A terrible day for rain, as rumors are currently going around that the relatively impeccable main tank for the New York Excelsior, Dong-guy ‘Mano’ Kim, has been traded away from the New York Excelsior.
The second part of the rumor is that New York Excelsior has acquired Gyeong-mu ‘Yakpung’ Jo from O2 Blast, formerly with the Toronto Defiant in the second season of the Overwatch League.
This means that NYXL has effectively lost both Haksal and Mano in one fell swoop during the offseason Thanos snap that has both players and fans wildly speculating about what the future of the Overwatch League looks like, while simultaneously diving into contracts that they later state they regret.
The ongoing pandemic is partly to blame, as is the three-year contract that has become increasingly standardized with esports as of late; they have both culminated into a fascinating upheaval for the relatively tenacious league that has continued to reach a climax in the past month.
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These rumors have not yet been verified by the New York Excelsior, but do appear to match the pacing of the offseason.
Not that this makes it any easier for the fans in blue; Mano has been the inexhaustible main tank for the New York Excelsior since the inaugural season, crushing foes with a mighty hammer of Tesla cannon while making room for the omnipresent DPS line-up that NYXL has been stacking as deep as humanly possible, to the chagrin of anyone that managed to face them without recognizing where the actual threat lay.
Gyeong-mu ‘Yakpung’ Jo has a bit of a messier record as it currently stands, although not necessarily by his own means.
The main tank player has frequented Contenders, outside of a brief stint in 2019 where he joined the Toronto Defiant before being relegated again back to Korea Contenders with O2 Blast; he holds much of the same hero pool as Mano (although there isn’t much of a choice for main tanks, admittedly) as is nineteen years old, versus Mano’s twenty-four.
There is a reality where Yakpung is nurtured and taught by NYXL staff to become the main tank as infallible as Mano often was, although the road could be arduous if not outright frustrating for fans; some long-term fans are hoping that Saebyeolbe also leaves the team for greener pastures if NYXL is redrawing strength and looking for a long-term reformat of the current roster.
We’ll update this if and when the transfer of main tanks is official.