The 2019 San Francisco Shock season was the second season of the San Francisco Shock's existence in the Overwatch League and their first full season under head coach Park Dae-hee. The team looked to improve from their 17–23 record from 2018 and qualify for their first stage or season playoffs.
The Shock's first match of the 2019 regular season resulted in a 4–0 sweep over the Dallas Fuel. The team followed the win by splitting the next six matches to finish Stage 1 with a 4–3 record and the sixth seed in the Stage 1 Playoffs. The team made it to the Stage 1 Finals, but they fell to the Vancouver Titans. San Francisco hit their stride in Stage 2, as the team completed the "perfect stage" with a 7–0 record and 28–0 map record. Qualified as the top seed in the Stage 2 Playoffs, the Shock defeated the Titans in the Stage 2 Finals. San Francisco dropped two matches in Stage 3, against the Houston Outlaws and Chengdu Hunters, and fell to the Shanghai Dragons in the Stage 3 Finals. The team finished the regular season with seven straight wins to post a 23–5 record, the second best in the league, and the third seed in the season playoffs.
San Francisco faced the sixth-seeded Atlanta Reign in the first round of the season playoffs, but the team fell in a heartbreaking 3–4 loss to drop to the losers bracket. The Shock responded to the loss by pulling off a dominant run in losers bracket; the team swept the London Spitfire in the first round, the Los Angeles Gladiators in the second round, the Hangzhou Spark in the third round, and the New York Excelsior in the losers finals to secure a spot in the Grand Finals, where they faced the Vancouver Titans. The Shock swept the Titans 4–0 to claim the title of Overwatch League Champions.
Preceding offseason Player re-signings From August 1 to September 9, 2018, all Overwatch League teams that competed in the 2018 season could choose to extend their team's players' contracts. Shock released three of their players in DPS André "iddqd" Dahlström, tank David "Nomy" Lizarraga Ramirez Osmar, and support Daniel "dhaK" Martinez Paz.
Free agency All non-expansion teams could not enter the free agency period until October 8, 2018; they were able to sign members from their respective academy team and make trades until then. Shock's first transaction was on September 18, when the team traded DPS Dante "Danteh" Cruz to Houston Outlaws in exchange for GG Esports Academy, Outlaws' academy team, main tank Yoo "Smurf" Myeong-hwan. A week later, Shock promoted Kim "Rascal" Dong-jun from their academy team NRG Esports. On October 24, Shock signed Park "Viol2t" Min-ki from Korean Overwatch Contenders team O2 Ardeont. On December 3, Shock acquired DPS Kwon "Striker" Nam-joo from Boston Uprising, bringing the team's roster total to the maximum of twelve players.
Regular season Stage 1 The Shock began their 2019 season with a match against the Dallas Fuel on February 15. San Francisco dominated in the match, as they won all four maps to secure a 4–0 sweep to open their season. Two days later, the team took on the Los Angeles Gladiators. After four maps, the series was tied 2–2, forcing the match to a fifth tiebreaker map; the Shock were unable to secure the final map win and lost the match 2–3. For their only match of week two, San Francisco faced the Vancouver Titans on February 24. Despite solid performances by Yoo "smurf" Myeong-hwan and Jay "sinatraa" Won, the Shock fell to the Titans by score of 1–3. The Shock's next match was against the Hangzhou Spark on February 28. While San Francisco fell in the first map, Ilios, they were able to full-hold the Spark on Hollywood to tie up the series heading into halftime. The Shock went on to win in overtime rounds on Temple of Anubis and dominate on Route 66 to take a 3–1 victory. Two days later, the Shock took on the Washington Justice. San Francisco dominated throughout the entirety of the match – completing Numbani in record-breaking time in the process – and won the match with a 4–0 sweep. For their final week of Stage 1, the team first faced the undefeated New York Excelsior on March 8. San Francisco was handed their first 0–4 loss of the season, but the match was much closer than the map score showed – Busan was pushed to three rounds, Numbani was pushed to a second attack phase, Volskaya Industries was pushed to a third attack phase, and Dorado was pushed to three rounds. San Francisco took on the Paris Eternal two days later. The Shock took the first three maps to go up 3–0 heading into the final map, Dorado. San Francisco was full-held on Dorado to lose the final map, but they won the series 3–1.
After the conclusion of the Stage 1 regular season, the Shock and the Seoul Dynasty had the exact same record and map differential; by rule, the teams had to face each other in an offline tiebreaker match to determine seeding for the Stage 1 Playoffs. San Francisco won the match to claim the sixth seed in the playoffs.
The Shock faced the third-seeded Toronto Defiant in the Stage 1 Quarterfinals on March 22. The match opened on Busan. Toronto ran mainly Sombra-focused team compositions; while the map was close, San Francisco was able to adapt to Toronto's compositions and took the first map. The Shock dominated on the following map, King's Row; led by main tank Matthew "super" DeLisi, the Shock were able to capture all three points on their attack and full-held the Defiant to take a 2–0 lead heading into the match break. On the map three, Horizon Lunar Colony, Toronto was able to capture both points, but San Francisco did the same with a larger time-bank. The Shock capitalized on their time advantage in overtime rounds to win the map and the series by a score of 3–0.
Advancing to the Stage 1 Semifinals, San Francisco faced the Philadelphia Fusion a day later. The Shock did not allow Philadelphia to claim a point on Ilios to open the match with a map win. On map two, Hollywood, the Shock captured all three points on their attack, thanks in part to support duo Grant "Moth" Espe and Park "Viol2t" Min-ki performing exceptionally well by keeping their teammates healed throughout all of the Fusion's aggressive attacks. San Francisco subsequently prevented the Fusion from claiming a single point on their attack to enter the match break up 2–0. Following the break, the match went to Horizon Lunar Colony, where Philadelphia was able to take both points on their attack, but San Francisco completed the same on their attack and took the map in overtime rounds. San Francisco closed out the match by completing the entirety of Rialto and full-holding Philadelphia to cement a 4–0 victory and advance to the Stage 1 Finals.
The Stage 1 Finals took place on March 24 with the Shock taking on the top-seeded Vancouver Titans. The match opened on Nepal. The Shock were able to punish Vancouver main tank Park "Bumper" Sang-beom's aggressive play style throughout the map; tide-turning Earthshatters from Shock's Matthew "super" DeLisi on Reinhardt pushed the Shock to claim the first map of the series. For the second map, the match went to Nepal. Contrasted to the first map, it was Vancouver's Bumper on Reinhardt executing well-timed Earthshatters, leading to the Shock being full-held and losing the map. The Shock chose Temple of Anubis for map three; the map went to overtime rounds after both teams completed the map, but the Shock once again completed the map and prevented the Titans from doing the same. For the fourth map, Vancouver selected Dorado. While the Shock put on a solid attack, they were prevented from completing the map; the Titans easily pushed the payload further than the Shock to tie up the series. Map six went to Ilios. The Shock won the first round, the Titans evened up the map by winning the second, and the Shock took the third round. The Titans selected King's Row for map seven, and they were able to complete the map on their attack led by stellar play from SeoMinSoo on Zarya. Despite clutch plays from Grant "Moth" Espe on Lúcio, the Shock could not capture all three points on their attack. The loss tied the series up 3–3 as the match went to a finals seventh map. For the final map, the Shock selected Rialto. San Francisco completed the map with a solid time-bank remaining, but Vancouver responded by completing the map with the fastest time recorded ever in the Overwatch League. With both teams completing the map, the match went to overtime rounds. The Shock attacked first, but they were held just before they could cap the first checkpoint. With over four minutes remaining in their time bank, the Titans were able to push the payload further to hand San Francisco a 3–4 loss.
Stage 2 Three days prior to their first match of Stage 2, Shock transferred DPS player Andrej "babybay" Francisty to Atlanta Reign. In their first match, Shock was led out to Blizzard Arena by NFL running back Marshawn Lynch to face Los Angeles Valiant; San Francisco rolled Los Angeles in the match, sweeping Valiant 4–0. Shock went on to sweep Guangzhou Charge in their second match of week one to post a perfect 8–0 map record for the week. Week two saw San Francisco face Guangzhou for the second time in a row; the result was the same, as Shock again swept Charge 4–0. Shock continued their dominance in week three, sweeping both Toronto Defiant and Hangzhou Spark. After their match against the Defiant, and before Hangzhou, San Francisco transferred flex support Nikola "sleepy" Andrews to Washington Justice. In the final week of the regular season of Stage 2, Shock continued their perfect stage by first defeating Philadelphia Fusion 4–0. San Francisco capped off the Stage 2 regular season by sweeping Shanghai Dragons; in the match, Shock set the record for map completion time on Paris twice – 1:57 on their first attempt and 1:36 on their second attempt. With the sweep, Shock completed the "perfect stage" with a 28–0 map record.
The top-seeded San Francisco Shock faced Shanghai Dragons, who they had just defeated in the last week of Stage 2, in the Stage 2 Quarterfinals. While Shanghai was able to win the first map of the match, ending San Francisco's map win streak, Shock took three maps in a row to move on to the Semifinals against Hangzhou Spark. In the Semifinals match, Shock did not allow Spark to cap a single point in the first three maps. Hangzhou was able to push the fourth map to overtime, but Shock took the map to sweep Spark.
The Stage 2 Finals were a rematch of the Stage 1 finals, with San Francisco Shock taking on Vancouver Titans. Shock came out with a quick lead, taking both points of the first map Lijiang Tower, but Vancouver quickly turned the tables, winning the second and third maps to go up 2–1 in the match. However, Shock was able to take three maps in a row to win the match 4–2, ending Vancouver's 19-match win streak, and were crowned Stage 2 Champions.
Stage 3