Blog 6 - Cream of the Crop

With the new season in progress, it seems right to put the two consistently best performing teams for last. It is just coincidence that these two teams are in the Atlantic Division,. The first to be covered are the New York Excelsior (NYXL). Next will be last season's Overwatch League champions - the London Spitfire.

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 New York Excelsior

The NYXL was the powerhouse of the League, with star players in every category and an amazing season ending record of 34-6. Despite this amazing record, they lost to the Philadelphia Fusion for the chance to go against the London Spitfire in the Grand Finals. Like the Toronto Defiant and the London Spitfire, the Excelsior elected to go with a full Korean roster, which annoyed some people, but when the NYXL started to see results, no one really talked about it after.


Coaching and Management

The NYXL is owned by Jeff Wilpon, the COO of the New York Mets. He recruited WizardHyeong first, but he was traded to the Washington Justice. Hyeon-sang "Pavane" Yu, the former coach for Korean team LW Red and LW Blue, took his place when WizardHyeong left. The teams will be mentioned quite often since many of the players were formerly from these two teams. Assisting Pavane is a former coach for Ardeont, Se-chul "zet" Son.
Hyeon-sang "Pavane" Yu 

Players

Tank

With only two tank players, this section will be fairly short. Leading the charge is Dong-gyu "Mano" Kim, a former player for AF Blue (Afreeca Freecs) and LW Blue. Joining Mano is Tae-hong "MekO" Kim, a teammate from LW Blue. The pair had ups and downs on LW Blue before becoming the New York Excelsior.
Dong-gyu "Mano" Kim

Damage

Within this category, each of the four players are better than the others. Do-hyeon "Pine" Kim is the first player on the list. Commonly called "Big Boss Pine," he was known originally for competitive  Team Fortress 2 before transitioning to Overwatch. Pine is now known for his amazing aim and every play would be highlight reel worthy. One of the few players not from LW Blue, Hae-seong "Libero" Kim was recruited from Meta Athena and has made a name for himself with his own nutty plays and large hero pool. The third player is Yeon-oh "Fl0w3R" Hwan. Fl0w3R was a special case last season because he was originally on the roster, he was ineligible to play due to his age (League policy is 18+ years of age). He was moved to the team's tier 2 team before moving back up once his 18th birthday came around. The last player is Yeon-kwan "Nenne" Jeong. Nenne played with LW Red, Lunatic-Hai after the original roster became the Seoul Dynasty, and the Excelsior's academy team XL2 Academy. 

Yeon-oh "Fl0w3R" Hwang

Support

The supports are no slouches either. First on the list is former LW Red player Yeon-joon "ArK" Hong, acting as one of the main support players for the NYXL. Next is Tae-sung "Anamo" Jung. Anamo is another of the NYXL that was not recruited from LW Blue or Red. Iinstead, he came from Mighty AOD and Ardeont, where he saw great success on the two teams. The final support is Sung-hyeon "JJoNak" Bang. He is known for his aggressive play style that has earned him the title of Deadliest support player in the League. 
Sung-hyeon "JJoNak" Bang







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London Spitfire


The London Spitfire was Overwatch League's Inaugural Season's Champion. Despite having a 24-16 record throughout, the Spitfire rolled through the playoffs with little resistance. The team is a mixture of KongDoo Panthera (now called Cloud9 KongDoo) and GC Busan, the two teams that were considered the best teams in the world after the APEX Season 4 tournament. Because the roster was fully Korean, it received some backlash, since audience members were expecting English natives to be a part of the team. But like the NYXL, people forgot their anger once the wins started to roll in.

Coaching and Management

Cloud9 (C9) had purchased the KongDoo franchise, including the Panthera branch. C9's Founder and CEO Jack Etienne used this team and purchased players from GC Busan to form the London Spitfire. Jack originally had Bishop to be head coach, but in his absence, Kwang-bok "Coach815" Kim stepped up to take over this powerhouse of a team. Susie "LilSusie" Kim, a former host, caster, interviewer, and translator was hired as the Spitfire's Director of Youth Esports Education and Training.
Jack Etienne

Players

Tank

The main tank player of the Spitfire is Jae-hee "Gesture" Hong. Formerly of GC Busan, he won many tournaments his team. As one of the few members not coming from GC Busan or KongDoo Panthera, Jun-ho "Fury" Kim saw some success on Rhinos Gaming Wings and Team Liquid before joining the Spitfire.Tank


Jae-hee "Gesture" Hong

Damage

Ji-hyeok "birdring" Kim is the first player in the damage category. Coming from Cloud9 KongDoo, birdring is an astounding player with crazy mechanical skills. The second player comes from GC Busan had a small suspension mid-season for making obscene gestures to the live cameras. Joon-yeong "Profit" Park believed the cameras were not live and was making fun of his coaching staff. Despite Profit's skills, he was wildly inconsistent in the first season, but when he was on a roll, no one could come close to Profit's abilities. Hee-dong "Guard" Lee is another player not from KongDoo or GC Busan. Instead, he is from Element Mystic and saw many wins before being traded to the Spitfire.
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Joon-yeong "Profit" Park

Support

Jong-seok "NUS" Kim is the main support player and the third player not form the two core teams. He comes from Meta Athena after placing in several times in about five tournaments. Before being signed to the Spitfire, Seung-tae "Bdosin" Choi played for wNv.KR and Cloud9 KongDoo, where he won many tournaments for the teams before being part of the London Spitfire roster. The final player is relatively unknown. Yung-hoon "Krillin" Jung joined the team in between Season 1 and 2, with people only hearing his name from non-professional play. 

Seung-tae "Bdosin" Choi



With this, the Atlantic Division is completed. Next are the 10 teams from the Pacific Division starting with the Dallas Fuel and the San Francisco Shock.
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.

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