Blog 3 - New Faces in the South





Previously, we went over the management and players of two Overwatch League teams that are in the Atlantic Division. Today, I’ll be going over two new, the Atlanta Reign and the Washington Justice, expansion teams who have just recently joined the League.

Atlanta Reign

Image result for atlanta reign logo

Coaches and Management

The Atlanta Reign is owned by Cox Enterprises but is mainly operated by Atlanta Esports Ventures. President and CEO of Atlanta Esports Ventures Paul Hamilton is also the CEO and General Manager of the Overwatch team. Brad ‘Sephy’ Rajani is the head coach of the Reign with plenty of coaching experience including teams such as Selfless, NRG Esports, and the San Francisco Overwatch League, the Shock. He is assisted by Dimitri ‘Silence’ Couturet, who previously assisted Sephy on the Overwatch team Last Night’s Leftovers.

Players

Atlanta Reign has nine players on their roster, with one on a two-way contract with Atlanta’s academy team. Because of this, he will not be mentioned in this blog.

Tank

The Atlanta Reign has two tank players. The two tank players are Park ‘Popko’ Hyun-jun and Seo ‘DACO’ Dong-hyeong, who played alongside each other on the Korean team Element Mystic.
Popko
Source: https://blizzard.gamespress.com/Esports-Overwatch#?tab=photos

Damage

There are three players who fall into the damage category. The first is Jeong ‘Erster’ Joon. He came from Korean teams Ardeont and most recently Lucky Future Zenith. Next is Ilya "NLaaeR" Koppalov. NLaaeR has played competitively since early 2016 and recently came from Last Night’s Leftovers, who was coached by Sephy and Silence. The final player in this category is Daniel ‘Dafran’ Francesca, considered a ticking time bomb due to his changing moods about the game and his past suspensions from the game.
File:Roxnlaaer.jpg
NLaaeR

Support

Atlanta Reing’s support is made up of two players: Masaa, and Kodak. Petja "Masaa" Kantanen is a former player for the Finnish Overwatch team Team Gigantti. Steven "Kodak" Rosenberger is a German support who used to play for the European team 6nakes before being recruited for the Atlanta Reign.
Kodak
Source: https://blizzard.gamespress.com/Esports-Overwatch#?tab=photos



Washington Justice

Coaches and Management

Owned by Mark Ein of Washington Esports Ventures, the Washington Justice is another new team for Season 2 of the Overwatch League. Mark has employed Kim ‘WizardHyeong’ Hyeong-seok as head coach. WizardHyeong has a rich history in coaching, from Korean teams such as LW Blue and LW red, to one of the most successful Overwatch League teams - the New York Excelsior (NYXL). Molly Kim "AVALLA" Kyoung Ey, former coach of OpTic academy and Meta Bellum, was hired to assist WizardHyeong. The Justice had issues prior to the branding release due to accusations of rescinding job offers after candidates had quit their current positions.
Coach WizardHyeong

Players

Tank

When the Justice signed WizardHyeong, he brought with him Song ‘Janus’ Joon-hwa, a free agent that is known for his aggressive playstyle, after being released from the NYXL. Joining Janus in the tank line is Kim ‘SanSam’ Hyang-ki. SanSam was a former tank player for Korean teams Meta Bellum and Meta Athena, though has not won any major titles while on those two teams.
SanSam

Damage

Corey ‘Corey’ Nigra is the first DPS player. While he has no prior Overwatch League experience, he has played for the Gladiators Legion, a tier 2 team for a separate OWL team and has won other titles for  North American team Evil Geniuses. Ethan ‘Stratus’ Yankel is an american player that has also won tournaments for teams such as Prestige Worldwide and NRG Esports. Last in the Damage category is Chon ‘Ado’ Gi-hyeon, a Korean player that started his career playing for MVP Space and moved to the Shanghai Dragons - a League team with a perfect record of 0-40. Though his former League team had zero wins in previous season, Ado’s experience will certainly be a great resource for the new players.
Image result for ado overwatch
Ado

Support

With a former OWL player in the previous two categories, the Washington Justice decided to even it out and sign Mun ‘Gido’ Gi-do as a support player. Gido was a part of the famous Korean team Lunatic-Hai, which became part of the Overwatch League as the Seoul Dynasty. Next in this category, is Cho ‘Hyeonu’ Hyeon-woo, who also played for Meta Athena and Bellum and won tournaments for the Chinese team wNv.KR. Lastly, is Riley ‘Fahzix’ Taylor of EnVision Esports and NRG Esports.
Image result for gido overwatch
Gido


Next time, we'll cover two teams who - on principle- I refuse to root for: the Philadelphia Fusion and the Boston Uprising.
If you are interested in watching  any Overwatch League, Season 2 begins Feb. 14 at 7pm EST HERE on Twitch.tv. You can also watch past games HERE on YouTube. The Overwatch League has your official merchandise located HERE

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