Since the 2020 Overwatch League season starts in just three weeks, and most of the rosters have been finalized at this point, I figured now was as good a time as any to make my final predictions for the upcoming year. Keep in mind, the primary purpose of these predictions is for me to have screenshot material that I can post in Discord in about 9 months to show off how smart I am, but if you really care about what I have to say, feel free to continue. Oh yeah and I’m writing this all in one go at like 2 AM so sorry if the sentences are garbage. Anyway, let’s get into the preds.

Now this year in OWL, the league has been split up into four separate divisions. As such, I’ve decided to write an article for each division, starting out with the league’s pepega division, the Atlantic North.

1. New York Excelsior

2019 Record: 22–6 (3rd)

2020 Projected: 22–6 (3rd)

Starting off, we’ve got the only decent team in this disaster of a division, the New York Excelsior. As the only team of the original 12 that has managed to be top tier in both 2018 and 2019, I see no reason for that to change in 2020, especially considering the fact that New York haven’t made many major changes to their roster. Sure, losing Mek0 for Hotba is what I’d call a slight downgrade, but I think that the signings of Mandu and WhoRU from Contenders more than make up for that, and their academy call-up Bianca also has star potential in the off-tank role (Oh yeah, I should mention that I don’t do the thing where writers write out the player’s full name and put their battle tag in quotes in the middle, who has time for that?). The biggest change for NYXL this offseason, in my opinion, is actually their coaching shake up. Losing Pavane at head coach is, on the surface, quite a big loss. However, with the revelation that Pavane actually didn’t even coach New York during their playoff run, where they still managed to finish in 3rd place after a disappointing Stage 4, I don’t think it’ll hurt them too much in the long run. With all that considered, the Excelsior have proven themselves to be a flexible, meta-proof team, primed for success no matter what the game throws at them. The weakness of their division further points to another (mostly) victorious season for the Atlantic’s best team.

The New York Excelsior (right) take on the rest of the Atlantic North (left).

2. Paris Eternal

2019 Record: 11–17 (14th)

2020 Projected: 11–17 (13th)

In stark contrast to New York, the Paris Eternal made changes galore to their roster this offseason. And if we’re gonna compare their acquisitions to those of their division rivals, I’d argue that they did the best job of the lot. Sure, the fans who only followed this team because of their full-EU lineup are gonna be disappointed, but the Eternal fans who actually want their team to succeed should be nothing but happy with the changes. The only question is did they do enough to force their way into a playoff berth? At this point, I’d say no. The most glaring issue, pointed out by almost anyone who’s taken a look at this roster, is that their marquee signing Sp9rk1e isn’t even eligible to play until he turns 18 on May 31st, in week 17 of the 27-week season (if Sp9rk1e does indeed play on the first day he’s eligible, he’ll be thrown straight into a match against the Vancouver Titans, good luck kid). This leaves NiCOgdh as Paris’ only available flex DPS player for over half the season, a worrying situation considering he’d be almost certainly the league’s worst starting player in his role. If Paris can get lucky enough to have Soon or Xzi learn Mei, or for a double hitscan meta to appear, then this might not end up being a huge deal, but it’s still a cause for concern. Despite this and other issues I have with their roster, such as their less than stellar support line, I do believe the Eternal are more likely than the three remaining teams in this division to sneak into the playoffs because of one thing, their coaching staff. The trio of Rush, Levi, and NineK is a straight up gigastacked coaching staff that almost any team in the league (except maybe Shock) would be happy to have. But is a top tier coaching apparatus enough to carry a mediocre roster to a top 12 spot? Maybe last season, I would’ve said yes, but with the teams around them actually having their star signings available for the entirety of the season, I’m gonna say Paris will make a good run for it after Sp9rk1e joins the team, but end up falling just short.

3. Toronto Defiant

2019 Record: 8–20 (17th)

2020 Projected: 8–20 (16th)

Honestly, I didn’t look at last year’s standings before making my predictions, so I had no clue that all the records were the same so far, but it’s getting kind of annoying. Anyway, Toronto is a team that a lot of people seem to think are gonna be good this year, but I just don’t see it. In fact, I’d probably give them the award of Most Overrated Team as we head into the start of the league. Sure, they’ve signed a bunch of fan favorites and a couple genuine stars (ok well, one genuine star, Surefour) but a lot of their pickups are mid tier players at best. Take, for example, Agilities and Kariv. Yeah, they’re probably the most wholesome duo in the entire Overwatch League, but their play is “just okay” more often than not, until they pop off a few times and make everyone think they’re better than they actually are. Then you have ex-Boston Uprising main support Kellex, who was lambasted as the weak point of his former team when they were actually good, and then started to get more praise once all his decent teammates got traded and replaced with bots. To be honest, I think two way player Roky might actually be the better option at main support, although I thought that last year as well and that didn’t stop Toronto from running Aid every map as they finished the year on a lovely 1–13 run. But back to the upcoming season, I still haven’t gotten to what I believe are Toronto’s two weakest links: Beast being their only option at main tank, and Fefe on head coaching duties. Last season, Fefe’s Paris Eternal looked average at best, and pepega tier at worst, often degrading throughout each stage as other teams in the league learned the meta and left Paris in the dust. Not a good look for a head coach, in my opinion. On the topic of Beast, I don’t think I’ve seen him actually play in months after he got benched for Changsik on Fusion University, and while he did look good when he used to start, he was definitely one of the weaker parts of that roster in my view. In the end, while Toronto’s roster this season is better than what they had at the end of last year for sure, their changes don’t inspire me compared to those made by most other teams in the bottom half, so vast improvement isn’t looking likely.

4. London Spitfire

2019 Record: 16–12 (7th)

2020 Projected: 6–22 (18th)

Jesus, this team is a dumpster fire. The strat that London are going for this season is obvious: sign a bunch of cheap players and pray to god your expensive coaches turn them into gaming warlords. While their end goal may be something like the 2018 Boston Uprising, I think we’re gonna get something closer to the 2019 Florida Mayhem. In fact, the parallels between the two teams are almost uncanny. You’ve got the star DPS player (Glister/Sayaplayer) surrounded by a bunch of pepegas, begging them to stop feeding as he solo kills 4 enemies before losing the teamfight. Okay, maybe I’m being a bit too harsh on these guys. Bernar is better than Xepher and JMAC is probably better than Swon (for London’s sake I sure hope he is) but oh my goodness LOOK AT THEIR SUPPORTS!!! The Spitfire support line is actually the most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen in this league. I don’t even know which 2 of these 4 players are gonna end up starting because they’re all so pepega tier. Fuze was uniquely awful in every match during Fusion University’s disappointing Contenders Korea run (and still somehow managed to bench Elk, wtf?), and Highly was one of the most invisible flex supports in the league during the few times he got to play for Seoul last season. Even still, I’m gonna assume that those two are gonna be the starters. As far as the rest of the team goes, half of them are randoms from Korean Open Division, which speaks for itself. The only other player besides Glister and Bernar on this team that I think shows potential is Schwi, who was a member of the super dominant 2nd generation Runaway squad from late 2018/early 2019. However, almost all of what we saw from him was Brigitte play in the GOATS meta, so who the hell knows if his DPS is any good. All things considered, Spitfire are so damn lucky that Boston are also in this division, and that they have a competent coaching staff, or else they’d find themselves at the foot of the standings.

Can’t spot the difference? It’s ok, neither can I.

5. Boston Uprising

2019 Record: 8–20 (19th)

2020 Projected: 5–23 (19th)

Sorta like how London are lucky that Boston exists, Boston are lucky that the Los Angeles Valiant — the only bigger joke of a franchise in the entire league — exist, or else they’d be dead last by a country mile. Seriously, how does Huk go from signing Crusty, far and away the best coach in Overwatch, to having literally no head coach the following season, to settling on freaking MINERAL after the team’s predictable implosion. The guy’s biggest achievement is going 3–7 in Stage 2 of the 2018 season when he was head coach of Florida Mayhem’s EU squad, one of the biggest memes in Overwatch League history. On top of this, they’ve gotten rid of Blase, one of their only players from last season with actual potential, and replaced him with Jerry and Munchkin on the DPS line. As someone who had the unfortunate experience of watching Meta Athena’s embarrassing performances in Contenders over the past few seasons, I gotta say, I don’t think Jerry is the play. Munchkin, on the other hand, isn’t that bad, and my instinct tells me that he and Colourhex might not be the worst DPS duo in the league, but then I actually look at the other rosters and realize that yes, this indeed is the worst DPS duo in the league. Boston’s tanks, on the other hand, actually aren’t the worst in the league. I think Axxiom is a rather underrated player, and the superior choice over Fusions, whose one dimensional playstyle made the Uprising predictable and easily conquered in the latter half of last season. Another bright spot on this roster is the acquisition of Myunbong, arguably the best available flex support in Korean Contenders. I don’t know how Boston managed to snipe this guy from the rest of the teams in the league, and I’m kind of upset he has to play on this trash tier team, but hey, at least he can give them some hope. Besides Myunbong however, the rest of the roster is bad, the coaching staff is bad, the organization seems to be somewhat of a mess, the travel schedule is brutal (Boston has more miles of travel than any team in the league, bar London) and with all this considered, we can safely assume that Boston are gonna be poo tier once again in 2020.

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I’ll probably have my Atlantic South predictions up by tomorrow or the next day, so stay tuned.