It’s something we’ve been told over and over again throughout the first two seasons of the Overwatch League: coaching is instrumental to a team’s success.

We’ve been told about incredible coaches, bad coaches, strategic coaches, head coaches and overrated coaches. But as viewers, is there any real way to judge good coaching or bad coaching just by what we see on our screens? Los Angeles Gladiators Head Coach David, “dpei” Pei laughs as I pose the question. “I would say no.”

“I’ve thought about it. Even I don’t know who the good coaches or the bad coaches are in the Overwatch League, for the most part, unless I know them personally. It’s damn near impossible [to know] unless you’re a part of their team.”

But looking down the barrel of an undefeated Stage Two, it’s a fair guess that the Gladiators’ coaching team, led by dpei, has had a large impact on the team. Much like teams that have developed players over two seasons, the Gladiators’ coaching staff have developed just as much over that time period as well.

“Going into Season One vs going into Season Two, I have a much better idea of what it means to be a head coach,” said Dpei. “It’s something I explored over time. Season One, I thought it was a much more active role … [in Season Two] it’s still very active in strategy, but I also need to manage my players and staff really well. I need to talk to them, communicate perfectly with them on all these different things.”

Now with almost one and a half seasons under his belt, I asked dpei what he feels it takes to be a good coach in Overwatch. “Head coach, or any coach?” he bounces back. The need for clarification is likely an indicator of how dpei has evolved his role in the team, moving away from being overly active and hands-on in his coaching to being more managerial, focusing on delegation and communication.

“You just have to learn really, really fast. That’s one of the things I’ve had to do – iterate really fast on what I think is best, as well as have a clear vision for the team.”

“Leadership qualities are really important for a head coach, and being able to learn off other coaches. Those are the most important qualities: having a clear vision as a leader, and really quickly learning what you need to change.”

Emotions are a big part of the game … Overwatch League is just a grind. It’s about who can keep their mental strongest and have the best mental game.

The core of the Gladiators’ coaching team has stayed the same between seasons. Dpei is the Head Coach of the team, supported by Season One veteran Timothy “Tim” Albanese and Season Two newcomer Seetoh “JohnGalt” Jian Qing as assistant coaches. You might remember Tim as the brain behind the Season One Playoffs “Great Bamboozle” play that’s now etched in Overwatch League history. Matthew “Reinfcmnt” Edwards works with the team as a performance coach, along with Shangyeon “ShibaInu” Han as a translator.

In terms of each coach’s role, dpei says it’s all fairly autonomous. “I do more delegation and then check things when they go off and do their stuff. I like to be updated and know what they do, but it’s fairly autonomous. They decide what’s good and what’s not worth looking into.”

However at the end of the day, it’s a group effort. “We always have discussions. They just help offload a lot of the work, because doing it all yourself is very hard as any singular person. It’s just really important to have good assistant coaches.”

When I ask how much of the role is emotional coaching versus strategic coaching, dpei lets out an almost exasperated cross between a sigh and a laugh. “They’re so intertwined, it’s really hard to say. We’ve asked ourselves this as coaches. How much of it is [emotional]? We [also] have really good strategy, right? Overall, all the teams all have really good strategy and a good vision for the team, in terms of strategy.”

“Let’s just say 50/50, but I really don’t know. Emotions are a big part of the game. Over time, emotions kind of rule all. Overwatch League is just a grind. It’s about who can keep their mental strongest and have the best mental game, at least for overall consistency.” As we’ve seen time and time again, the teams with the best coaching and management behind them are the ones whose players have been able to keep their mental game strong and not burn out. At the very least, a strong coaching and management team means that players have a support network for when things do start to go downhill.

GGs @ChengduHunters. My fault for hanamura. Need to get better strategy to put my players in position to succeed. We’ll get better from here. — David Pei (@dpei_ow) April 21, 2019

In terms of culpability, if the coaching team doesn’t provide the players with enough preparation for any given week, then dpei takes the blame. “If we’re not prepared to win and we don’t put our players in a position to win, then that’s on me. That’s on me fully, it’s not on anyone else. I’m controlling the structure, I’m controlling the practice … It’s not their fault. If everyone tries their best, then it’s something I did systematically. That’s how I view every single week.”

You would think that would mean that the effect of coaching is visible week to week, but the reality is quite different. “Coaching is very long-term, so it’s hard to tell [the effects it has] on any singular match. But over a season or over a stage, you’ll see the results of coaching.” While many people have been quick to point out how teams like the Shock invested long-term with their players in Season One, less have pointed out the long-term investment from the Gladiators in their coaches.

You can see this in the difference in the Gladiators’ performance from earlier this year in Stage One up to now. While the Gladiators suffered a few losses early on in the season, the coaching staff were able to bounce back and adequately help the team transition across into the new meta. “It took us different levels to figure [the GOATS meta] out, but it was nothing too difficult. We know the game, we had seasons before that and Contenders seasons to look at how people were playing it. We had data and time to work on it.”

“Maybe it was a strategic weak point initially, but it was something we definitely fixed over time.” That much is clear – now, by the end of Stage Two, the Gladiators have bounced back from that 4-3 Stage One and are currently 6-0 in Stage Two, with a 7-0 finish to the stage looking quite obtainable. From Season One onwards, the Gladiators have only gone from strength to strength.

Their last game of the stage is against the Boston Uprising in Week Five. You can view the full Overwatch League schedule here.

The featured image for this post was provided byRobert Paulfor Blizzard Entertainment.

Share this: Twitter

Facebook

