Eight teams invited to Contenders Pacific Season 1 2019

Eight teams are set to participate in Overwatch Contenders 2019 Season 1: Pacific. Of the eight teams, Nova Monster Shield Nova Monster Shield Inactive inin77 Qi Hongwang flex support Piggy Shin Min-jun off tank YEOMWON Yeom Won (염원) dps Checkmate Baek Seung-hun dps ATing Chen Shao-Hua tank Redfox Zhao Mengqi support , Xavier Esports Xavier Esports Contenders PAC Rank #11 Olivier Thanaporn Wattanapholmongkol off tank AloNeFillz Palapoom Thaikum dps Bello Suthinan Chotrattanaphithak dps Rodtunglnw Thanaphon Phoosansart tank tae Kampanat Thongjaeng support THEE Thanaphat Limpaphan support , Talon Esports Talon Esports Contenders PAC Rank #1 Swoon Jang Sung-won (장성원) flex support Piggy Shin Min-jun off tank Arrow Park Min-Seok (박민석) dps Stellar Lee Do-Hyung dps FEATH5R Lee Seung-woo (이승우) dps JJANGGU Cho Myung-heum (조명흠) tank Ch0r0ng support , and Cyclone Coupling Cyclone Coupling Inactive mg Wu Dongjian (吴董健) off tank Sleep Shi Tianyou (石天佑) flex support LEECHANGSOON Lee Chang-min (이창민) dps ToT dps FALLEN Huang Yulong (黄禹龙) tank Recall Zhang Jingkun (张靖坤) support will be returning from Season 3 in 2018. The new teams joining this season of Contenders are Global Esports Global Esports Contenders PAC Rank #7 Xenofly Muhammad Syafiq Bin Muhammad Farouk off tank Elva Song Hyeok-jun dps Akcheon tank Ayako support Htp support , JUPITER JUPITER Inactive , KIX KIX Inactive ruimin flex support bravolav Cheng Li-kan off tank ShengJianBao Chen Sheng-wen dps Casper Jiang Yi-chung dps Despair dps Woosik Hur Woo-sik tank Elva Song Hyeok-jun flex AhBao Zhang Xue-en support , and Giant Lynx Giant Lynx Inactive BOOMBURAPA Chaiwat Wattatum off tank PannyS Pasavit Inkk Svasti-xuto flex support SaiyajinGOD Kantapat Tangteekarak dps SADISTIC Weerachai Cherdchoo dps Ethan Cha Dong-gyu (차동규) dps Belosrea tank Rocket Vuthichai Posawad support PunkyYager Jin Jeong-Kyu (진정구) support .

Nova Monster Shield previously went by the name Nova eSports in Season 3. The organization announced a merger with Taiwanese esports organization Monster Shield in January. The team finished in second place last season, and will be seeking greater heights with a mostly unchanged roster this season.

We're excited to announce our joint venture with Monster Shield, one of Taiwan's premier esports organizations, to strengthen and develop esports in the Greater China region. #NovaMS🇹🇼



Read more: https://t.co/ozRaf2lOH4 pic.twitter.com/lgx7Rn7OUg — Nova Esports (@NovaEsportsTeam) January 2, 2019

Xavier Esports returns for their fourth Contenders appearance. They played in all three seasons of Contenders last season. The Thai team look to best their Season 2 performance, which saw them bow out in the semifinals in a tight 3-2 loss against Japanese team CYCLOPS athlete gaming CYCLOPS athlete gaming Inactive kenmohororo Kaito Yoshida off tank AmeKen Kenji Hisano dps Dep Yuuma Hisamoto dps CLAIRE Takahiro Watanabe (渡辺 孝博) support SABAGOD Ryoma Tsuji (辻 竜馬) support .

Cyclone Coupling finished in the semifinals last season. However, as they had ended up in fourth place in their group, the Chinese team was relegated to Trials. Managing to defeat every team except for Singaporean team Incipience, Cyclone Coupling placed second in Trials, good for another appearance in Contenders this season.

Talon Esports also returns to Contenders Pacific in 2019. Champions of Contenders Pacific in Season 2 last year, Talon lost to Chinese team Cyclone Coupling in the quarterfinals last season. They also attempted to qualify for Contenders Korea 2019 Season 1, but fell short in Trials, finishing in seventh place. Due to the new region lock for Contenders, Talon now boasts a mixed Korean-Thai-Taiwanese lineup for 2019. Most notable of which is oPuTo , who returns from a hiatus after playing for MEGA Esports MEGA Esports Inactive NzNr Sasalak Wannarak off tank Pichu Piti Chuchok off tank mush2oom Talunt Rattanaprapaporn off tank oPuTo Ubon Dara dps Rocket Vuthichai Posawad support spinda Tarrant Wolff support in Season 2 last year.

We are going to jump the gun a little here before the official announcement 🤫🤫🤫 Introducing Talon's new squad for @ContendersOW Pacific 2019. This is going to be different 😬🇰🇷🇹🇭🇹🇼



🛡️Haru, @GoGoLa46849047

🔫Bling, @oPuToGG

⚕️CQB, ININ77

🧙‍♂️@Arachneesports #Overwatch pic.twitter.com/YyLaGr5HLk — Talon eSports (@Talon__eSports) February 25, 2019

JUPITER is a Japanese organization whose Overwatch team was established in December of 2018. Six of the team's members played for CYCLOPS athlete gaming CYCLOPS athlete gaming Inactive kenmohororo Kaito Yoshida off tank AmeKen Kenji Hisano dps Dep Yuuma Hisamoto dps CLAIRE Takahiro Watanabe (渡辺 孝博) support SABAGOD Ryoma Tsuji (辻 竜馬) support , who clinched the runner-up position in Season 2 of Contenders Pacific in 2018. They also represented Japan in the Overwatch World Cup in 2018. JUPITER emerged at the top of Open Division Season 1 2019: Pacific, and finished third in the most recent season of Trials.

Giant Lynx formed from the merger of two of Thailand's top teams: Giant Esports Giant Esports Inactive SaiyajinGOD Kantapat Tangteekarak off tank SunSeries off tank Teetawat Teetawat Teerayosyotin tank mush2oom Talunt Rattanaprapaporn flex Rocket Vuthichai Posawad support Pichu Piti Chuchok support and LYNX TH LYNX TH Inactive BOOMBURAPA Chaiwat Wattatum off tank NutsuruSama Pat Saejew dps Bello Suthinan Chotrattanaphithak dps Rodtunglnw Thanaphon Phoosansart tank PannyS Pasavit Inkk Svasti-xuto support zObi Kachaporn Taveesin support . Both teams that made up Giant Lynx played in Season 3 of Contenders in 2018, both finishing last place in their groups. Giant Lynx participated in Trials this year, clinching fifth place. Recently, main tank Teetawat was announced to have been loaned to Australian organization Sydney Drop Bears Sydney Drop Bears Inactive JKap Jacques Lutter off tank Fundrae Andres Duran tank Akraken Dario Falcao-Rassokha support to participate in Contenders Australia.

Global Esports is an Indian organization who has had several Overwatch teams since 2017. Most notably, the organization owned GE Pantheon KR GE Pantheon KR Inactive Sakura Sung Yoon-chan off tank Kadalis Ra Yeong-hwan dps Water Lee Min-seong (이민성) dps InHyeok Jeong In-hyeok tank Backwall Park Kyung-sun support Faith Hong Gyu Kim support , a mostly Korean team that played in Contenders 2018 Season 3, losing in the quarterfinals to Nova eSports. Global Esports' newest team previously went by the name Incipience. The team played in Contenders Season 2 last year after qualifying from Trials, but ended up in last place of their group. Incipience qualified for this season of Contenders after finishing first in Trials.

One notable team missing from this season of Contenders is defending champions Hong Kong Attitude Hong Kong Attitude Inactive vKei Ju SeungJun off tank ShaiuLin Lin Keng-Yu dps Perfact An Yeseung dps ATing Chen Shao-Hua tank ManGoJai Kin-Long Wong support CQB Yang Hao-Cheng support . A staple of the Pacific region since 2017, they earned their first championship title in Season 3 of Contenders last year. Shortly following their win, it was announced that the roster had been transferred to an Overwatch League academy team. The team did not reform for 2019, and their spot in Contenders was replaced by KIX KIX Inactive ruimin flex support bravolav Cheng Li-kan off tank ShengJianBao Chen Sheng-wen dps Casper Jiang Yi-chung dps Despair dps Woosik Hur Woo-sik tank Elva Song Hyeok-jun flex AhBao Zhang Xue-en support .

KIX is a Macanese esports organization fielding a mostly Taiwanese lineup. They played in the two most recent seasons of Open Division, but never finished above top eight. The most notable player from KIX is JazZy , who represented Hong Kong in the Overwatch World Cup 2018 and briefly played for LGD Gaming LGD Gaming Inactive Rookie Wang Jundong (王俊东) off tank Kaneki Liu Nian (刘念) dps wanli Xue Wanli (邹万里) dps Kadalis Ra Yeong-hwan dps tanqiu Qiu Tianyi (邱天毅) tank Secret Zhao Xu (赵旭) support superich Wu Gengtuo (吴梗拓) support in China. This will be the first time JazZy plays in Contenders Pacific.

PHOENiX PHOENiX Inactive Piggy Shin Min-jun off tank VENDETTA Lee Jiseok dps HEOJUNHO Heo Jun-ho (허준호) dps MELON Shin Jung-ho (신정호) tank iLSeuBi Lee Ilsub support PaeSeul Lee Jun-seo support and GE Pantheon KR GE Pantheon KR Inactive Sakura Sung Yoon-chan off tank Kadalis Ra Yeong-hwan dps Water Lee Min-seong (이민성) dps InHyeok Jeong In-hyeok tank Backwall Park Kyung-sun support Faith Hong Gyu Kim support will not be returning to Contenders following their playoffs stints in the last season of Contenders. PHOENiX placed 3rd-4th while GE Pantheon KR placed 5th-8th. Both teams fielded majority Korean lineups that would lead them to be ineligible to play in Contenders Pacific following the Contenders region lock taking effect in 2019. The two teams are replaced by JUPITER and Giant Lynx for the upcoming season of Contenders.

Contenders Pacific return on Feburary 28th with a match between KIX and Talon Esports.