There’s no doubt the new season of Overwatch League brought some renewed faith to everyone partaking in the league, but this year’s additions have been mercurial in their impact as a slew of expansion teams found themselves in the top half of jersey sales since January 31. Just this week, Fanatics announced their top seven most sold jerseys for Season Two, and there’s no surprise as to which names find themselves on top as Daniel “Dafran” Francesca, Seonghyun “JJoNak” Bang and Lane “Surefour” Roberts all secured those spots, and rightfully so.
Heading into our first Stage Playoffs of the year, several players on this list will once again test their metal against the very best in the league. Its time to take a look at each players impact across the board, and really delve into what makes these players so unique in their roles.
Let’s go dude!
Unsurprisingly, Dafran finds himself at number one on this list, and after his amazing run this first Stage, its hard to blame anyone for grabbing one of his jerseys after that highlight reel Zarya play. Dafran always had a high profile since his days as a semi-pro competitor and popular streamer. Now that he is coming into his own as a full-fledged Overwatch League pro, fans of his stream and fans of Atlanta Reign can rejoice in the top tier play he’s dishing out on a weekly basis.
© Fanatics
JJoNak finds himself at #2 on this list for obvious reasons. Even in a completely different meta and playstyle from last year, JJoNak is still very much the heartbeat of this New York Excelsior team. The fact that JJoNak is the only Support player in this top seven list speaks volumes to his impact within the league. There are few players who can expertly craft their playstyle to spur their team forward and become the heartbeat of their team without also once in a while being the reason they lose. JJoNak is certainly in the driver’s seat for his team every time he gets on stage, and the results continue to follow for his team.
Although Surefour hasn’t received much playing time this stage, his favoritism amongst fans has now dwindled since last year and that is no doubt a positive for LA Gladiators given their early exit in Stage One. Right now, the meta isn’t exactly the best for a player of Surefour’s skill to succeed, but there is high hopes he can once again come into the fold and show off his expert DPS play within the near future. LA Gladiators seemed unstoppable in Week Four, with Surefour returning to the mix at a high pace, they could get even better in the coming Stages.
Stories to tell
With the rest of this list, its obvious that the most popular players often have some of the better stories off the stage as well. Se-Yeon “Geguri” Kim and Qiulin “Guxue” Xu are obvious candidates for this list given their immense backing from international fans. Guxue has been regarded as one of the best Chinese talents in recent history for Chinese Overwatch. Geguri made history last year becoming the first female pro player to hit Overwatch League status as well. Understandably, their names have been followed with much intensity, and with that, their jerseys are flying off the rack.
Finally, to round out the top seven we have fabled Philadelphia Fusion duo Jae-Hyeok “Carpe” Lee and Gael “Poko” Gouzerch. Carpe should be on this list for his Widowmaker play alone, but he made a name for himself as the hard carry of Philadelphia last year in playoffs. Poko got his place on this list most notably for his insane D.Va play that set the tone early for Fusion last year. When it comes to expert ultimate setups, it doesn’t get much better than Poko on Philadelphia and the fans didn’t let his heroics go unnoticed.
