General News Overwatch

A lot of OWL news happened in the past few weeks. The casting lineup for the league shook up, more new player additions were announced, and teams have announced new colour schemes and jerseys for the new season. As the league gets closer to starting, let’s look at what has transpired lately.

Montecristo, Doa, and Puckett leave the Overwatch League. Sideshow, Bren, ZP become casters.

Overwatch League on-screen talents Montecristo, Doa, and Puckett have announced they will no longer be part of the Overwatch League.

We will truly miss having @ggDoA, @MonteCristo, and @MLGPuckett around next season.



Thank you for all of your contributions and everything you've done for this community, we hope to see you back on the show soon 😉 pic.twitter.com/5wUMlhSZrg — Overwatch League (@overwatchleague) January 6, 2020

Montecristo and Doa have been providing match commentary since Overwatch became an esport in 2016, starting with the original Overwatch APEX in South Korea.

Since joining the Overwatch League casting team in 2018, the two have cast matched, provided desk and halftime analysis, and had several humorous segments as part of the OWL pregame show.

Montecristo and Doa first became known to the esports public through their casting of Korean League of Legends.

The two’s contracts with the Overwatch League expired this year.

Puckett primarily served as a desk host for the Overwatch League’s desk analysts during pre-game, post-game, and halftime.

In a video posted to his twitter, Puckett said that he was leaving in order to pursue freelance work for a variety of games aside from Overwatch.

After these departures, the Overwatch League announced that current desk analysts Sideshow and Bren, along with NA Contenders caster ZP, would become casters for 2020.

Aside from their hilarious onscreen banter and participation in various Overwatch podcasts, Sideshow and Bren did cast matches during the 2019 Overwatch World Cup, with previous experience in casting other esports.

ZP has been an Overwatch caster since 2015, when the game was still in beta, and has primarily been a contenders caster with Avast.

ZP will be casting along with Jake, with the two having previously worked together during the 2018 Overwatch World Cup.

Houston Outlaws Acquires Jesce

The Houston Outlaws acquired support player Jecse from the Seoul Dynasty.

The duo is back together!

Please help us welcome @ow_Jecse to the Outlaws!#AnteUp



*Pending League Approval pic.twitter.com/JvXVdOXxgR — Houston Outlaws (@Outlaws) January 2, 2020

Jecse played a vital part in helping Seoul reach the overall playoffs, playing main support opposite of Highly in the later stages of 2019.

On the Outlaws, Jecse rejoins his Element Mystic teammate rapel, where they played in APEX and Korean Contenders for more than a year before separating for different Overwatch League teams.

With the addition of Jecse, the Outlaws are capped out with 12 players on their roster.

London Spitfire Add Four Players

London have continued their offseason strategy of signing unknown names to their roster with the additions of Babel, Although, Clestyn, and Jihun.

Babel is a DPS player who most recently played for BM Hawk, a team that has made appearances in the Korean open division but never made it through to the Contenders level.

Although is a DPS player who played for Gen.S, one of the farm teams for Gen.G esports, which itself is the academy team for the Seoul Dynasty. The team has only competed for Korean Cup monthly competitions in 2019.

Jihun is a tank player from Bubble Bursting Gaming, a team competing in Chinese Contenders containing both Chinese and Korean players.

TTuba, a new DPS signing for the Washington Justice, also played for Bubble Bursting Gaming.

Clestyn is a tank player who formerly played for GC Busan, Kongdoo Panthera, and Team Griffin in Korean Contenders. Team Griffin competed in Korean Contenders trials but did not make it to Contenders.

With these four additions, London have 12 players on their roster, with one DPS player, Glister, currently underage.

Chengdu releases YangXiaoLong and Jiqiren

The Chengdu Hunters announced the release of two of its players, YangXiaoLong and Jiqiren.

After a mutual agreement, we announce with a heavy heart the termination of the contracts of players Zhihao “YangXiaoLong” Zhang and Yansong “jiqiren” Wei. Thank you both for your hard work both on and off the stage in the 2019 Season. Thank you for Hunting with us. pic.twitter.com/YhpeOa50gp — Chengdu Hunters (@ChengduHunters) December 27, 2019

The two Chinese players were not able to see any playing time in the Overwatch League until stage 3 due to visa issues, but at that time, the Hunters were mostly settled on a DPS and Tank lineup.

YangXiaoLong did see more playtime once role lock was put in place, becoming the team’s main Reaper player, but ultimately did not impress quite like Jinmu or Baconjack have.

The Hunters have not announced any new player additions this offseason.

Los Angeles Valiant Sign Rain and GIG

The Los Angeles Valiant announced the addition of two new players to their roster, support player Rain and tank player GIG.

Back under blue SoCal skies after his time on @XL2, please formally welcome @GiG_OW to our 2020 Valiant roster!#WingsOut pic.twitter.com/6aeBuc4E31 — Los Angeles Valiant (@LAValiant) January 7, 2020

A new main support also enters the fray! Join us in welcoming @RaiN990707 to the LA Valiant family. #WingsOut pic.twitter.com/1CL26c114I — Los Angeles Valiant (@LAValiant) January 7, 2020

Rain joins the Valiant after the Florida Mayhem released him in October, having been signed with some other Korean players in June to bolster the Mayhem’s season.

GIG previously played for the New York Excelsior’s academy team, XL2, who announced they will not be competing in 2020 back in November.

With these additions, the Valiant have nine players on their roster.

Paris Eternal Add FDGod

The Paris Eternal made their last roster addition, with support player FDGod.

To complete our squad, please welcome @FDGod_OW to our team for the 2020 season! pic.twitter.com/CVYbiWvxdi — Paris Eternal (@ParisEternal) January 7, 2020

FDGod has played for a number of European contenders teams since 2018, most recently on Young and Beautiful, and featured on France’s 2019 Overwatch World Cup team.

With this addition, Paris has a full 12-man roster, with two players filling out every role.