One of the things I enjoy most about esports, is looking at – and appreciating – all the incredible logos, brands, and graphics on display. Every team has their own unique visual appeal. There isn’t a single team in the Overwatch League with a bad visual brand, but I do think that some are stronger than others. Here is my tier list for OWL brands going into Season 3!

Disclaimer: These are opinions. You can have a different one. Everything is subjective; time isn’t real; the universe is a simulation run by birds. Debate is welcome, incivility is not.



S-Tier

New York Excelsior

The New York Excelsior sport a bold non-traditional logo and brand that stands above the rest. Their logo is a midnight blue flag design with beautiful cobalt blue lines running through in a chevron pattern. In the middle, the lines come together to form an X for Excelsior. The logo was designed by world famous graphic design firm Mother Design, and represents one of the boldest visual brands in all of esports.

Houston Outlaws

If the Outlaws played like the quality of their brand, they would win more championships. This brand rocks. The colors pop. I love black and green, especially when it’s not Optic. The logo is fucking dope. Two guns are laid out to create the outline of a bull skull, embellished with a lone star. This is the most Texas logo I have ever seen. This brand is timeless and something to be proud of.

London Spitfire

The Spitfire have the best logo in Overwatch League, in my opinion. The logo fits the name “Spitfire” in a visually stunning way. It features a British World War 2 plane, presented in a minimal and iconic style. The entire logo is very polished and ends up looking somewhat like a military patch, which is a nice touch. The sky blue brand color captures a sense of flight, while the bright gold compliments it perfectly. The London Spitfire’s branding team did an incredible job on a very unified and strong brand design.

Tier A

Chengdu Hunters

The Hunters brand is excellent. The logo features a Panda bear, which immediately communicates that they are a Chinese team. The bear itself has a lot of personality. With his rawry face and slightly damaged right ear, you get the sense that this bear has seen some shit. The lettering is bold and boxy and sends a masculine vibe. The yellow and black matches the boldness of Chengdu’s font while adding a more provocative element, which makes for a fantastic jersey and in game skin.

Los Angeles Gladiators

The Gladiators have one of the most popular brands in OWL. Their purple and white colors look amazing in and out of game. Of all the logos in the Overwatch League, I think that the Gladiators have the logo which is most like a traditional sports logo. The logo depicts a lion in a coat of arms style, which makes for fantastic merchandise and catches the eye. The lettering underneath is clean and easy to read, and highlighting the LA in “Gladiator” is a nice embellishment. The Gladiators visual identity is clever, polished, and memorable.

San Francisco Shock

The Shock updated their colors for the 2020 season, opting to make grey their primary color and orange their secondary color. I think this was a good call – the new colors are more subdued; they elevate the team brand and make them look a little more professional. The in-game skins also look fantastic and have been very well received by fans.

Vancouver Titans

The Titans bring a very traditional sports logo to the table. I think it’s a timeless logo which helps people visualize the “Titan” their name refers to. I usually don’t like the combination of green and blue, but I think the Titans’ in-game skins and uniforms at events stand out from the crowd. I also wouldn’t dare put the Titans brand below Tier A, lest the Titan fans descend on me in the comments. Like the team itself, they are a force to be reckoned with.

Atlanta Reign

The Atlanta Reign’s visual identity clearly communicates the aspirational brand which the Reign team has lived up to consistently. Their logo is a phoenix rising up to take the crown. After all, the team was known as the king-killers even before defeating the otherwise untouchable Shock in the playoffs. Their colors are a visually appealing combination, although I might be biased since my mom is a big Ohio State fan. Red is a power color, which matches with the hegemonic tone of the Reign’s name.

B Tier

Toronto Defiant

Unsurprisingly, after the Atlanta Reign comments, I really like the Defiant brand colors. They chose a bright cherry red, which looks great with their matte black primary color. The logo is nothing super special, it simply features a T for Toronto, which makes up part of the D for Defiant. Despite its simplicity, the logo manages to be iconic and memorable. If the logo stood out more, I think the defiant could easily be a Tier A brand.

Seoul Dynasty

I absolutely love the Seoul Dynasty’s in-game black and gold skins. They are probably the best in-game skin available for OWL teams. However, I do not like their logo very much. The tiger logo is generic and I don’t make an immediate connection between the tiger and being a Dynasty. I also wish the gold color translated more clearly into the logo and uniforms, but it ends up looking like the gold crayon color that always got on my nerves in Kindergarten.

Paris Eternal

Paris Eternal are solidly in the B-tier of visual identities in the OWL. Although the main logo is beautifully rendered and has the potential to be iconic, it is betrayed by the color combination of the Eternal. The logo is in a dark red and is often placed on their grayish-blue color, which makes the logo hard to see. The logo itself though is incredible, the form of the chicken flows to create an infinity sign.

When you combine the two colors, It’s just hard to see the mark. The in-game skins are also nothing special. The brand is not bad, but there are some significant areas for improvement.

Los Angeles Valiant

The LA Valiant opted to update their colors going into OWL Season 3. As many have pointed out, the new colors are derivative of the Spitfire and Team Sweden. Despite their lack of originality, the colors still work, though I personally preferred their old green and gold brand.

The logo itself is dope. The winged helmet is very iconic and elegant. The lettering below the logo compliments the minimalist style of the logo. This is a memorable visual brand, I just don’t like the new colors. Green and gold feels more like the classical Valkyrie to which the logo is a reference, while blue and yellow feels more sporty. If it was still green and gold, this might be Tier A for me.

How are you feeling about the Los Angeles Valiant's color change? I hate it, bring back the green! 79%, 11 votes 11 votes 79% 11 votes - 79% of all votes

I love it, it really brings out the vibe of SoCal! 21%, 3 votes 3 votes 21% 3 votes - 21% of all votes Total Votes: 14 Voting is closed Poll Options are limited because JavaScript is disabled in your browser.

Dallas Fuel

The Dallas Fuel’s brand is not bad, but it’s also not amazing. They opted to go for analogous colors – two different shades of blue. I think that works really well on the in-game skin but is a little boring. Monochromatic brands are a safe bet, they don’t usually look bad, but they also don’t really pop. The logo is decent. The flame is presumably from the fossil fuels Texas is burning. This logo probably won’t hold up in 50 years, but for now it’s a sad reality.

Florida Mayhem

The new Mayhem brand is actually dope. I love the neon-inspired pink and blue colors, they feel very Miami. The vaporwave vibe slaps. I think the new in-game skins are fun and flashy. The logo is supposed to look like a bomb with a palm tree fuse, but it took me a few minutes to see the bomb part of the logo and I think that could be made more clear by having the M make up negative space in an otherwise solid circle. It’s a clever concept that highlights both parts of their brand identity, but could be presented with more visual clarity.

C Tier

Hangzhou Spark

The Hangzhou spark may very well have the second best in-game skins of any team. Their colors are iconic and immediately gets them noticed. Unfortunately, their handgun logo is kind of stupid in my opinion. What is the connection between finger guns and sparks? This is unclear. The logo’s roughness looks unfinished to me. In two more drafts, this might be an elegantly crafted logo, but not right now.

Philadelphia Fusion

The Philadelphia Fusion bring a competent, if slightly boring, visual identity. Their logo is a letter P “nucleus” with what is presumably electrons circling it. They are trying to refer to nuclear fusion – for which there is so much design potential to work with, and this logo didn’t really live up to that potential. You can do so many cool designs with nuclear molecules and they came up with something that doesn’t really excite me.

The colors are similarly boring. Their colors are yellowish orange with a black accent. Their visual identity lacks the boldness of someone like Chengdu and also lacks the elegance of someone like Valiant. Fusion had a chance to be noticeably different in the color department, but instead gets outshined by other teams using similar color combinations.

Shanghai Dragons

The Shanghai Dragon’s brand communicates very clearly that they are a Chinese team. Unfortunately, they don’t communicate much more than that. It feels like they are going for a very patriotic message with their brand, using iconography of the Chinese dragon and china’s national colors, but there isn’t a lot of team personality presented.

The dragon logo snakes around to create an S for Shanghai, which is pretty cool. However, the brand lacks a certain creative twist that is present in some of the other OWL brands.

My issue with the Shanghai visual identity is the same issue I have later with the Washington Justice: when a team takes national colors to make their sports brand, there often isn’t much more personality added. For me, the New England Patriots’ brand suffers in similar ways.

D Tier

Boston Uprising

The Boston Uprising have one of my least favorite brands in the OWL. The navy blue and primary yellow colors are a very basic combination. It reminds me of collegiate colors, since a lot of colleges (including one I attended) use navy blue and yellow. These colors aren’t very inspired.

The logo itself is nothing to write home about. I don’t like the sharp-edged, pseudo-serif embellishments on the writing and logo; I don’t know what feeling they are supposed to communicate. The logo and lettering don’t tell you anything about the team’s personality or identity. I expect them to redo their branding in the next couple years, because right now it’s not really communicating anything specific. (Well, if it doesn’t cost them too much money.)

Guangzhou Charge

I don’t like the Charge brand very much. I think the best part of the brand is their in-game skins. I put them in the lowest tier because their color combination is off-putting and their logo looks a bit janky. Teal and navy is a unique color choice, but I am not sure it’s a good one.

The logo is very basic. If you look at it long enough the lightning bolt between the G and Z becomes apparent, but honestly it took me like two years to even see that. Overall, I think this brand is usable but not as polished as the other OWL brands.

Washington Justice

The Washington justice is the least creative brand in the OWL. They take the American colors of red, white, and blue and said “that’s our brand.” Their logo is essentially an American flag. I think a gavel, a scale, or some other appropriate icon for justice would have better suited for a team called Justice.

Other than the “‘Murica” vibes, I don’t see much going for this brand. I think the tones of red, white, and blue which they used for the skins don’t look good together. Overall, this brand is just trying to play the patriotic angle with little more thought going into it. Still better than the Washington Redskins, so they have that going for them, which is nice.