Can Florida Mayhem succeed with slim six man roster?

As the only six man roster in the Overwatch League, have Florida Mayhem spread themselves too thin with their squad selection this season?

No need for backup

With the newly announced rosters coming into OWL this season, strength in numbers has been a common trend for teams like London Spitfire and the Los Angeles Gladiators, who have built their roster around varied styles with unique players in each position. Florida Mayhem has a solid core of players comprised of the former Misfits Gaming line-up that had varied amounts of success.

TviQ is one of those premier Swedish talents that could be the starting point to a solid team for Mayhem, his ability to succeed on virtually any flex DPS or hitscan champion makes him a valuable player at the role. His Swedish counterparts in Manetten, Zebbosai, and CWoosh carry a similar pedigree of flair, but their versatility at flex tank and support very heavily based on the meta.

Belgian DPS player Logix has been a standout player in his position for quite a while now, but the requirement to have Mercy in the meta takes away from his impact as his aggressive ‘pick’ style has been neutralized with the resurrection power Mercy brings to the game. With the meta shifting over to a Mercy centric support usage, Zuppeh has fallen off in that regards due to his prowess on different heroes like Zenyatta and Lucio. Even still, his ability on Zenyatta is not up to par with the most elite supports in the league, and the lack of flex picks in depth for Florida Mayhem will make them extremely vulnerable across any given four game series.

Room for improvement

Zebbosai’s ability to succeed on off-meta heroes like Ana and Lucio have yet to carry over given the focus of Mercy in this current stage of play. His consistency to be the lead shot caller on Misfits was hindered by the varying meta changes that didn’t let him settle into any kind of comfort zone with his best hero. With that said, their ability to succeed on triple DPS compositions may be their only ace in the hole to combat an oversaturated support meta that does not suit their players.

In this current iteration of the game, having a six man roster limits your ability to wean picks and playstyles off the meta and really impose your own print on the game. With that said, the following transfer period immediately after the first play-in stage will be crucial for Florida Mayhem to make quality pick-ups to bolster their roster. While they may find success early on in a few series with sheer talent and ability, the marathon league format of OWL will expose a lot more holes in their overall team play style if they’re not able to diversify their roles. Tank players like ChrisTFer and Zappis would be quality players to add depth at the tank position and would open up the field of play for Mayhem quite a bit.