San Francisco Shock make roster cuts before free agency; Reinhardt’s Earthshatter gets rework on PTR

With just two weeks until the official free agency signing period for the Overwatch League, San Francisco Shock have made some offseason moves in an attempt to free up space. In an announcement made earlier this week on their official Twitter, the SF Shock have released nomy, dhaK and iddqd from their lineup in order to give these players sufficient time to square away a new deal with other teams once the free agency window opens up September 9.

Making the right call

As all Overwatch League teams find themselves in a ‘crunch time’ moment before the free agency window this month, different rosters are looking at their best options for long-term growth within the league. While some teams like Seoul Dynasty have made solid moves, and other teams like Dallas Fuel continue to be in trade talks, San Francisco Shock are marking their own direction for Season Two of the Overwatch League by clearing spots for next year.

© Blizzard Entertainment

In doing so, SF Shock parted ways with three fringe players on their roster as Moth, super, and sinatraa developed quite well in their first year. For iddqd, the release comes at no surprise as many long-term Overwatch fans questioned his signing last year, and his playing time within the league didn’t justify the move either. Iddqd played a measly five minutes in the entire Overwatch League against the lowly Shanghai Dragons during Stage Four, leaving much to be desired for one of the original greats of Overwatch when the game was first released.

With competitive play set aside, iddqd is still one of the biggest streamers in all of Overwatch and if the interest next year is strictly financial, there is a high chance the Swede can cut his losses via streaming if pro play eludes him in 2019.

For nomy and dhaK, the prospects weren’t that high after some disappointing runs of form during the league until they were ultimately replaced by their younger and more impressive counterparts. By all accounts, nomy is still a solid role player that can perform his role and will surely get offers from Contenders teams and expansion rosters if a spot needs to be filled.

dhaK on the other hand will need to use his surprise appointment to the Spanish World Cup team as a way to show off his skills in order to get back into contention for an Overwatch League team, or suffer the consequences of being unemployed next season.

Get behind me!

With the new Busan map being added in the next patch, one of the most highly criticized game mechanics is also being tweaked as Reinhardt’s Earthshatter is in development for a rework. If you’ve frequented the Overwatch subreddit since the game’s release, there’s no lack of evidence to show just how broken the hitbox radius for Renhardt’s ultimate is, and the Blizzard development team is finally nipping all those problems at the root.

© Blizzard Entertainment

In the new PTR changes, Reinhardt’s ultimate now regularly hits opponents on the side of the walls that are within range of the cone. On top of that, the hitbox will include inclines and opponents on the payload to ensure maximum effectiveness.

To temper the usage of earthshatter, Blizzard has also made sure that enemies who fall into the blast radius after the ultimate cast do not get hit unlike before, making sure that all of the popular complaints about Reinhardt’s buggy ultimate are finally being fixed.