Luminosity Gaming to remove Tseini for SPREE

After a series of disappointing results over the past month, Luminosity Gaming have decided to remove Tseini from the roster and replace him with former NWA player SPREE. The team experimented with new roles after their exit in the group stages of the Overwatch Open, and have settled with moving Manneten to the flex dps role and bringing in talented Zarya player SPREE to fill the offtank role.

Tseini was known for his ability to play Genji, Tracer, and Pharah to a high level within LG, but his effective hero pool overlapped with offtank Manneten and dps partner Eissfeldt. The team tried out Manneten taking the flex dps for a number of online games, but were still plagued by their inability to perform in the current meta.

Luminosity's recent history includes a 4th place showing in the Lenovo Cup and DreamHack Winter qualifier, along with the elimination in groups at the Overwatch Open. Crucially the team has seen a pattern of failing to get any maps in their losses, frequently getting blown out 2-0 or 3-0. Their recent double 3-0 losses to upcoming team NWA may have also stung them into action.

SPREE is a player formerly on the roster for NWA, and known for his Zarya. This is the third player from NWA’s starting roster that has chosen to move to a competing team, as their good results mark out the players as upcoming talents. Two weeks ago NWA lost both of their supports to Dignitas, a team in a similar position to LG.

Talking to SPREE about the reasons for the move, he said:

LG made me a good offer and NWA didn't receive offers yet. I wished I could've stayed in NWA, my teammates were great and we had a lot of potential. Even if we did receive offers, I don't think it could've match with the one of LG, so that's another reason why I wanted to join them. I also think LG will perform better with the me in the roster. Basically I thought this was the best opportunity for me to have a great offer and be a professional player. ...we've played some scrims together and it has been going well. The players think I'm a really great player and everyone participates in the communications while playing. I'm sure with the practise we'll get in the gaming house we'll be a top NA team.

The recent moves between European tier two teams raises the topic of “feeder teams” into organisations, and NWA seem to be having difficulty hanging onto their talented roster without the backing of a salary and organisation to tie them down.

Luminosity have announced their plans to relocate the team and a coach to Canada, and are currently searching for a suitable coach replacement for mkL. SPREE will be moving with them to Canada in the next few weeks where they will then be based for the future.

When asked about the move to North America and the domestic competition, SPREE followed on by saying:

I think LG will treat us really well there in the gaming house. I'm really curious about Canada. I haven't travelled a lot but I always wanted to go to Countries like Canada, especially to game. Fnatic and Envyus are really strong teams. I think we'll be at the same level where Faze, Cloud9 belongs. With time given we could beat top teams.

He also dismissed concerns that moving to NA would negatively impact the practice the team would be able to get - a topic discussed by the community after EnVyUs were unable to translate their domestic dominance to the world stage in consecutive LANs.

Luminosity Gaming is planning to sign SPREE and head to Canada in the coming weeks, and the team is aiming to be ready to play after Blizzcon where Eissfeldt, Zave, and old teammate Tseini will be representing their respective nations.

The team declined to comment before the official announcement.

The new roster for Luminosity Gaming, soon to be based in Canada, is: