The Philadelphia Fusion has been one of Overwatch League’s most successful teams. They achieved second place overall in the Inaugural Season, going all the way to the Grand Finals at the Barclay’s Center in New York.
Last time in the series, the team’s DPS players got the spotlight. But now it’s time for the tanks, the people that take in the damage and open up space.
Poko
Name: Gael “Poko” Gouzerch
Birthday: July 21, 1996
Country: France
Jersey Number: 21
Twitter: @Poko
Twitch: poko
The Philadelphia Fusion’s star D.Va player. His preferred hero pool is composed of D.Va, Zarya, Soldier 76 and Mei. He has been part of the Fusion since the first announcement of their Inaugural Season squad. He is mostly known for his perfect executions of D.Va’s ultimate, Self Destruct, to the point where it is now known as a “Poko Bomb”.
Before Overwatch, he used to play Counter-Strike 1.6. Even though he never dove into the competitive side of the game, he felt like he was on a level that if he put in more time, he could easily make it in. He was always a very competitive person. Apart from playing a lot of video games, he also used to play sports like handball and football.
In the beginning, his family was not very sure that this was something he could do for a living, and even though they supported him, they urged him to keep studying. Now that he is playing on the Overwatch League, everything is different, his family is very happy that he is in Los Angeles with his team and they support him all the way from France.
He joined his first team a couple of months after the release of the game, team Xoxo, and played in only one tournament with them, the Go4Overwatch France Cup #11. They were eliminated from the tournament during the quarterfinals, but their elimination would bring Poko more good than bad results, as a couple of months later he was brought in by that same team, GamersOrigin. In a period of time before he was picked up by them, he was part of a team called PuLse Gaming, but he never competed with them in any tournament.
GamersOrigin was a team that really let Poko shine. He stayed there for almost a whole year and participated with them in a large number of competitions. From Weekly events like Go4Overwatch Cups to major tournaments like the Overwatch PIT Championship and even Overwatch Contenders 2017 Europe Season Zero and 1, where he finished fourteenth and fifth, respectively. He won competitions like the Montpellier eSport Show, DreamHack Tours 2017 BYOC and the Gaming WinterFest.
He was also part of Overwatch World Cup 2018 with Team France. They flew through the Paris Qualifiers winning all of their matches and only losing two maps to Team Germany. However, their appearance at Blizzcon was cut short as they were quickly disqualified by Team Canada in the quarterfinals.
Highlights
Fragi
Name: Joona “Fragi” Laine
Birthday: December 5, 1990
Country: Finland
Jersey Number: 54
Twitter: @fragi
Twitch:Â fragiOW
The bearded man himself, this is Fusion’s own Reinhardt specialist. The Heroes he favors the most are Winston and Reinhardt. He has been part of the Philadelphia Fusion since before the start of the Inaugural Season as part of the original squad. He was considered one of the world’s best Reinhardt players during the Inaugural Season thanks to his extremely aggressive playstyle, but he hasn’t seen stage time as of Season 2’s first Stage.
Throughout all of his career in esports, he has been playing in almost the same style, no matter the game. World of Warcraft, Dota 2 and now Overwatch, Fragi’s aggro tanking has led him to greatness. He was part of the WoW guild, Paragon, which was considered the most successful PvE guild in the world, having many first clears on many raids.
During his time in this game, he used the battletag FRAGGOJI to play a Paladin Tank who always aimed to make more damage than what he took, even if that cost him his life. His path in Dota 2 was also a successful one, with his most notable achievement in the game placing third with Team Finland in the IeSF 2014 World Championship in Baku.
His first steps in Overwatch were made during the closed beta back in 2015. He was briefly part of a team called World of Warcrafters, which competed in only one GosuGamers Weekly Cups. Almost immediately, the team changed its name to Paragon and continued to participate in GosuGamers Weeklies and in GD Overwatch EU Laststand, where they were eliminated by team “MyDong”.
After a while, Fragi, alongside his WoW guildmaster, decided to form team SG-1. They formed the team with an all Finnish lineup composed of players from the CS:GO, Team Fortress and WoW scenes. This squad went all over the place competing in everything they could, weeklies like Go4Overwatch Cups and GosuGamers and minors were their main appearances. Their results weren’t spectacular, but they still performed, and their performance didn’t go unnoticed.
The full squad of SG-1 was signed as Ninjas in Pyjamas decided it was time to get into the Overwatch Scene. His time here proved to be, in contrast to his past in Overwatch, extremely successful. After a slightly rough beginning, the team started winning almost every single event they participated in.
When Overwatch League was announced, the team entered the qualifiers for Overwatch Contenders 2017 Europe: Season Zero and actually managed to clutch a spot in, but it was then that Ninjas in Pyjamas decided that the Overwatch League had no future for the esports franchise and disassembled the team. The squad, as they had already managed to get into the tournament, got together on team Rest In Pyjamas and even managed to get fifth place. It was after this that the squad decided to go looking for a sponsor to their team. They reached out to the Finnish electronics store Gigantti, which was happy to help them.
This was the beginning of Team Gigantti. This same group of players went under their new name and proceeded to stomp the competition in Overwatch Contenders 2017 Season 1: Europe and win first place. After this, they were sought out by various Overwatch League Teams.
He has also been seen playing in two editions of the Overwatch World Cup, in 2017 and 2018. In his first World Cup, their participation was cut short as they weren’t able to go through the Sydney Qualifiers. However, in 2018 they were one of the toughest contenders as they glided through their qualifier in Incheon, Korea.
Their only loss was to Team South Korea, and even though it’s not really a surprise, the game was very not easy for the Koreans, as Finland was the only team that took maps from them during the whole competition. In Blizzcon, they were eliminated in the quarterfinals by Team China, who ended taking second place.
Highlights:
Sado
Name: Su-min “SADO” Kim
Birthday: January 15, 1999
Country: South Korea
Jersey Number: 9
Twitter:Â @sado_ow
Twitch:Â sado_ow
His most notable characters are Reinhardt and Winston. He has been part of the Philadelphia Fusion since before the start of the Inaugural Season’s Pre-Season but was unable to participate until Stage 4 due to a suspension. His 30 game suspension has been the longest one to date.
Sado was a player that was scouted straight from the competitive ladder, meaning that he was never part of any team prior to the Fusion. He was actively part of the competitive community of Overwatch, so he knew many of the players prior to signing in the League.
His suspension was issued due to the fact that he used to be in the business of account boosting. For six months he provided a service in which he would play to rise a player’s SR in exchange for money. However, contrary to popular belief, he was not the one leading this operation, he was only someone working there. He has stated that he did it because his family was going through some tough times, and even through that, they got him his computer. He wanted to give something to his family in exchange for what they were able to give to him.
After his suspension, he played in Fusion’s roster in almost every game, including the Overwatch League Grand Finals. He has exceeded expectations and as of Stage 1 of Season 2, has been the only main tank Philadelphia has fielded.
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