It's been a wild few hours for San Francisco Shock fans as the back-to-back Overwatch League winners have announced the return of hitscan specialist Seonchang "ANS" Lee following the sudden retirement of Nam-joo "Striker" Kwon.
The news of Striker's sudden departure took every Shock and OWL fan by surprise, yet ANS' comeback was an even bigger shock (no pun intended), as the Widowmaker and Ashe playmaker was seemingly on his way to becoming an established Valorant player, having signed for T1's Academy team this past April.
The return of the king 👑
— San Francisco Shock (@SFShock) June 23, 2021
Welcome back to the Shock fam, @ansansniper__
(pending league approval) pic.twitter.com/DGVDEO3HfZ
As part of T1's Academy, ANS would help develop internal competition within the org with the promise of eventually rising the ranks and earning a spot in T1's main roster, which already features a former OWL player, Ha "Spyder" Jung-woo, formerly known as Sayaplayer.
(Picture: Overwatch League)
ANS, like the rest of the revamped T1 Academy team, didn't play a single event together, with the Korean starlet arriving at Los Angeles just this past May.
With this new addition, Shock, who has failed to qualify for both the May Melee and June Joust, will hope to get back on track for a potential threepeat, as they face Los Angeles Gladiators this upcoming 25th June as the Summer Showdown qualifiers get underway.