London Spitfire reportedly set to drop entire OWL roster & staff

Recent rumors are indicating that the Overwatch League’s London Spitfire are in the process of releasing their entire 2020 roster and coaching staff during the offseason prior to the 2021 OWL season.

The Spitfire won the OWL’s Grand Championship in the league’s inaugural 2018 season, ran it back for a top-10 finish in 2019, and subsequently scrapped their entire roster and rebuilt for 2020 with a team full of mostly rookies. 

Now, the cycle has come full circle as the Spitfire, once again, appear to be dropping everyone and hitting a full reset on their roster for 2021 following a disappointing seventh-place finish in the OWL Asia Playoffs.

Although London finished 17th out of 20 teams in the overall 2020 standings, the Spitfire did show some real promise with their rookie class and this move, if confirmed, will likely come as a major surprise to fans. Conversely, it presents an incredible opportunity for teams who may be interested in a player like Gil-seong ‘Glister’ Lim’s DPS prowess.

A capable and incredibly confident hitscan damage-dealer who is known for his Widowmaker, Ashe, McCree, and Tracer, Glister will easily be the most coveted of the Spitfire’s roster should they all get released. Back in February, I asked him how he feels about Widow duels and he replied simply: “I actually don’t know how to lose Widow 1v1s.”

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Glister would quickly become one of the league’s highly touted free agents should he hit the open market and, if The Esports Observer’s Kevin Hitt’s sources are to be believed, that may be happening sooner than later. 

As Hitt reports, the team is “in the process of releasing or trading its entire roster and coaching staff” in an effort to rebuild from scratch sourcing local, Western European talent, much like the Vancouver Titans, who scrapped their talented roster during the 2020 season in an effort to build around North Americans.

While London may try to rebuild around new, local talent, the rest of the league will fight over the newly released talents. One team in particular that could look to bring in Glister and even his impressive flex-tank teammate, Se-won ‘BERNAR’ Shin, is the New York Excelsior.

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After yet another disappointing playoff finish from a team that dominates the regular season each year, New York should be looking to cement a hitscan DPS and flex tank alongside their talent at the other positions. Although NYXL has two hitscan DPS already rostered, Glister has proven to exist in a different tier of carry potential. That makes New York an excellent candidate to pry him should other teams fail in doing so.