Vancouver Titans roster released, eyes on Second Wind

After a pretty impressive 2^nd place in the last Overwatch season, the Vancouver Titans roster was poised for a new attempt at the top of the leaderboard – they even saw their players moving to Vancouver to allow them to train together at the Adamas Esports Training and Performance Centre.

Well, things didn’t quite go as planned. Despite several strong and decisive wins early in the new season, the OWL decided to put a stop to games quite quickly. Teams were scrambling to figure out their schedules and practice conditions. The Titans, under observation of safety measures, were flown home to South Korea in order to be with their families.

Soon after, problems started emerging left right and center.

© OWL

Strongest team

The Vancouver Titans team was supposed to join the Asian division from their homes in Korea in order to enable them to participate in Overwatch matches – this didn’t work out as planned though, despite them being one of the best Overwatch teams, as the time difference made it difficult to efficiently connect with management and even fans.

The Vancouver Titans roster was split – with management in Canada and the players in Korea, neither the Asian nor the Americas division were entirely suitable. So, after some deliberation, the team decided to part – amicably – with a fair few of their staff and platers.

HyoJong “HakSal” Kim, Minsoo “Seominsoo” Seo, Seongjun “Slime” Kim, Chunghee “Stitch” Lee, Juseok “Twilight” Lee, JeHong “RyuJeHong” Yu, Yangwon “Yang1” Kweon (coach), Jae Hong “Andante” Hwang (coach) and Chan Hyeong “Fissure” Baek were released from their contracts so that the Overwatch pros would be free to join other teams in the Asian division at their leisure.

A few staff remained, but most of the coaches and training staff as well as the players themselves were amicably released from their contracts. What this means for the current Overwatch season is unclear – at the very least, the team won’t be able to continue playing as they had been initially.

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New beginnings

The Vancouver Titans will be assembling a new core team while actively supporting new potential and aspiring pros on their way to the top – in other words, we may well soon see some brand new names in the Overwatch division. Early rumors are towards an up and coming Contenders squad called Second Wind. Headlined by Randal “Roolf”Stark and Abtin “ShRedLock” Shirvani, they have been making waves for their prowess this season.

Maybe that is exactly what the Titans need. A second wind to take the organization to the top. In the short run, Overwatch betting odds are going to either plummet or if the providers don’t adapt quickly there is good bucks to be made betting against the new Titans.

Meanwhile, some of the players that have left might just end up playing Valorant – with many wondering if the Overwatch League is dying, some pros have already said they want to make the switch.

One such player is sinatraa – the reigning OWL MVP and our has announced his retirement in order to join the professional Valorant scene. The Tracer, Doomfist, Bastion and Reaper player showed a fantastic performance during the 2019 OWL performance – and now he’s retired. He says he lost his passion, and partly blames the 2-2-2 role lock and hero bans that Blizzard introduced. He’ll be continuing his pro gamer career as part of the Sentinels brand-new Valorant team.

Players from other games are also streaming towards Valorant – along with sinatraa, the Sentinels have signed Jared ‘Zombs’ Gitlin, a former Apex Legends pro, as well as Shahzeb ‘ShahZaM’ Khan and Hunter ‘SicK’ Mims.

With all the switcharoos going around, we might need to update our Overwatch League Power Rankings every week from now on.

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