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Fleta (gamer)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In this Korean name, the family name is Kim.
Fleta
Kim in 2019
Current team
TeamYETI
RoleCoach
GameOverwatch
LeagueOverwatch Champions Series
Personal information
Name김병선
(Kim Byung-sun)
BornSeptember 2, 1999 (1999-09-02) (age 25)
NationalitySouth Korean
Career information
Playing career2017–2023
RoleDamage, Tank
Coaching career2023–present
Team history
As player:
2017Flash Lux
2017Lunatic-Hai
2018–2019Seoul Dynasty
2020–2023Shanghai Dragons
As coach:
2023Shanghai Dragons
2024YETI
Career highlights and awards

Kim Byung-sun (Korean: 김병선, born September 2, 1999), better known by his online alias Fleta, is a South Korean Overwatch coach and former professional player. He began his esports career with Flash Lux and had a brief stint playing for Lunatic-Hai. Kim signed with the Seoul Dynasty of the Overwatch League (OWL) in its inaugural season. After two years with the Dynasty, he signed with the Shanghai Dragons. In the middle of the 2023, Kim transitioned to a coaching role.

Kim is known for his extreme flexibility to play as nearly any hero at a high level. Since the inception of the OWL, Kim has been selected to play in every All-Star Game, was awarded with a Role Star commendation in 2020, was named the 2020 Overwatch League Most Valuable Player, and won the 2021 Grand Finals with the Dragons. Outside of the OWL, Kim won OGN Seoul Cup with Lunatic-Hai and won the 2018 Overwatch World Cup as a member of South Korea.

Early years

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Kim was born on September 2, 1999.[1]

Professional career

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Early career

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Kim played for South Korean team Flash Lux in OGN Overwatch APEX seasons two through four. In his nine months with the team, Kim claimed over 50% of his team's final blows, a statistic referring to when a player lands the final shot that kills an opponent;[2] however, Flash Lux did not win a single match the group stage in of any of the tournaments, going 0–9 overall.[3]

Kim signed with South Korean team Lunatic-Hai in October 2017. After playing five days with the team, Kim team won the OGN Seoul Cup with the team after defeating teams Miraculous Youngster and Cloud 9 KongDoo in the tournament.[4][5]

Seoul Dynasty

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Days after winning the Seoul Cup, Kim was signed to the Seoul-based team, later revealed as the Seoul Dynasty, in Blizzard Entertainment's upcoming Overwatch League.[6] In the beginning of the 2018 season, Kim performed well enough to put himself in the conversation for the league's most valuable player,[7][8] but he struggled to maintain his consistency in the later half.[9] Despite Seoul not making any stage playoffs or season playoffs in 2018, Kim was named as a starter for the 2018 All-Star Game.[10][11]

Through the first three stages of the 2019 season, the team composition that was most prevalent in the league was three tanks and three supports. With damage characters not as viable, Kim spent over 85% of his playing time as the tank Zarya or support Brigitte,[12] although he was often benched.[13] In Stage 4, the league implemented an enforced 2-2-2 role lock, where teams were required to run a team composition of two damage, two tank, and two support characters. Kim saw more playing time going forward, mainly playing as Mei.[14] Seoul's season ended in the first round of the lower bracket of the season playoffs, as they fell to the Hangzhou Spark, 1–4.[15] Kim was selected as a starter for the 2019 All-Star Game.[16]

Shanghai Dragons

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In November 2019, Kim was transferred to the Shanghai Dragons.[17][18] In the 2020 season, Kim he won his first OWL midseason tournament title, defeating his former team Seoul Dynasty the Asia-Pacific (APAC) May Melee finals, 4–3, on May 24, 2020.[19] He and the team reached the finals in the second tournament of the season, the APAC Summer Showdown, although they lost the finals match to the Guangzhou Charge.[20] In the APAC Countdown Cup finals, Kim played on a multitude of different characters as the Dragons went on to defeat the Hangzhou Spark to claim their second midseason tournament title.[21] At the end of the regular season, Kim had the third best eliminations per minute (2.01),[22] fifth most in final blows (1084), fifth best final blow-to-death ratio (2) and fifth most eliminations (2529), and helped the team finish the regular season with a league-best 27–2 record and advance to the Grand Finals bracket of the 2020 Overwatch League playoffs.[23] However, a loss to the Seoul Dynasty in the lower bracket finals ended their playoff run.[24] Kim received numerous accolades for his performance in the 2020 season. He was named a 2020 All-Star, marking the third consecutive season he had received the honor,[25] named a Role Star, a roster voted on by OWL general managers, coaches, broadcast talent, and the media, and was named the 2020 Overwatch League Most Valuable Player.[23]

On March 23, 2021, Blizzard released commemorative, in-game skin for Echo, in honor of his MVP award.[26] The skin was the last MVP inspired skin made, after the league decided to discontinue making them based on individual players.[27]

Kim picked up two more midseason tournament titles in the 2021 season, defeating the Dallas Fuel, 4–3, in the June Joust finals and the Chengdu Hunters, 4–1, in the Summer Showdown finals; he was named the Player of the Match in the Summer Showdown finals.[28][29] He was a candidate for the league's MVP award in the 2021 season,[30] and on September 26, 2021, Kim won his first OWL Grand Finals title, after the Dragons defeated the Atlanta Reign, 4–0, in the 2021 Grand Finals.[31]

The Dragons announced, in March 2023, that Kim would be switching from the damage role to the tank role for the 2023 season.[32] On June 27, the Dragons announced that he would retire as a player and become one of their assistant coaches.[33]

National team career

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Kim was selected to participate in the 2018 Overwatch World Cup as a member of Team South Korea.[34] The team did not lose a single series and defeated Team China in the finals at BlizzCon in Anaheim, California.[35]

Player profile

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Kim primarily played damage heroes. Early in his career, he established a reputation of performing at a high level while on otherwise underperforming teams.[36] In a match when he was playing with Flash Lux, Kim secured over half of his team's final blows in one of the maps; this led to an official OWL statistic being created called the "Fleta Deadlift" – officially defined as when a player "accounts for 50 percent or more of their team's final blows in a map."[23][37] Despite statistic being named after him, Kim had only secured one Fleta Deadlift in the OWL as of July 16, 2021.[37] Able to play a wide variety of different characters, he also established himself as an extremely flexible player, leading to the phrase "Fleta is the Meta" to become popular among Seoul Dynasty fans in the 2018 season.[13] The phrase and statistic were incorporated into an event at the 2020 All-Star Weekend; the "Who is Meta?" competition, a play off of "Fleta is Meta", was an event in which the player with the highest Fleta Deadlift percentage won the game.[25]

References

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  1. ^ Seoul Dynasty [@SeoulDynasty] (January 7, 2018). "Our DPS team members are ready to show the #OWL2018 what they're made of" (Tweet). Retrieved April 16, 2021 – via Twitter.
  2. ^ D'Orazio, Nick (January 11, 2018). "Here is why everyone is talking about Seoul Dynasty Fleta's insane OWL debut". InvenGlobal. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
  3. ^ Chiu, Stephen (January 23, 2018). "Fleta vs. Pine, Showdown on Oasis". VPEsports. Archived from the original on January 30, 2018. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
  4. ^ Tuffs, Josh (October 16, 2017). "Where did Lunatic-Hai go wrong?". Dot Esports. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
  5. ^ Yong, Jae Jeon (October 19, 2017). "Fleta, Lunatic-Hai's new DPS, is robotic but electric". ESPN. Archived from the original on November 11, 2020. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
  6. ^ Carpenter, Nicole (October 16, 2017). "Team Seoul adds three players to its Overwatch League roster". Dot Esports. Archived from the original on June 30, 2019. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
  7. ^ Erzberger, Tyler (February 12, 2019). "Overwatch League offseason grades: Pacific Division". ESPN. Retrieved April 2, 2022.
  8. ^ Vejnovic, Tatjana (July 19, 2018). "Overwatch Wire's MVP votes explained | Opinion". Overwatch Wire. USA Today. Archived from the original on October 21, 2018. Retrieved April 2, 2022.
  9. ^ Torres, Xander (June 6, 2018). "Seoul Holding On". Overwatch League.
  10. ^ Carpenter, Nicole (June 21, 2018). "Overwatch League All-Star Game starters have been revealed". Dot Esports. Archived from the original on August 7, 2020. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
  11. ^ "2019 Team Preview: Seoul Dynasty". Overwatch League. January 30, 2019. Archived from the original on November 8, 2020. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
  12. ^ "Five Players to Watch in Stage 4". Overwatch League. July 18, 2019. Retrieved April 2, 2022.
  13. ^ a b Richardson, Liz (July 24, 2019). "Overwatch League DPS players that will return with role lock". Dot Esports. Archived from the original on November 11, 2020. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
  14. ^ Rand, Emily (August 27, 2019). "Expansion teams, last year's finalists vie for final Overwatch League playoff spots". ESPN. Archived from the original on September 20, 2019. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
  15. ^ "Shock, Spark stay alive in OWL playoffs". ESPN. Reuters. August 27, 2019. Archived from the original on December 5, 2019. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
  16. ^ Khan, Asif (May 6, 2019). "Overwatch League All-Star starters and game modes revealed". Shacknews. Archived from the original on September 18, 2020. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
  17. ^ Wolf, Jacob (October 25, 2019). "Source: Shanghai Dragons, Seoul Dynasty verbally agree to Fleta transfer". ESPN. Archived from the original on November 12, 2020. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
  18. ^ Richardson, Liz (November 12, 2019). "Fleta joins the Shanghai Dragons". Dot Esports. Archived from the original on September 18, 2020. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
  19. ^ Ocal, Arda (June 5, 2020). "Overwatch League announces the Summer Showdown". ESPN. Retrieved April 2, 2022.
  20. ^ Richardson, Liz (July 5, 2020). "Guangzhou Charge, Paris Eternal win Overwatch League Summer Showdown". Dot Esports. Archived from the original on March 29, 2021. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
  21. ^ Richardson, Liz (August 9, 2020). "San Francisco Shock, Shanghai Dragons win Overwatch League Countdown Cup tournament". Dot Esports. Archived from the original on September 24, 2020. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
  22. ^ Richardson, Liz (September 13, 2020). "Fleta wins 2020 Overwatch League MVP award". Dot Esports. Retrieved April 2, 2022.
  23. ^ a b c Ocal, Arda (September 13, 2020). "Fleta named 2020 Overwatch League MVP". ESPN. Archived from the original on September 25, 2020. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
  24. ^ Richardson, Liz (October 9, 2020). "San Francisco Shock and Seoul Dynasty will face off in 2020 Overwatch League Grand Finals championship". Dot Esports. Archived from the original on December 1, 2020. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
  25. ^ a b Richardson, Liz (September 25, 2020). "Everything you need to know about the 2020 Overwatch League Asia All-Stars event". Dot Esports. Archived from the original on November 29, 2020. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
  26. ^ Richardson, Liz (March 23, 2021). "Fleta's Overwatch League MVP Echo skin is now available". Dot Esports. Retrieved April 2, 2022.
  27. ^ Clayton, Natalie (March 25, 2021). "Overwatch League MVPs will no longer get their own unique skins". PC Gamer. Retrieved April 2, 2022.
  28. ^ Richardson, Liz (July 17, 2021). "Shanghai Dragons win the Overwatch League Summer Showdown". Dot Esports. Retrieved April 2, 2022.
  29. ^ "Dragons capture June Joust in epic comeback over Fuel". Reuters. June 13, 2021. Retrieved April 2, 2022.
  30. ^ Garcia, Ethan (August 13, 2021). "Fleta, Sp9rk1e among MVP candidates for 2021 Overwatch League season". Dot Esports. Retrieved April 2, 2022.
  31. ^ Richardson, Liz (September 25, 2021). "Shanghai Dragons win the 2021 Overwatch League championship". Dot Esports. Retrieved September 26, 2021.
  32. ^ Landis, Robbie (March 9, 2023). "Shanghai Dragons Epic DPS Players Swap to Tank and Support". Esports Illustrated. Retrieved March 20, 2023.
  33. ^ Shanghai Dragons [@ShanghaiDragons] (June 27, 2023). "The greater the ability, the greater the responsibility. Welcome, our new Assistant Coach, Fleta" (Tweet). Retrieved July 17, 2023 – via Twitter.
  34. ^ Carpenter, Nicole (October 22, 2018). "South Korea swaps out some of its core 7 Overwatch World Cup players". Dot Esports. Archived from the original on January 26, 2021. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
  35. ^ "South Korea wins third straight Overwatch World Cup". ESPN. Reuters. November 3, 2018. Archived from the original on November 29, 2020. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
  36. ^ Qu, Bonnie (September 29, 2021). "Saying goodbye to the first era of Overwatch". Upcomer. Retrieved April 2, 2022.
  37. ^ a b Richardson, Liz (July 16, 2021). "What is a Fleta Deadlift in the Overwatch League?". Dot Esports. Retrieved April 2, 2022.
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Awards and achievements
Preceded by Overwatch League MVP
2020 		Succeeded by
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