“I used to play football before I joined a team in Overwatch,” said 21-year-old

Swedish DPS ace

Daniel "Dannedd" Rosdahl. Since joining his first team during the midwinter of 2018 everything has been put to the wayside.

“I haven't really continued with any other hobbies after I decided to commit to playing in Overwatch Contenders,” he admitted.

It was all or nothing.

But before he played for teams like Augmented Authority, We Have Org, Orgless and Hungry, and the London Spitfire’s academy team, the British Hurricane,

Dannedd was just a kid with that enjoyed Warcraft 3.

“I've played a lot of games growing up,” Dannedd revealed. “The first PC game I played was Warcraft 3.” This interest eventually sprawled out into other popular games like League of Legends and Dota 2, which just so happened to lead him to esports as a concept.

Dannedd spoke candidly about some of his first memories surrounding competitive gaming. “The first pro scene I followed was in League of Legends' and that was about when I first saw it as something I wanted to become,” he said. “I didn't really find any big opportunities in League of Legends and I played for some small teams in Dota 2 but it wasn't until Overwatch came out and I had played it for a while I decided to join a team.”

From when Dannedd was up all night advancing through the Scourge of Lordaeron and climbing through the ranks of Summoner’s Rift to know as he topped the Overwatch competitive ladder his parents watched with hesitant eyes. When he approached them about the thought of pursuing esports full time, they begrudgingly said yes.

“There wasn't that much convincing needed,” he said. “But they didn't like me deciding not to continue university in order to play in Overwatch Contenders.”

His first taste of competitive Overwatch came at the hands of ESL’s weekly Go4 Overwatch cups where Dannedd managed to place second and even win the 97th weekly cup with Coherence eSports. His next task was with Augmented Authority as they climbed the ranks of the Overwatch Open Division. The team managed a respectable 4th place finish and a seed in Overwatch Contenders Trials, the promotional event that leads into the main semi-professional league.

Dannedd and company would then leave the organization and form We Have Org. While their name may have changed, their skills as players only improved. We Have Org had massive success during the trials and managed not only a second place finish but a direct seed into the next Overwatch Contenders season. Dannedd continued with We Have Org during 2018’s second Contenders season before departing to Orgless and Hungry for roughly two months.

And then the British Hurricane came knocking.

With Dannedd bolstering their ranks after the shocking departure of flex DPS

Finley "Kyb" Adisi to the Guangzhou Charge, the British Hurricane have looked amazing ever since. This success came to a head during the first season of Contenders in 2019.

After the British Hurricane quickly dispatched Shu’s Money Crew in the European semifinals, Dannedd was

quick to celebrate on social media

. This thread led to some intriguing details that could possibly contextualize how their performance at the Atlantic Showdown.

“[The] Atlantic Showdown was indeed my first LAN and it was a very cool experience traveling out and meeting so many people I had only talked to online before,” Dannedd said. “I came into the LAN with very high expectations so the results were very disappointing and did make the experience a bit poorer.” The results in question were disappointing, but when you add the context of just how strong most of the teams were at Atlantic Showdown, it cushions the blow nicely.

In round one of the event the Hurricane manhandled the sole South American representatives in Lowkey Esports, 3-0. They then advanced to face the team who would end up taking second place at the event in Team Envy, whom they took to game five. This loss sent the Hurricane to the losers’ bracket where they looked lethargic and despondent in their 0-3 loss to the Atlanta Reign’s academy team, ATL Academy. This loss not only sent Dannedd and the Hurricane out at 5-6th place, but it also cost the European region a slot at the Contenders finale lovingly called “The Gauntlet.”

After speaking to his

teammate

Jakob "bock1" Kleveland

about how the Hurricane prepared for their biggest test to date in the form of the Atlantic Showdown, bock1 revealed that due to the stress and the presumed heavy environment, the team was unable to play up to their potential at the event. And Dannedd concurred with some of the threads his teammate explained.

“Our scrims were going fine, but the official games just became messy and we didn't pull off what we had practiced,” he said. But he reassured me that things were being worked on internally. “We've looked into what happened and tried to solve as much as we [can].”

The future for the Hurricane is bright, but the competition is getting more fierce by the hour. After suffering a minor setback during their week one performance, Europe’s only remaining academy team rallied back in week two and show some fantastic resolve over Samsung Morning Stars with a 3-1 victory.

In week three the Hurricane suffered a game five loss against the rough and tumble Clockwork Vendetta, a team known to mold the metagame to their will with their unorthodox compositions. With the ecosystem opening up and allowing for teams to play more than just your standard triple tank and triple support compositions, Dannedd speculated about what heroes, in his mind, we're currently underrated and what compositions we might see in the coming weeks.

“I think the different kinds of Orisa DPS compositions are a lot more viable now than what they have been in the past,” he explained ominously. “And I see standard GOATS being moved away from a lot more. Personally, I think that Torbjörn is currently a very strong hero due to him being a good counter for both GOATS and dive [compositions].”And that couldn’t be more accurate.

With 2/2/2 reportedly on the horizon

and the Overwatch League featuring more and more diverse hero picks even without the change, no one can deny that the landscape is shifting. And those at the head of the metagame are those showcasing their talents in the Overwatch amateur circuit, Overwatch Contenders.

Week four of Overwatch Contenders 2019 Europe Season 2 for the British Hurricane pairs them up with a familiar opponent in the 2019 Season 1 champion, Angry Titans.

The two teams have been powerhouses in the European Overwatch since the dawn of the Path to Pro system, but in the wake of the Atlantic Showdown, both teams have had their fair share of ups and downs. But the Hurricane was able to pull away early with a convincing 3-0 victory over the former champions.

Rest assured, Dannedd remains evergreen. With a hero pool ranging from his signature Doomfist to perhaps a cheeky Torbjörn, married with a willingness to adapt and a hunger to reach the Overwatch League, he’ll always have some form of job security.

Joseph “Volamel” Franco has followed esports since the MLGs of 2006. He started out primarily following Starcraft 2, Halo 3, and Super Smash Bros. Melee. He has transitioned from viewer to journalist and writes freelance primarily about Overwatch and League of Legends. If you would to follow his thoughts you can follow him at @Volamel .