With just a couple of days to spare before the start of the 2023 Overwatch League Pro-Am West event to kick off the sixth OWL season, New York Excelsior has announced its complete roster for the season.
The NYXL roster, consisting of one tank, three DPS players, and four supports, features numerous OWL veterans as well as a number of Contenders players making their OWL debuts. The roster also features a couple of players who identify as she/her: Haley “Halo” Hamand (who has played at the OWL level in the past for Boston Uprising), and Yunhee “Aniyun” Chi. The support duo recently won the Calling All Heroes Challengers Cup Final with the Altoria Artemis roster.
The mixed roster represents a scaleback of sorts from the originally reported NYXL plan to build a full roster of players representing underrepresented genders. Sources familiar with the organization’s plans that spoke to Dot Esports back in late November said that while the original plan was well-intentioned, there was concern there wasn’t enough OWL-level talent from that group of players.
Interestingly, that source that spoke to Dot Esports explicitly stated that NYXL did “not want to consider a mixed roster” because the “statement isn’t wide enough.” Months later, however, a mixed roster is precisely what the organization has gone with heading into the 2023 season.
NYXL is heading into the 2023 season after a lackluster end to a disappointing 2022 season where they went 4-20, leading to a full release of the roster at the start of the offseason. The team however did re-sign one former player to a new deal in sole tank player Kim “Kellan” Min-jae.
NYXL will make its debut at the OWL 2023 Pro-Am West exhibition tournament on March 30, against the Houston Outlaws.
