Crossfire: Washington D.C. General Manager Kate Mitchell caught in controversy regarding player and staff signings

After previously making headlines signing former NYXL duo WizardHyeong and Janus this past week. Washington D.C. General Manager Kate Mitchell has been called into question regarding the treatment and handling of players and staff on her newly forming roster.

Content creators on several outlets have brought to light some of Mitchell’s actions since changing jobs as the GM of Last Night’s Leftovers, claiming there was a slew of errors made with broken promises and missed opportunities for several players on the team.

Kate Mitchell has since denied these ‘stories’ and hasn’t made an official statement regarding any incidents.

Things are not as they seem

Dampening the momentum of some stellar signings this past week, the recent allegations of player mishandling between false promises and player security mishaps have brought the mood way down in Washington and much of that has to do with the head person in charge.

Former pro player turned OWL content creator, KingmykL, came out with an inflammatory piece of news regarding the entire situation suggesting there were issues on two sides of the coin and Kate Mitchell was to blame for both incidents.

The first incident regards former San Francisco Shock Head Coach Harsha Bandi, who was allegedly promised an Assistant Coach position by Kate Mitchell before parting ways with the team. It was said that Harsha was confirmed for a position on Washington D.C.’s expansion team if he quit his job, and upon doing just that, the position was given over to NYXL castaway WizardHyeong instead, leaving Harsha with no team and no job heading into 2019.

The second incident involves Overwatch Contenders: North America team Last Night’s Leftovers, who Kate Mitchell managed before her promotion to GM for the Washington D.C. expansion slot. Last Night’s Leftovers made history becoming the first Contenders team ever to qualify through Open Division play, making it to playoffs in the process. Even surpassing the success of better-financed teams on other Academy rosters.

Upon making her switch to D.C. and taking a majority of her back of house staff with her, LNL were left with little opportunities and the remaining players were said to have been promised a position on the D.C. Academy roster once the player signings for both rosters would occur. Instead, only one player has even been granted extended trials from LNL on the Overwatch League roster in Decod, and even his position is up in the air considering Janus is playing in his position.

Community backlash

With plenty of smoke but no real fire from the actual people involved in these incidents, it’s still difficult to pin the blame solely on Kate Mitchell for these instances of miscommunication. But there’s no denying there is something painfully destructive about all these problems if they end up being true.

Overwatch League has been at their best when organizations, players and staff all operate on a professional level with the right amount of camaraderie for everyone in their field, and this careless portrayal of sabotage and bribery through offering positions from Kate Mitchell is egregious, but not fully provable at this time.

Her defense for these issues when asked by Overwatch League shoutcaster MonteCristo was rather mute and succinct on Twitter. To her, all these stories and headlines regarding her actions within the league have been just that, stories. Whether or not these issues ring true is another story for another day, and the jury is very much still out on whether or not there was any foul play in the poaching and signing of these players.