After the relatively strange occurrence that was the Paris Eternal winning the Summer Showdown on the back of a singular hero being buffed, two teams have taken to Twitter to announce that they’re trying to find some new talent to help their team be a bit better prepared for the next sudden buff.
The Chengdu Hunters are looking for a new team coach who will oversee the teams’ performance and training regimen, along with rosters arrangements; they are considering applicants with at least one year of coaching experience and is fluent in ‘spoken and written Chinese’ along with a second language of either Korean or English.
The San Francisco Shock was far more open about it, with a lot fewer constraints being placed on what they’re looking for.
Granted, the Shock has just recently lost a vital component of the team with Jay ‘Sinatraa’ Won abruptly leaving Overwatch League midway through a season to go play Valorant: rather than staying on a team of what appeared to be undefeatable champions for easy money. To say that incident was stand-out in the esport scene is an understatement, and some find that it speaks volumes about the health of the Overwatch League as it currently stands.
Additionally, the Shock traded Architect; two key players out of the roster for various reasons before the Summer Showdown.
Popular reasoning for the sudden search for talent is that it directly correlates to the San Francisco Shock losing abruptly in the Summer Showdown, yet CEO of NRG Esports Andy Miller took to Twitter to confront the rumors.
Yet this follows a trend that we’ve been seeing for the past couple of weeks, if not months, within Counter-Strike: Global Offensive: talent is being picked up for the newest first-person shooter Valorant; players eager to get in on the proverbial ground floor of what could become the next competitive esport.
CS:GO is experiencing a bit of a brain-drain in its esport scene from one of the most stable esports ever produced; Overwatch League is likely experiencing some of the same effects as well, as Tier 1 and Tier 2 players are being whisked away by organizations with high aspirations to hit the ground running.
Eric Flom stated on stream that he knew of multiple personalities that were in negotiations for Valorant before the open beta even released on Twitch.
Likely, as quick as this drain on talent was, we’ll see numbers begin to return to normal once the Valorant esport scene has been sorted out. Some players will inevitably rebound off of it, others simply won’t find it to their liking and want to return to their roots. Teams just need to bide their time until then.
