​ After a rough outing against the Boston Uprising led to the London Spitfire’s first loss in the Overwatch League, the team is preparing to come back even stronger.





The Korean lineup looked dominant in the first five games of the league, yet against the Uprising, the Spitfire looked vulnerable and uncharacteristically weak.

We were clearly not invited to the tea party as we lose the series 2-3. We'll come back stronger next week. #GGWP #AcesHigh️ pic.twitter.com/y7dO5kZdFy — London Spitfire (@Spitfire) January 26, 2018

One possible reason for the first major upset in the Overwatch League could be star play Joon-yeong “Profit” Park’s absence from the game because of the now-infamous middle finger incident, where Profit forgot about the cameras focused on the players during the warmup and playfully flipped off his teammates, an action that was caught on stream.





The middle finger quickly became something of a joke around the Overwatch community, but it was anything but that to the young star. Profit was fined $1,000 by the league because of his actions, but most importantly, he received large amounts of pressure from his family and fans back home. That led to him issuing a statement of apology to fans and large emotional stress.

As Jack Etienne, CEO and founder of Cloud9 (the parent organization of the London Spitfire), said in conversation with DBLTAP: “It's not something we are going to hide. We know Profit flipped off the camera at his teammates, which unfortunately happened to be caught on stream. That whole experience was very hard on him. He's a very young player, he got a lot of pressure from home about it, and it really shook him.”

Etienne also mentioned that because of the incident, Profit was left out of the first three maps of the series, making it hard for the rest of the team to fill in the gaps left by one of the best DPS players in the league.





The team as a whole might’ve been mentally exhausted as well, which, combined with the absence of their star player, is a recipe for disaster.

Hmm when I wrote this I was hoping it wasn't @Spitfire that they would surprise. GG @BostonUprising  https://t.co/jhvWvfp2nP — Jack Etienne (@JackEtienne) January 26, 2018

Lots of doubt for @BostonUprising but I think they may surprise everyone. — Jack Etienne (@JackEtienne) January 10, 2018