The Atlanta Reign organization of the Overwatch League announced their roster through a video today. To be perfectly honest, I was not a big fan of their presentation, and that was mainly because of the last person announced – on top of that, I feel that the sound clip they used for his announcement was mocking the competitive scene.
Most of the roster consists of contenders players, and one person that will sound very familiar if you were a fan of competitive Overwatch before Overwatch League. I dug deep to see what I could find out about each of these players to hopefully provide some insight into who they are!
First is the most popular player on Reign, defran. Hailing from Denmark, he made a name for himself on Selfless Gaming, being one of the main reasons Selfless Gaming was as successful as they were. He was part of a DPS duo with a player you may have heard of before, sinatraa, who helped Selfless top the leaderboards from February 2017 to May 2017, capturing titles in Rivalcade Weekly’s to Overwatch Rumble tournaments. They also placed top three in several Alienware Monthly Melee tournaments. Other than his accolades, many people know him for the controversy he brung on himself and his team. In June 2017, defran was suspended from all Blizzard events for throwing games. He admitted to throwing games because he was looking to escape professional Overwatch and that scrimming made him “very depressed and bored”.
I enjoyed watching defran up and until this point. I get that he was losing his feelings toward professional Overwatch but throwing games is not the right way to go about leaving the scene. Defran, was signed by NRG to become part of the streaming team. Until the announcement today, I was under the impression that he was still a part of NRG. This troubled past has me questioning the Reign but I really hope it works out for them.
Erster is a Korean DPS play that has most recently played for Lucky Future Zenith. This team is the reigning back to back Contenders champions of China. He has been a part of winning teams since 2017 with Ardeont then moving on to Luck Future Zenith.
NLaaeR joins Mistakes (when he gets signed) and ShadowBurn as representatives from Russia playing in Overwatch League. NLaaeR is the team’s third DPS. He started his professional gaming career with a Russian CS:GO team but was VAC banned (Valve Anti-Cheat System) which ended his career. In his Overwatch career, he played with the Contenders team Last Night’s Leftovers, who have seen middle of the road results.
DACO is a Korean flex player who played for Element Mystic. In Contenders season one, they ended up in 5th place and season 2 in 3rd place. I am excited to see how DACO will lend his flex expertise to this brand new franchise.
Gator is Atlanta’s only US representative. He’s a tank player that formerly played for GOATS. This team gained a small bit of popularity when Gator was actually banned for boosting and xQc was asked to fill in for him.
Pokpo is a Korean tank player that played alongside DACO on Element Mystic. He is known for his Winston, Orisa and Reinhardt play.
Kodak is a German support player. The signing today makes him the other German play in Overwatch League. He was a part of the German World Cup roster this year and also played for 6nakes and 123.
Masaa is a Finnish support player and rounds out the roster. Recently he played for Team Gigantti. His team placed 2nd in Contenders season 1 and 3rd-4th place in season 2 after winning their group.
This Atlanta team has some very talented Contenders players… with a touch of controversy. I am excited to see how these Contenders players match up on Overwatch’s biggest stage!