In Overwatch, nothing excites me more than when a team fuses creativity and flexibility with a dash of innovation. That being said, with those three words there are a few names that I would expect to jump to the forefront of your thoughts, but one should stand out.

With Meta Athena’s upcoming game against Lunatic-Hai on the 11th of September, I wanted to take a look back at what could have been our first “royal road” in Overwatch. While compiling information and watching old VODs one name kept coming up; Libero. Meta Athena’s new additions to the team, Rio and Hyeonu, seem to be doing well enough, but Meta Athena still struggles to find their identity when Libero is on the DPS role. If we remember back to Season 2 and in early Season 3 Libero mostly played D.Va. When Season 3 started to shift more towards dive, he began his transition off of D.Va and began picking up his Genji and Soldier 76 play.

That being said, Meta Athena still has yet to find the success that they once had in APEX Season 2. “The” Cinderella story of the year, Meta Athena come straight out of the Challenger Scene and went on an unprecedented 16-0 winning streak before losing to the would be champions in the Round of 4, Lunatic-Hai. The crux of that rising talent was none other than Libero. He was not always the star of the show, but when the team needed him, he stole the spotlight. Now, they have taken down the likes of the rising talents in MVP Space and the Afreeca Freecs in the Bigfile Overwatch Battleroyal, but they still haven't managed much in terms of footing in the APEX Season 4.

Libero is insane. Period. You almost want him to play sub-tank just because of how skilled he is at D.Va, but then you miss out on having one of the most explosive and flexible DPS that is not on a tier 1 Korean team. He is still leading D.Va averages with his stat lines from Seasons 2 and 3 after he has drifted off the hero early to mid Season 3 and has been replaced in that same role by his teammate Hoon. With a large amount of talent in Korea, I imagine it would be fairly simple to find a suitable replacement for Libero, as a DPS player, while keeping his very niche skill set for subtanks like D.Va and Zarya.

Libero in the purest essence is exactly how we would describe Meta Athena. His play is creative, flexible, and has a flash of innovation at times. He is ahead of the pack when it comes to statistics on D.Va and not from small margins. Libero has set the benchmark for aggressive and a more kill-oriented style of D.Va play all the way back in Season 2. Without further ado, let’s take a look at some of Libero’s statistics compared with some of the leading D.Va players during Seasons 2 and 3.

Joseph “Volamel” Franco has followed esports since the MLG’s of 2006. He started out primarily following Starcraft 2, Halo 3, and Super Smash Bros. Melee. He has transitioned from viewer to journalist and writes freelance primarily about Overwatch and League of Legends. If you would like to know more or follow his thoughts on esports you can follow him at @Volamel.