The Uncrowned COTY: Crusty

The Uncrowned COTY: Crusty

Time Stamp: April 22, 2023 2:42 PM

No one can call Daehee ‘Crusty’ Park anything but a top-tier coach in the Overwatch League. His name is synonymous with the San Francisco Shock in ways that few coaches are. Crusty has created a dynasty within San Francisco and yet has not been recognized as COTY yet by the Overwatch League. With all his successes throughout his time in the League, he has been passed by for COTY (Coach of the Year) for years, with the title still alluding him. With a team that is made up of almost all newbies to the Overwatch League, this might be the year he clutches the title for himself if the results are strong. 

His Track Record

Crusty has been with the San Francisco Shock for longer than some teams have existed in the Overwatch League. In the Inaugural season of the Overwatch League, the Shock was not having the best results. The first two stages their record was 3-7. When Crusty came onto the team the results started looking up. In stage 3 was 6-4 and stage 4 was 5-5 breaking even or ending up in the positive when it came to wins and losses. They even achieved in stage 3 a 2nd place finish in the stage title. Not only did he change the team environment but brought in new players to help supplement the team. 

Back-to-back Overwatch League Wins

2019 should have been Crusty’s year to be Coach of the Year. Unfortunately for him, Coach of the year didn’t appear as an award until 2020. This is the year that the Shock placed top 2 in each tournament, with their first overall win of the Overwatch League. The Shock was dominating in all aspects. This set up the expectation and precedent that the Shock was a dominating force that was a double-edged sword for a coach like Crusty looking for the COTY award. 

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In Season 3, not only did Crusty lead the team to top 3 performances all season, but he achieved with the team back-to-back wins in the Overwatch League. It was not anything that had been done before. Back-to-back wins was an impressive feat with the fact that the Overwatch League was thrown into chaos because of COVID-19 and the addition of hero pools that were added. This honor went to Coach Moon in 2020 because of the work that he did with the Shanghai Dragons and his strategies. 

Vice-Champions 2022

While Season 4 was hard on the Shock they bounced back in Season 5. This was the season with a new game of Overwatch 2. Crusty came in with some new faces as well as old talent and worked his magic. With the exception of the Kickoff Clash, the team picked up 2nd place finishes throughout the season. Not only did they make it to the Grand Final weekend, but faced up against the Dallas Fuel in the Season 6 Grand Finals to become the ‘Season 6 Vice Champions’. In a new game with some new players to the Overwatch League in a mixed roster Crusty was still able to achieve such highs in the League. 

COTY Vote of Season 5

The fact in Season 5 of the Overwatch League, Crusty only got 8 votes for COTY when the Shock was the runner-up, as well as housed MVP, is astounding. Christopher ‘Christfer’ Graham, head coach of the London Spitfire, did amazing work to bring a team up from what many thought would be a lower-tier team. But the fact that the votes were not even close is mind-boggling. 

The Narrative

When the narrative is ‘of course, the Shock will be great, Crusty is on it’ it is hard to over-exceed the community’s expectations. North America loves the underdog narrative. The Shanghai Dragons go 0-40 to winning a match, or the London Spitfire who was predicted to be one of the worst in the league makes it to the Grand Final weekend. These are stories that the community loves to hear and the desk can run with on the stream. This is not to say that these coaches in previous years didn’t deserve the COTY award, but the narrative around their success definitely helped.

Crusty already is the two-time champion of the Overwatch League. The Shock has won multiple tournaments. They have housed MVP talent and have topped the leaderboards. What else is there to achieve other than to continue the domination? But that shouldn’t be overlooked or purely expected. Crusty and the team have put in a lot of hard work to earn that reputation. For his achievements to just be expected so that it is not celebrated equally by a historically lower-ranking team is not fair. Though when the team doesn’t do as well in a game they are more harshly judged for their performance because of that history. It is a lose-lose situation.

For Crusty to have persevered through it all to focus on the team. He is working against the narrative as other coaches who more easily can play underdog experience. This does not mean he is less deserving of the recognition of COTY because he has had a constant level of success. If anything that shows why he should be recognized for his consistency as a coach. 

Watch out for Crusty COTY 2023

Looking at all that Crusty has accomplished COTY might not be enough. His record as a coach is unmatched. The fact that he has not been recognized is a disservice for all that he has done for the league. Hopefully this year with a team that might be under-valued by the community, Crusty will be able to work his magic to get high results as well as play the underdog narrative so that he can finally be recognized with the COTY award that has been a long time in the making. 

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