The 2020 season of the Overwatch League hasn’t even started. A lot of people are already talking gloomily about it though. Good talent and players are leaving the scene, making the fans wonder what’s going on behind the scenes. People are voicing their opinions about moves that have been made within the League. Whether it was players who were Looking For Team, those who have been traded or sold to other teams or changes with the talent cast. It hurts to see the team you hold near and dear fall apart, and not knowing their future. Making the fans insecure about the future of their favourite team and their players in the Overwatch League.
The biggest upset of the Offseason
This would be the departure of Flex Support player Ryu ‘’Ryujehong” Jehong from the Seoul Dynasty.
It left a lot of fans in the dark as the announcement of his departure was late, later than most people would’ve wanted to see. This created a lot of speculation about what team he would go to. It made his departure even more painful for some fans, who ultimately kept their hopes up of Ryujehong staying with the Dynasty. Alas, he has been signed to the Vancouver Titans.
The second one would be the announcement of Scott “Custa” Kennedy retiring as a pro-player on Twitter. Fans reacted shocked by his decision. Later on, the OWL released an interview with Custa and Jake about their future in the League.
Changes to the OWL format
What started as only games within the Blizzard Arena, LA has now changed to a format of having ”Worldwide Homestands.’’ Meaning the teams will have to travel all around the world to play matches. With that people have voiced their concern about the schedule, flight times and if players would get enough rest in between practice, matches and flights.
OWL talent leaving and joining
Christopher “Montecristo” Mykles has been the first one to announce his departure from the League. Due to his contract not being renewed, the fans reacted either relieved or sad about it. Chris ‘’Puckett” Puckett won’t come back either. This is because his partner got a promotion making him unable to return for OWL 2020. Erik ”DoA” Lonnquist also has announced he will be leaving the OWL, his contract ended on December 31, 2019. Auguste ‘’Semmler” Massonnat has announced he is putting a 2-year partnership on hold, implying he might not be leaving the League entirely. Malik ”Malik” Forté is also leaving the OWL making the talent team short on people.
While there are five talents leaving the OWL scene, there are also talents joining for the 2020 season. It has been confirmed that Andrew ‘’ZP” Rush, Brennon ‘’Bren” Hook, Josh ‘’Sideshow” Wilkinson and both ex pro-players Jacob ‘’Jake’’ Lyon and Scott ‘’Custa” Kennedy will be joining the talent team. For desk talents, there is only Salome ”Soe” Gschwind-Penski left from the old desk squad and she is unconfirmed; Custa will join her on the desk team. As of now, there are no new announcements of others joining the team.
Unconfirmed talent, are they staying?
The caster team has Wolf ”Wolf” Schröder, Seth ”Achilios” King, Robert ”Hexagrams” Kirkbirde, Mitch ”Uber” Leslie and Matt ”Mr X” Morello who are from the old casting team. While these are all unconfirmed it seems unlikely for them to leave. There is also no news on Danny Lim, Emily Tang and Mica Burton. They do the after-game interviews. Danny and Emily also translate for the Korean and Chinese players.
Fans are curious about what else will be changing before the start of the third Overwatch League season hoping that the gloom it has hanging over it will disappear in time.
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