A quick recap of events so far: various members of the championship team known as the Vancouver Titans, that were previously the roster of the legendary Overwatch team RunAway when they were competing in South Korea, have all left the Vancouver Titans. Beginning Season 3 of the Overwatch League was a monumental undertaking for the teams and league as a whole as they were moving to homestands every week, where teams would compete in the teams they represent. COVID-19 happened, and everything went a bit haywire as the teams were suddenly locked in place.
Many teams went back to their home in South Korea if they had an all-Korean roster, others are bunkering in place in their respective cities while playing the Overwatch League in online-only matches, instead of the LAN matches that were standard for the league. This has been an esport standard as all matches have been switched from LAN events to online-only, ranging from Counter-Strike: Global Offensive to DOTA 2.
Something was different in the water for the Vancouver Titans, as signs of strain began appearing on players’ social media. Slowly, every player began removing all mention of the Vancouver Titans from their social media pages as the team appeared to be imploding from the stress and concern of the Coronavirus.
A letter to our fans: https://t.co/NeceYxuryX pic.twitter.com/mFSBa50Kpj
— Vancouver Titans (@VancouverTitans) May 6, 2020
Shortly after, the entirety of the roster had reportedly left the organization as the Vancouver Titans only publically parted with their Coach paJian and JJANU, while the rest of the roster announced that they were ‘finally free’.
Then the waiting game began as the Vancouver Titans were apparently relatively content with simply not making any commentary on the unprecedented event. Finally, six days after the roster fall-out with the Canuck organization, the CEO has made a public statement regarding everything that happened.
If you’re hoping for ‘the juice’ you simply won’t find it; it’s an impressive ten paragraphs that says very little about what precisely happened, as the Vancouver-based organization managed to lose their entire legendary roster in one fell swoop, with fascinatingly little reason.
What is inferred from the letter as to the official Overwatch League team roster is interesting; Tim Holloway states that Vancouver Titans will be using talent from the path-to-pro scene, meaning the Contenders scene will actually be a breeding ground for talent. It’s likely that Vancouver TItans are already in conversation to purchase an entire team from Tier 2 to ready for their match this Saturday against the Washington Justice. The question remaining, aside from what actually happened internally, is what team will receive a rather sudden call-up.
