original Seoul Dynasty was put to waste. If only he was on a stronger team, fans thought. Then, he moved to the Shanghai Dragons and helped begin their dynasty.
From role star to 2020 MVP, Fleta has collected eight different titles, from stage titles to the championship in 2021. His flexibility is regarded as one of the best in the league, so much so that the phrase “Fleta is the meta” has always applied to him. In one of the biggest surprises of the off-season, he moved to the tank position for the Shanghai Dragons starting in 2023.
We’ll see if he can hold up, but as of the start of 2023, Fleta is the best OWL player ever.
