Simply put, we need something to offer as a palate cleanser between the constant articles that have been reporting on seemingly never-ending doom & gloom across a League that was looking at a rough season at the beginning of 2019 before the pandemic even surfaced.
Then the pandemic surfaced, and all hell seemed to break loose.
Now, teams are struggling to make ends meet, Blizzard has canceled organizational fees, and legends seem to be dropping from the League like flies as everyone is broke and desperate to offer any form of competition to the San Francisco Shock.
Today, however, we’re going to buck the trend for a minute or three and bring about some pleasant news to keep everyone understanding that while doom and gloom are often reported, there are always bright snippets of humanity that should be noted.
The San Francisco Shock had their hitscan DPS player Kwon ‘Striker’ Nam-Joo named as the 2020 T-Mobile Overwatch League Grand Finals MVP after a relatively tumultuous voting period which made him the recipient of an additional $100,000 cash prize.
When the nineteen-year-old DPS player received the cash prize, he was asked what he planned to do with the money, to which the young player seemed dumbfounded for a moment while he stated he was unsure of the ultimate usage of the money.
Aside from his quip ‘…I think I am gonna buy my dad a car.’
On December 9th, Kwon Nam-Joo appeared to make good on his statement with a post to Instagram where he shows his fans the new car he purchased for his father.
Is it the most important thing to happen in the league for the past twenty-four hours? Absolute not. Is it a nice feel-good gesture from a young man that arguably hasn’t even reached his prime? Absolutely.
One should note that Striker is the Grand Final MVP, a separate award that is granted specifically among the pool of those who play in the Grand Finals: Fleta was named as the MVP for the 2020 Overwatch League season.
The 2021 season is still fast approaching, although many teams already look like a shadow of their former selves with multiple stars being tossed up for grabs as contracts expire and negotiations approach what some refer to as collusion across the league.
Yet while we chew at our fingernails wondering what could possibly befall out preferred players, one thing has remained absolutely certain. There is a human element to the esport in its entirety, and that can’t be robbed of the League regardless of what external forces are pushing and pulling.
