The Mayhem Continues: Florida continue making roster changes for Stage Two

The Florida Mayhem have been no strangers to roster shake ups in their two years within the Overwatch League, and this week was no different. Just last week, Florida Mayhem announced on their main website that they have made personnel changes in order to help their in-game and out of game synergy. Mayhem have now opted for a full Korean roster. With last week’s announcement, Mayhem part ways with Damon “Apply” Conti, Caleb “McGravy” McGarvey and Kevyn “TviQ” Lindström.

For the coaching staff, Mayhem also cut ties with both Vytis “Mineral” Lasaitis and Young Su “Yeah” Jung. In order to make up for that vacuum in coaching, Mayhem picked up Sang-min “INSIGHT” Oh who was one of the most successful coaches in the Contenders: Korea scene.

A shift in identity

In their short years since joining the Overwatch League after their Misfits days, Mayhem have found it difficult to find a consistent fan base with the slew of changes they’re making on an annual basis. Its not just the abundance of moves they make, it’s the variance in the squad on a weekly basis that makes watching their games a perplexing task for fans and pundits alike.

In Stage One, Mayhem’s most coveted star Jeong-woo “Sayaplayer” Ha, played limited minutes due to his playstyle not being favored in the meta. To be fair, Mayhem were not the only team that suffered from the GOATS phenomenon, but when your best player is one-dimensional to the point of benching, your prospects for success in any given meta will be detrimentally slim.

At this point, Florida Mayhem need a dedicated roster rebuild around their most functional members if they want to taste any form of playoff success for the rest of the season. With a full Korean roster and coaching staff, we may start to see their new team identity take shape, and their first week’s outing against London Spitfire remained highly contested despite their ailing roster news.

What’s next?

While Florida did remain competitive against the London Spitfire, there is still much work to be done tactically for this team. London kept their enemies on their toes as key players constantly swapped heroes at key points throughout the match and it felt like the Mayhem were playing catch up with ultimates rather than finding their best moment to counter as a collective unit.

When London engaged with triple tank, they almost always picked fights on their own terms as Jae-hui “Gesture” Hong was able to sop up a lot of focus for his team. Due to this expert positioning and team play, Jae-mo “Xepher” Koo was constantly picked off by London Spitfire and they couldn’t get any offensive push because of this threat. Florida did show a glimpse of creativity in their map on Hanamura behind Sayaplayer’s Bastion, but London were too solid across the board to drop any other maps.

In the next two weeks, Florida Mayhem face a tough schedule as they take on multiple playoff teams that are much more polished than London Spitfire at this current moment. If the Mayhem end week three with a record of 0-5 for the stage, there is a high chance they will continue to make roster moves until they eventually find a winning formula in an already competitively robust league. Time will tell if this all Korean lineup will finally make a difference for the organization.