Sometimes in the Overwatch League, your favorite team doesn’t perform very well. Whether it be from poor off-season decisions, poor in-season decisions or an unfortunate meta, your team just isn’t doing well. Luckily for fans, there is always a second team to place all that love and dedication into – a fantasy OWL team.

Here’s a quick rundown of why fantasy OWL is incredible. Players are in charge of their own team, and draft their own players without any form of budget consideration. Each team plays against opponents in a fantasy league, consisting usually of ten other teams. The players on each roster gain points for in-game actions. For example, each time Sung-hyeon “Jjonak” Bang gets an elim, he earns one point for his fantasy team.

As the season draws near, sites like DraftBuff will come out with various rankings by position. It’s these rankings that many drafters will build their team around. Even though having the top players on your team will get you far, you’ll only get a few of the highest scorers in the league.The key to any successful fantasy season is hitting big on those sleeper picks.

What is a “Sleeper” Pick?

A term coined from traditional fantasy sports, a sleeper pick is a player that goes relatively under the radar in most fantasy analysis. Sleepers are usually players that have the talent in the game, but happen to not be highly sought after in fantasy. Best of all, sleeper picks are usually extremely high-value as they are always late round draft picks. Because you aren’t investing high amounts of draft capital into this player, it ends up being less detrimental if they don’t perform as well as you hoped.

In fantasy OWL, on the other hand, it’s a little trickier to find that perfect sleeper pick. With casters, writers and fans creating power rankings and discussing teams rosters, most if not all players have been discussed in some capacity. But because they don’t view players through a fantasy OWL lens, here are some top sleeper picks for you to steal in your drafts.

Damage

Playing a damage role during a double-shield meta is an interesting job. It is even more frustrating looking at a damage player from a fantasy view. As fans expect a meta with Hanzo and Mei as the top DPS, true damage numbers may be on the lower end. Hanzo will be focusing down shields, where damage isn’t counted against shields, and Mei simply doesn’t put out too much damage thanks to her crowd-control oriented kit.

Min-soo “SeoMinSoo” Seo, Vancouver Titans

Position Rank: 29th

Overall Rank: 75th

With his current ranking in DraftBuff, SeoMinSoo has the potential to be one of the best values in the draft. As an additional flex DPS alongside Hyo-jong “Haksal” Kim, history would let you to believe only one of those players would be in the starting 6. However in a barrier heavy meta, SeoMinSoo saw plenty of stage time as seen at the Grand Finals last year. Vancouver is a strong team, despite some questionable offseason additions, and SeoMinSoo can easily pop-off to become one of the most valued DPS in fantasy.

Jun-ki “Yaki” Kim, Florida Mayhem

Position Rank: 21st

Overall Rank: 61st

If there’s one thing fantasy OWL players should take from fantasy football fans, it’s the idea that a player can have a good fantasy performance despite being on a bad team. Yaki is one of the flex DPS looking to put some truth to that idea. Although Florida looks to have another bottom five season, they have the luxury of playing against London, Boston, and Toronto multiple times this season. It’s these games where Yaki can really make a statement and prove to be a valuable fantasy asset

Supports

In the current meta, Baptiste and Zen are almost must picks for every map. With that in mind, this year’s scoring may be a little different from past seasons. Where most main supports played Lucio or Mercy, they now will have the opportunity to frag out on Baptiste. This means for fantasy purposes, main supports are potentially more valuable than they may appear. As for sleepers, this could be the position where you could find the sneakiest of league leaders in points.

Grant “Moth” Espe, San Francisco Shock

Position Rank: 34th

Overall Rank: 115th

It is easy to dismiss Moth as a potential pick in your lineup, but the San Francisco Shock put their supports in a very interesting position. By winning the majority of their team fights, the supports are given the opportunity to help clean up fights rather than focus on keeping their team alive. Minki “Viol2t” Park was a force in fantasy OWL last year thanks to this reason. Now more than likely on that Bap role, Moth will be able to rack up points securing those final elims at the end of fights.

Gabriel “Swimmer” Levy, Boston Uprising

Position Rank: 43rd

Overall Rank: 124th

On the other hand, there is Swimmer and the Boston Uprising.

While the Uprising may not have great chances of performing well this season, their support line does have a shot at being fantasy relevant. Sang-min “Myunbong” Min ranks 14th pre-draft day rankings, but Swimmer flies under the radar as a potential high-value draft choice. The main value point for the Boston backline is that they will be the play makers on this team. Having Bap as the main healer, Swimmer will have both high amounts of healing done and considerable damage done. At the end of your draft, keep an eye out for the rookie main support on Boston, he’s poised to have a great individual season.

Tanks

With Orisa and Sigma still terrorizing the ranked ladder, look for the flex tank player to dominate scoring on their team. Sigma’s damage and sustainability make him a perfect character for fantasy OWL. However, there have been rumors of some of the dive tanks coming back into action after the recent patch updates. If this is true, dive-tank players are the perfect deep sleeper picks that just may make the difference towards the end of your fantasy season.

Ding “Ameng” Menghan, Chengdu Hunters

Position Rank: 28th

Overall Rank: 103rd

If you are gonna take a shot at a main tank to make plays, make sure it’s the Wrecking Ball king himself.

Even though main tanks have much lower floors in fantasy, due to high death-rates and low damage output, Ameng could break the mold if his most well-known character fits in the meta. There have been rumblings of Ball/Pharah compositions performing well in Chinese Contenders, which would very much fit the Hunter’s play style. If that is the case, and Chengdu continues their meta-breaking strategies, Ameng could see a massive increase in fantasy value.

Su-min “Sado” Kim, Philadelphia Fusion

Position Rank: 30th

Overall Rank: 105th

Much like Ameng, Sado has the potential to be an extremely valuable player if the meta tilts his way. As a Winston specialist, Sado looked unstoppable when Philly decided to swap over to Winston-GOATs. If dive-centric compositions come to the forefront of the meta, Sado will be in really good shape. Otherwise, Sado has some excellent players behind him, which would allow him to perform even on Orisa. Being a good player on a good team is a great recipe for success in fantasy OWL. Sado will go very late in drafts, or even undrafted entirely, so it will be worth taking a shot at the sole Fusion main tank.

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