Division: Atlantic
Roster:
- Matt ‘Clockwork’ Dias, USA
- Jiri ‘LiNkzr’ Masalin, Finland
- Jake ‘JAKE’ Lyon, USA
- Lucas ‘Mendokusaii’ Håkansson, Sweden
- Matt ‘coolmatt69’ Iorio, USA
- Alexandre ‘SPREE’ Vanhomwegen, Belgium
- Austin ‘Muma’ Wilmot, USA
- Daniel ‘Boink’ Pence, USA
- Christopher ‘Bani’ Benell, Canada
- Shane ‘Rawkus’ Flaherty, USA
Coach: Tae-yeong ‘TaiRong’ Kim
Owners: Hector Rodriquez (OpTic Gaming)
OpTic Gaming is another long running esports team out of the US, having had success in Halo, Gears of War, and CS:GO in the past. Much of the Houston roster hails from the US National team that put up a strong fight against eventual 2017 Overwatch World Cup winners South Korea, so they should continue to be a threat here.
Player to Watch: JAKE might not have as much experience under his belt as many other players in the competition, but he proved his leadership potential with a gutsy World Cup performance against South Korea. Whether he can continue with that newfound confidence in front of major crowds is another challenge he will no doubt relish.
Division: Atlantic
Roster:
- Ji-hyuk ‘birdring’ Kim, South Korea
- Dong-jun ‘Rascal’ Kim, South Korea
- Joon-yeong ‘Profit’ Park, South Korea
- Dong-eun ‘Hooreg’ Lee, South Korea
- Jun-ho ‘Fury’ Kim, South Korea
- Seung-hyun ‘WOOHYAL’ Sung, South Korea
- Chan-hyung ‘Fissure’ Baek, South Korea
- Jae-hee ‘Gesture’ Hong, South Korea
- Hyeon-woo ‘HaGoPeun’ Jo, South Korea
- Won-sik ‘Closer’ Jung, South Korea
- Choi-tae ‘Bdosin’ Seung, South Korea
- Jong-seok ‘NUS’ Kim, South Korea
Coach: Jeong-min ‘Jjfeel’ Kim, Chang-geun ‘changgoon’ Park, Beoum-jun ‘Bishop’ Lee and Seon-woo ‘Claire’ Jeon
Owners: Jack Etienne and Danan Flander (Cloud9)
Cloud9 is one of the more successful esports teams to make an appearance in the inaugural Overwatch league, and has multiple teams representing new and existing esports competitions including PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, League of Legends, and Rocket League. They have also been recipients of the Best Esports Team award from the Game Awards for the past two years running. As for the Spitfire, the London-based team is entirely comprised of top quality South Korean Overwatch players.
Player to Watch: Any one of the talented roster could make this list, all of which have had amazing success through both Cloud9 and the 2017 APAC Premiers, GC Busan. But keep a close an eye on WOOHYAL, who could very well become one of the top D.Va players of the season.
