Ranked 16th in my end-of-season power rankings for 2019 , the Florida Mayhem, just like every other team, are looking to have a more successful run in the Overwatch League in 2020. After 2 years of being dominated by most of their opponents, it's time for this team to turn things up a notch, have greater ambitions, and coach the heck out of their players.

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TANK

The Mayhem currently have Fate and Karayan on main tank, and Gargoyle on off-tank.

Undoubtedly the best player among the 3 is Fate, who has a ton of experience at the OWL level, and has had some success in it in its first season. Albeit he couldn't do a great job with the Mayhem in 2019, he is still a good main tank to have on your team, and will probably serve as the backbone of the roster going into Season 3. On main tank along with Fate is Karayan, and he is a big question mark for me. I haven't really seen him play in Contenders, but based on his track record, I don't think he's going to do wonders in OWL. He has a very mixed track record with his former team, WGS Armament, with his best runs being during the early Goats Meta. That leads me to believe he plays a decent Reinhardt and Winston, but I don't know about his Orisa and Wrecking Ball play. All I can gauge from the information I have about him is that there's no reason I would field him over Fate. Fate is a proven player, he can play a few different main tanks to a high level, and he's got experience, which can prove vital going into the League's third season.

The sole off-tank on the team is Gargoyle, and he made his main appearances during Stage 4 last year, playing a pretty good Roadhog during the Bunker Meta. A good portion of the community as well as some analysts seem to think he's overrated, but I don't agree with that. I've watched his POV, and he seemed to be a better Hog player than a lot of other off-tank players last year, and granted that we haven't seen much of him on the other off-tanks (except maybe D.Va, which he was good at too), we can assume he's above average at the very least.

In conclusion, if I were coaching the Mayhem, Fate-Gargoyle would be my tanks of choice going into Season 3, and no, they're not a mind-blowing duo, but I think they will still be middle-of-the-pack somewhere in 2020.





DPS

On the damage dealer role, the Mayhem have got Sayaplayer, BQB, and Yaki.

I must admit, Sayaplayer was my favourite Widow player in the sparse amount of time I spent watching Season 1 of the League, and I really missed seeing him on his signature heroes in Season 2, which I followed quite ardently. To anyone who doesn't know Saya, he's a literal aim God; his prowess on hitscan heroes like Widowmaker and McCree is well-known, and he also had a few moments on Hanzo in Stage 4 of the 2019 season. As excellent as he is at confirming kills though, he has a very limited hero pool, and is not very good on non-hitscan heroes. I think this could be a liability for Florida, since hitscan heroes haven't been meta for a while, and if Saya doesn't learn to adapt to the required hero pool, he might cause the Mayhem some problems. BQB, who got famous for his Sombra play in Contenders before getting picked up by Florida, partnered with Sayaplayer on the DPS role last season. He was pretty good in the Goats Meta, since he could play Sombra quite often and really cause his opponents some problems. Unfortunately, the rest of this team wasn't good enough at playing those types of comps, which is why his efforts went relatively unnoticed. Talking about 2020, I don't think BQB will bring a lot to the table, since although he plays projectile heroes like Junkrat and Hanzo as well, he's only shown us his proficiency on Sombra, which adds to Florida's problem of highly restricted DPS pools.

The sole new DPS pickup for the Mayhem (at least so far) is Yaki, formerly of RunAway. As far as I know, Yaki is a very versatile player, and can play a good range of projectile heroes and flankers. He can occasionally pop off in-game as well, and is probably the most adaptable player in Florida's DPS line right now. One just has to hope that he doesn't fall short because of nerves or his lack of Tier-1 experience, and if he avoids these obstacles, I'm sure he'll be a great asset to the team.

Sadly, in summary, Florida has a pretty weak DPS line. Yaki is certainly a great pickup, and he just might be the saving grace for this squad, but Sayaplayer and BQB's lack of flexibility and, as of now, non-meta hero pools are very concerning, and have compelled me to say that this trio is probably a bottom-5 DPS line.





SUPPORT

The Mayhem's support line for 2020 comprises of Kris, Byrem and Gangnamjin, which I think is a pretty safe and reliable trio when you look at the other support lines in the League.

Kris was Florida's main support for most of last season, and he is okay. It's safe to say that he was pretty average on the role in 2019, and I don't see that changing in 2020. I really don't have much else to say about Kris, because he didn't make any noticeable plays last season and didn't even mess up a lot, because of which he was never a focal point of any conversation. He's just a safe bet, and maybe he can do better this time round because he built up some synergy with a few of his teammates last season, but other than that, yeah, he's there. I think Byrem is in a fairly similar position, and I know even less about how he plays since he was just a backup flex support for the Mayhem last year, due to which he didn't see a lot of playtime. Again, he's also a safe bet since he must have built up synergy with whomever is playing for Florida again this year.

The Mayhem have also added Gangnamjin, a flex support who was on RunAway with Yaki quite recently. Similar to Yaki, I think Gangnamjin is a great pickup, since he's had a ton, and I mean a ton of success with RunAway during his time on the team. He's played through and won tournaments in multiple metas, and is seemingly a pretty consistent player, which is why I think he could add some much-needed flavour to the Mayhem's backline.

All-in-all, I'm thinking the Mayhem's backline is shaping up to be above-average, and I'm wondering if I'm underrating the importance of team synergy here, which Kris and Byrem have already built up with the team. They're pretty safe players, and maybe just the fact that they've been on this team for a while might give them an edge over a few other backlines in the League, especially considering the lowered practice time each team will have due to travel constraints this year. Again, I'm happy with Gangnamjin, who is certainly a competent flex support, so maybe this backline shapes up to be Top 10, and not because they've got very good players, but because they've got one great player, and two serviceable ones with pre-established synergy. I'm just speculating here since there are so many question marks before me, so if you have any takes on this, please leave a comment below!





THE RAW LOOK VS. REALITY

The Florida Mayhem are a really mixed bag of players. Some of them are really good on their signature heroes but have restricted hero pools, some are just unproven on the Tier-1 stage entirely, some have potential but have failed to live up to it, and some are just plain average. Due to the variability in the qualities and traits of each player, I think they might be a bottom-5 team this year too. This team just has too many disparate pieces which are trying to work in harmony, and looking at their performance last year, their additions this year, as well as the changes to the other rosters in the League, I don't think the Mayhem will be having anywhere close to a breakout season in 2020. This roster looks unimpressive on paper, and I think that's a fairly realistic look if you examine whom they've got on the team, so yeah, it's seemingly going to be a hat-trick of poor seasons for Florida. As bad as I feel for them, they've not made many sensible additions to their roster, and I don't know whether it's because of a shortage of funds, misplaced confidence, or just bad scouting. Going into 2020 with an average tank line, inflexible DPS line, and an unproven support line, the Mayhem are walking into a death trap, and I think this might be the last straw for this franchise if they do get run over once again.



