With the London Spitfire being silent for most of the off-season, they’ve finally announced their new Overwatch League roster for 2020. With all these interesting signings being announced, only one player is staying from season 2 of the Overwatch League. The London Spitfire have signed 7 new players: DPS players Gil-seong “Glister” Lim and Dong-jae “Schwi” Lee, support players Tae-hoon “Fuze” Kim, Sung-hyeok “Highly” Lee, and Kyu-min “SanGuiNar” Lim, and tank players Se-won “BERNAR” Shin and Dae-Han “JMAC” Choi.
It's been a long time coming – no more teasers or riddles (or leaks), meet the Initial 8 of the #OWL2020 London Spitfire! #AcesHigh pic.twitter.com/6WPllCYNxK
— London Spitfire (@Spitfire) November 23, 2019
A brand new London Spitfire
After winning the first season, the Spitfire didn’t make it far in the season playoffs in the second one, despite the lack of change between the two seasons. The release and trades of their entire starting roster surprised most. First, star players Jae-hee “Gesture” Hong and Joon-yeong “Profit” Park both left to the Seoul Dynasty. With that duo leaving, the team knew that they had to start from scratch. Not too long after, they released the rest of their roster, except backup support player Yung-hoon “Krillin” Jung.
Who are these new players?
Go drop our #OWL2020 initial 8 a follow!
🛡️ @JeungMac_ow, @Bernar
⚔️ @GlisterOW, @Schwi_ow
🏥 @KingSungHyuk, @OW_SanGuiNar, @SpitfireKrillin, @ow_fuze— London Spitfire (@Spitfire) November 23, 2019
DPS
Glister was formerly of the Seoul Dynasty’s Contenders team, Gen.G. Playing mostly Doomfist recently, he is primarily known as a hitscan DPS. Widowmaker and Hanzo were his specialties, but he has been able to adapt and thrive. He helped Gen.G reach third place in Korean Contenders and fourth place in The Gauntlet, proving his skill internationally.
Schwi was originally known for being on RunAway since mid-2018, one of the players that got added after the rest of the roster became the Vancouver Titans. His play was primarily as a Genji and Pharah specialist, not playing much more in competitive play. He helped RunAway win their first season after the main roster left. He just left RunAway in July of this year, before the team won yet another season of Korean Contenders. While his addition doesn’t bode well for the flexibility of the DPS duo, it does for a proven winner who might be overlooked.
Support
Highly used to play for the Seoul Dynasty and was picked up by them last off-season. He showed skill on stage but didn’t really get playing time over veteran Jehong “ryujehong” Ryu. He shared the same hero pool, Ana and Zenyatta mainly. With how he was overshadowed by Ryujehong, this pickup is good for on-stage experience and team coordination.
Next up is Fuze, who played recently for both Fusion University and the Gen.G esports team. He fulfilled the role of Lucio and Mercy and adapted to his teams quickly when he joined them. After playing in Korean Contenders for a while, he joined Gen.G where he played alongside teammate Glister. He helped them reach a semi-final appearance the first season he joined but then joined the Fusion University when they moved to Korea. He didn’t play better there, but that team was in general mediocre. As the London Spitfire needs more than just Ana players, this is a good pickup for previous team experience as well as filling a need.
Lastly, SanGuiNar, a relative unknown, mainly played in online competitions, and we only have records of his play since June of 2019. In these online competitions, he has only finished in the top three. And out of the 10 competitions he played in, he’s been on the best team in half. As he also is a Lucio and Mercy player, he’ll be competing against and with Fuze to start on their roster.
Tank
JMAC, formerly of LGE.Huya, the Chengdu Hunters Contenders team, helped lead his team win back-to-back season wins as a Korean main tanks. Even though they didn’t make it far in the Gauntlet, his Reinhardt and Winston play was considered Overwatch League-level. No better way to test that than to try.
Bernar, as the off-tank player for Fusion University, helped them completely dominate North American Contenders. Even though he also was part of the same Fusion University that didn’t do well in Korea, the team wasn’t poor either. Bernar was hardly the issue, as he was the perfect flex tank, playing all three off-tank heroes. He should be able to work with the team and has experience internationally.
Long story short, this new London Spitfire is a mix of Korean players from teams all over the place, from Korea to China and even just online tournaments. If the coaches can get all the different backgrounds and experiences to work well together, this could be an underrated team for the 2020 season.
