Around the OWL: Toronto and Paris make signings, snillo joins Fusion University

The newly expanded Overwatch League teams continue to add pieces to their roster this week. Paris Eternal previously teased the addition of a ‘mystery player’ in the near future after an initial roster reveal last month. The Portuguese Support main Luis “Greyy” Perestrelo is the latest addition to this stacked European lineup.

Toronto Defiant have added former Los Angeles Gladiators DPS player Choi “Asher” Joon-seong and former O2 Team Support player Park “RoKy” Joo-seong to their roster. RoKy has a lot of upside potential as one of the raw talents to come out of the Korean Contenders scene this season. Asher has a real chance to gain a starting spot on this Toronto roster given the amount of rookie DPS mains on the team currently.

Adding reinforcements

With more and more teams opting for a Korean centric playstyle and personnel, Paris Eternal are attempting to stick with their regions strength and compete in the Overwatch League without the ‘go to’ form of team building most teams have grown so fond of. Last year, Shanghai Dragons attempted this approach, but by the end of Stage One their plans turned sour as they remained unable to grab a win during the entirety of the season.

While the forecast doesn’t look as grim for Paris Eternal, there are still a few question marks on this team regarding their performance against top of the food chain teams in the Overwatch League. DPS players like ShaDowBurn and SoOn have plenty of experience on the big stage, but new talents like BenBest and Nicogdh are still unknown commodities within the league. The learning curve is oftentimes a steep one considering the fierceness of competition from the very first game.

In a league where losing ground early is never a positive virtue, Paris Eternal have serious expectations to meet if they want this roster to perform as well as needed. Adding players like Greyy aren’t necessarily a step in that direction, but Paris now have 10 total players to move around on the depth chart. As some players dip below their expectations, the hungry backup core can immediately step in and fill those gaps under the right coaching structure.

Toronto add Asher; snillo becomes two-way player

Toronto Defiant announced a stellar opening lineup when they first released their roster to the public, but it was obvious some holes needed to be filled before the start of the 2019 season. For one, their DPS core although talented, was not up to par with the typical three to four seasoned DPS players that a typical playoff team may have. Toronto heard the critics this time around and have delivered a sizeable acquisition with the signing of Asher this week.

On top of Asher’s addition, RoKy joining from O2 Ardeont will give a jolt of much needed synergy for Toronto and the rest of its players considering the amount of former O2 Ardeont alumni on their roster. RoKy will be pairing with Ivy, Stellar and YakPung as the O2 fraternity finds a new lease on life within the Overwatch League.

O2 Ardeont were never title winners in Korea, but their team synergy over the course of the last two years cannot be understated, and Toronto Defiant are coming in with an extra ace up their sleeve given all the concurrent talent they’ve acquired.

Finally in the Overwatch Contenders scene, snillo makes his return to the North American scene as a two way player for Philadelphia Fusion and Fusion University next season. The move comes as a bit of a surprise given snillo’s great injection of playmaking last season that saw him almost completely demolish team’s on his own with his patented Tracer gameplay.

What snillo lacks in raw game mechanics, he makes up for with his ability to think about plays three or four steps in advance, especially with his Tracer. In any Overwatch professional league, knowing how to utilize heroes like Tracer at an expert level is a must for success, and Philadelphia are well aware of his efforts considering their experience with snillo last year. Look for snillo to continue dominating the OW Contenders scene in North America and possibly make his way back to OWL sooner than expected.