London Spitfire have announced that its developmental Overwatch Contenders team for the coming esports season will be called the British Hurricane.

The team will fully consist of European players, three of which are British.

The Hawker Hurricane flew alongside the Supermarine Spitfire in the Royal Air Force, so the team is clearly keeping the plane theme going.

The British Hurricane will be the London Spitfire developmental team for Contenders League

As well as the three British players, there are also players from Iceland, Denmark, Netherlands, and Sweden.

British Hurricane Contenders roster Main tank - Cameron ' Fusions ' Bosworth (United Kingdom)

' Bosworth (United Kingdom) Off tank- Hafpor ' Hafficool ' Hakonarson (Iceland)

' Hakonarson (Iceland) Flex DPS - Finley ' Kyb ' Adisi (United Kingdom)

' Adisi (United Kingdom) Hitscan DPS - Phillip ' Kragie ' Krag Brems (Denmark)

' Krag Brems (Denmark) Main Support - Ryan ' CrusaDe ' van Wegen' (Netherlands)

' van Wegen' (Netherlands) Support - Daniel ' FunnyAstro ' Hathaway (United Kingdom)

' Hathaway (United Kingdom) Flex Support - Jakob ' bock1 ' Kleveland (Sweden) Advertisement

There was some talk when the London Spitfire team was announced about the issue of the entire squad being made up of South Korean players.

As the only academy team representing the Overwatch League from Europe, some will be happy to see a fully European presence for the actual players on the team.

It is primarily made up of former players from Cloud9 Europe, 123, and Singularity.

London Spitfire, and thus the British Hurricane, are owned by esports organisation Cloud9.

British Hurricane's team coach, Nicholas 'ShiftyOW' Travis is from the USA, and the team manager is Ysabel 'Noukky' Muller from Germany.

The team will play in dark and light blue, contrasting the blue and orange of the main London Spitfire team.

British Hurricane will be hoping to emulate the success of Spitfire, who recently won Stage 1 of the first season of the Overwatch League.

After the announcement of the Contenders team, Mail Esports spoke to Paul 'Redeye' Chaloner, who is working with the London Spitfire to help grow the team and esports in general in the UK.

Redeye is known as an esports host, but he is also working with the London Spitfire team

When we spoke to Redeye about his role last month, he spoke about his desire to have British players on the Contenders team, and eventually on the main Spitfire roster.

To do that, he spoke about hosting tournaments to find the best local talent.

'The plan for the first Contenders team was always to go and find the best players and the best team we could find,' said Redeye. 'But the plan for running a competition to get players into the Contenders team from Britain still stands.'

As for how the very first team was assembled, Redeye and the rest of the team had to do a lot of scouting, and a lot of talking to existing teams.

'The team we've ended up with is the best for us, not just because there are Brits on the team, but it's very European based as well, it's got a great manager, so it's been really good.'

There were mixed reactions about the all-Korean Spitfire roster when it was announced. Some thought that the team didn't represent Britain, while others didn't mind so much, as long as the team was successful.

'We never sat down and went "we need to appease everyone and get British players on,"' said Redeye. 'My desire has always been that we should have British players, but if we end up with a team that doesn't have any, then that's what we end up with and that's because we think they can do very well in Contenders.

'As it is, we've been very fortunate. Dan [Fiden, Cloud9 President], and Jack [Etienne, Cloud9 CEO] were very aware that I wanted to make sure we got British players involved, show what they can do in Contenders, and get into the Overwatch League. There were a number of players available, and we've managed to snap them up.'

Overwatch Contenders is the second tier of Overwatch competition behind the main league

To start with, the British Hurricane Contenders team won't all be housed in the same place. They'll be playing their tournaments online against other European teams.

This means they won't be competing against the academy teams from the other Overwatch League teams to begin with, but Redeye doesn't see this is a problem.

'We'll hopefully get a chance at some point to get them over to LA to practice with the Spitfire team. Internally they can exchange some ideas, and they've had the opportunity to do that already.

'There's a good opportunity for them to learn from a set of players who are Stage 1 champions, and pick up advice, hints, and tips from the coaching staff as well.'

Eventually, once Spitfire has a presence in the UK, the Contenders team will be moved in together as well.

There's a lot of speculation over where the Spitfire and subsequently the Hurricane will be housed, and the team is currently in talks with multiple locations about creating a home base.

Until then, the new British Hurricane players will have to prove themselves in the Contenders League.

'That's the cool thing,' said Redeye. 'You have some players who didn't quite make it to Overwatch League Season 1, or players who haven't shown anything yet, or players who have played okay at the second tier level. It's their opportunity to show not just us as Spitfire, but the entire League what they're capable of.

'Promotion to the main team is the goal, but we're not restricting our players. If another team in the Overwatch League comes in for one of our Contenders players, then we'll listen to it.

'Ultimately, this team could win the entire Contenders League, and another team might look at them and think "we might as well recruit them all!"'

Will the brand new British Hurricane players one day be called up to the main Spitfire roster?

As for who makes the decision over whether some of these players make the leap to the London Spitfire roster, quite a few people get a say, but only a handful will make the call.

'I might put pressure on Bishop [Spitfire head coach Beoum-jun Lee] and say "I really want you to take one of these Brits and give him a try", but he's under no obligation to do that.

'We've given them the autonomy to run the team, and they're experts in the field. We're not Overwatch experts. My Pharah is pretty good but it's not going to get me in the team.

'It's like, Manchester United run the club and I'm sure they've got ideas about which players they want to bring in, but Mourinho is the one to pick the team and get the results. That's no different to how we'll run our Contenders team, and no different to how we run Spitfire already.'

The next season of the Overwatch Contenders League begins in March.