Transfers Galore: Florida, London and Seoul tease new signings

Overwatch

October 12, 2018

Nicolas Vera

Florida Mayhem continue their busy offseason with more rumoured signings as they have recently hinted on Twitter the prospect of picking up three additional players. The move would compound their earlier triple signing of players such as Jae-mo “xepheR” Koo, Hyeon-woo “HaGoPeun” Jo and Damon “Apply” Conti. In an attempt to cool down the hype surrounding Florida’s news, the London Spitfire and Seoul Dynasty organizations have responded with similar rumours on Twitter about possible signings.

After an amazing first year, finishing as Champions of Overwatch League Season One, the prospect of signings for London Spitfire is interesting given the free agent pool remaining. Will the Kings of Overwatch League add to their unsullied roster? And have Seoul Dynasty made more moves to add to their abundant signing list? With such a hectic month of news in the eSports realm it’s time to discern the fact from fiction with all the rumblings taking place in the Overwatch League.

Bring on the Mayhem

After a recent tweet from Florida Mayhem teasing the prospect of three new signings, the magnifying glass has once again been placed on Florida as they prepare to announce the news within the coming weeks. The speculation arrives from the Florida Mayhem Twitter account after putting out a tweet with a signed paper emoji, followed by a pen, and three ‘mystery men’ emojis that have drawn all sorts of speculation from fans and critics alike.

This news comes as no surprise given Florida’s roster exodus they committed to early in the offseason. The Mayhem dropped six players in an unprecedented move and have slowly started the rebuild now that HaGoPeun, Apply and xepheR have all been added to the lineup. Apply makes his way to Florida through the Contenders scene as he plied his trade on the Academy team for Florida, and has impressed the organization mightily since his trials began for a main team position.

xepheR makes his way to Florida via Seoul Dynasty as he was transferred in conjunction with the other two signings. It seems like Florida Mayhem have a habit of doing things in three as they are now seeking yet another moment in the spotlight with future additions to the roster.

One of the names being thrown around the rumour mill is none other than Jun-soo “Kris” Choi from the Korean Contenders team Meta Athena. Kris is a natural addition to the roster given his previous partnership with Jung-woo “Sayaplayer” Ha, who is easily the most important player on the Florida Mayhem roster.

Since the beginning of the offseason, it’s been clear that the rebuild of Florida starts and ends with Sayaplayer, and bringing in teammates that he’s comfortable with will aid the team heavily in that regard. Kris’ deep Support hero pool will make him an immediate hit in the Overwatch League, his previous endeavors as part of The Meta have been fruitful as he became a APEX Challenger champion alongside Sayaplayer just two short years ago.

Spoiling the surprise

Of course, no announcement within the Overwatch League gets put up without its fair share of trolling from the community. Within the hour, London Spitfire tweeted the same exact combination of obscure emojis that are also possibly highlighting signings from the most decorated team in the league right now.

After a stunning playoffs run that saw them drop only one match, the London Spitfire really came into their own as the season wore on. After dropping four players right before the playoffs, the team ‘trimmed the fat’ off of their seemingly bloated roster and have dominated the competition ever since. If the London Spitfire do decide to add players at this point, there’s a high chance that they will only add players that can be coached and trained for future player roles.

If there’s one thing we learned from Overwatch Contenders: Korea last year, its that there is absolutely no shortage of high level, mechanically gifted young players coming out of the scene. Picking up a few unknown names and building them up in their already established culture of not only winning, but maintaining success over long periods of time could be beneficial to any young player coming into the league.

But no troll is successful without its fair share of copy pasta and you can guarantee that the Overwatch League continued the trend as Seoul Dynasty threw their hat into the mix. As previously reported by our website, Seoul Dynasty have already made their moves with a Main Tank and Flex tank being added to their team as Min-hyuk “Michelle” Choi and Min-seo “Marve1” Hwang have been in talks with the organization.

This may just be a way for Seoul Dynasty to take some shine away from the other orgs as they prepare to announce their own signings, or this could have just been a boring day at the office for whoever runs the social media of these teams. Regardless, the moving of players to the Overwatch League does not stop at any point, and there are still plenty of expansion teams that need to make formal announcements at or before Blizzcon 2018 next month.