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San Francisco Shock boosts its frontline with a new addition to its Overwatch League roster. The franchise acquired the services of main tank Micheal “mikeyy” Konicki. The former Boston Uprising member of the 2020 roster makes his way to Shock.
Despite San Francisco Shock’s great run in the Overwatch Leagues Kickoff Clash tournament. The franchise makes a rookie signing with more collegiate Overwatch talent heading into the big leagues like Enrique “Joobi” Triana.
Shock took to its Twitter page to announce the main tank joining the team ahead of the Mid-Season madness. The acquisition is, however, pending league approval and can only be confirmed when the OWL approves.
For some North American Overwatch Contenders circuit fans, mikeyy is probably a familiar name. The 21-year old was among the players who were let go by Uprising for having underperformed.
Chris “HuK” Loranger, president of gaming for Boston Uprising had nothing but praises for the player. Despite his brief experience in the Overwatch Contenders space, he was deemed to be the right fit.
“Though mikeyy hasn’t been in the Overwatch Contenders scene for very long, we like what we’ve seen from him in that short amount of time,” said Uprising president of gaming Chris “HuK” Loranger. “We’re also happy to add a New England local to the team and hope our fans will root for this hometown player.”
But five months later he was dropped by the team as the Uprising attempted to clean its roster after a disappointing 2020 Overwatch League season. In their response to the poor season, the team parted ways with its main support Kobe “Halo” Hamand alongside mikeyy.
With the Uprising, mikeyy was designated as the substitute main tank under Cameron “Fusions” Bosworth. He had joined the team in May 2020 from the North American Overwatch Contenders team Noble, where he spent two months. After being dropped by the Uprising, he has since been a part of some successful esports teams like North American Contenders Ardour and Bobby Wasabi.
With his time in Wasabi coming to an end after days with the franchise, mikeyy joined Collegiate team Maryville Esports of Maryville University, on August 15, 2021. He won the Overwatch Collegiate Championship series in April with Maryville. The Missouri-based franchise took on Northwood University in the Finals and won in a best-of-5 series.
Through the Kickoff Clash qualifiers and the tournament itself, Shock featured only one tank, Coli. “Coluge” Arai. The acquisition of mikeyy will give room for both players to specialize on certain heroes as Coluge had resorted to using heroes like Winston and Doomfist in the tournament, a massive leap from his usual off-tank standbys. Mikeyy being on the team affords it the opportunity of making subs in different maps, as metals change, making the team flexible.
Shock had an amazing run in the first part of the season. The franchise recorded all wins, posting a 6-0 record making them the only team in the West Region in the Kickoff Clash qualifiers with such a record. Their run was, however, ended by the Atlanta Reign and they later crashed out after being swept by the Dallas Fuel in the lower bracket of the tournament.
With their first Midseason Madness qualifiers game kicking off on June 16. Mikeyy will possibly make his debut for the San Francisco Shock next week as they take on the Dallas Fuel again.
