Blog 5 - New Kids on the Block

As of this post, the Overwatch League has been going on for two weeks now and most every match can be decided by a coin flip. This is refreshing because during the first season, it was clear which teams were the best and who would participate in the stage playoffs. But with the new expansion teams, roster changes, and character meta/compositions, everyone is on a near equal playing field. The new expansion teams being covered today are the Paris Eternal and the Toronto Defiant.

Paris Eternal

With their logo being an unofficial symbol of France, the Paris Eternal opted for an all European team. France already had a very successful Overwatch team, named Rouge, that was hailed as one of the best teams in the West and could stand with the best Korean teams. Since Rouge's disbanding, many of its players went off to other teams, retired from Overwatch, or turned to other hobbies. The Eternal's choice to be all European many people excited to see what players would be apart of the French team.

Coaches and Management

The Paris Eternal is owned by Drew McCourt, whose father, Frank McCourt, owns the soccer club Olympique de Marsielle. Julien "daemoN" Ducros serves as head coach to the team and was a former coach of the LA Valiant, a trial coach for Rogue, and and analysis for MoviStar Riders. He is assisted by season coach Kyle "KyKy" Sounder, who was the former head coach of OWL team Dallas Fuel and assistant coach to the Houston Outlaws. 

Julien "daemoN" Ducros

Players

Tank

Benjamin "BenBest" Dieulafait starts the roster off as Eternal's main tank player with much success on former teams GamersOrigin and Young and Beautiful. Roni "LhCloudy" Tiihonen is a Finnish born player who has played for Finnish team Team Gigantti and the Florida Mayhem'ss tier 2 team Mayhem Academy. Icelandic player Finnbjörn "Finnsi" Jónasson rounds this team's tank players with his success on teams such as Movistar Riders, Orgless and Hungry, and OWL team Los Angeles Valiant.

Benjamin "BenBest" Dielafait

Damage

Paris Eternal's DPS players are tried and true veterans of the game. Starting with Karol "Danye" Szcześniak, he is a Polish player that had moderate success on Bazooka Puppies and the Copenhagen Flames. The second player in this category is seasoned player Nicolas "NiCOgdh" Moret, who came from Team Fortress 2 and played for Rouge's Overwatch team, as well as Eagle Gaming. NiCOgdh is joined by fellow Rouge teammate Terence "SoOn" Tarlier, who played for the LA Valiant before being traded to the Paris Eternal. The final damage player is another former Team Fortress 2 player, Russian born George "ShaDowBurn" Gushcha. ShaDowBurn was, and still is, considered one of the best non-Korean players in Overwatch and played with the Philadelphia Fusion before joining the Paris Eternal.

George "ShaDowBurn" Gushcha

Support

In the Support slot, the Eternal boasts players that have been playing Overwatch since 2015/2016 with moderate success. The first player is Damien "HyP" Souville, formerly of Eagle Gaming, GamersOrigin, and MUSTACHE & MONOCLE, HyP has seen much success on Eagle Gaming and GamersOrigin. Joining HyP is another seasoned player Harrison "Kruise" Pond. Kruise came from teams like Toronto Esports,  Orgless and Hungry, and REUNITED/eUnited. The final support player for the Paris Eternal is Luís "Greyy" Perestrelo. The Portuguese player has mixed success on teams like Lazer Kittenz, Cloud9 EU, and the Outlaws' former tier 2 team GGEA.

Luis "Greyy" Persestrelo

Toronto Defiant

The Toronto Defiant came at no surprise as the expansion cities were being announced one by one. With popular tier 2 team Toronto Esports, fans thought - correctly - that it was only a matter of time before Toronto got it's spot in the Overwatch League. The Defiant opted not to have a pure Canadian or even mixed roster like other teams, they chose to be full Korean, which could make the fans feel disconnected or isolated from the brand. Nonetheless, they are 2-1 after two weeks since the beginning of the season, but we're here to take a quick look of the roster so let's get right to it.

Coaching and Management

The Toronto Defiant is owned by OverActive Media, an Esports Partnership company that also owns the Esports franchise Splyce, with Chris Overholt as acting CEO and President, along with co-founder Marty "lazerchickend" Strenczewilk. Acting as head coach is Former Cloud9 coach Beom-joon "Bishop" Lee. Bishop also was the first head coach for the London Spitfire, a team we will cover next time. Joining Bishop is Yoon-ho "Bubbly" Cho, the former coach for Team KongDoo Uncia and the Overwatch League team Seoul Dynasty.

Beom-joon "Bishop" Lee

Players

The players themselves mostly come from the same team franchise: O2 Ardeont and O2 Blast. These teams saw some success in the Korean Tier 2 scene, but was not very standout otherwise.

Tank

Starting the tank line is Gyeong-mu "Yakpung" Jo, acting as a main tank player from O2 Blast/Ardeont. Bringing experience from the League, Kang-jae "envy" Lee was a backup tank player for the LA Valiant. Prior to his Overwatch League experience, envy was a part of Immortals and Rhino Gaming Wings, as well as Meta Bellum after his time with the Valiant but before being picked up by the Defiant.

Kang-jae "envy" Lee

Damage

Joining Yakpung from O2 Ardeont as a DPS player is Do-hyung "Stellar" Lee. Stellar was on another team before joining the O2 franchise called DeToNator.KOREA, where he qualified into the fourth season of Overwatch APEX. The second player in this category is fellow teammate of Stellar and Yakpung, Seung-hyun "Ivy" Lee. Ivy has only participated in two Tier 2 tournaments where his team O2 Ardeont placed second and sixth. The final player in this category is another player with Overwatch League experience: Joon-seong "Asher" Choi. Asher saw moderate success while on the LA Gladiators before being released.

Joon-seong "Asher" Choi

Support

Jae-yoon "Aid" Go starts off the Support roster. Aid is one of the few players that do not come from the O2 franchise. Instead, he was a part of GC Busan where he won a minor tournament, and GGEA where he saw was moderately placed in the tournaments while under the GGEA roster.  Joo-seong "RoKy" Park is the second player in the category. He came from multiple wins under the roster for Showmanship7 and X6-Gaming before joining O2 and then the Defiant. The final player is another Overwatch League veteran named Se-hyeon "Neko" Park. Neko's placing on RX Foxes was not too stellar. He was still picked up by the Boston Uprising for the first season, before being traded to this new expansion team

Joo-Seong "Roky" Park

These are the final two expansion teams in the Atlantic Division. Next, we'll be covering the two best teams in the League in the regular season: The New York Excelsior (NYXL) and the Season 1 champions, the London Spitfire.
The 2nd Season of the Overwatch League has started and can be watched HERE on Twitch.tv. Games go from Thursday to Sunday, with four games per day. You can also watch past games HERE on YouTube. The Overwatch League has its official merchandise located HERE in the event you find a team that's worth cheering for.