New York Excelsior of the Overwatch League has revealed its Overwatch Contenders roster—but it’s noticeably missing one of its young and talented players, Hwang “Fl0w3R” Yeon-oh.
Fl0w3R is still part of the New York Overwatch organization, but won’t play for the Contenders team. Instead he’ll wait in the wings until he’s eligible to play for the Overwatch League team. But even without him the New York Contenders (called XL2) roster looks formidable.
The roster brings together former Cloud9 player Adam Eckel and former Evil Geniuses player Anthony “Goliath” Pietro on support, former Rocket Esports player James “Cloneman” D’Arcangelo and former Rise Nation player Mike “Midnight” Ryan on tank, and former Lunatic-Hai player Jeong “Nenne” Yeon-kwan and former Renegades player Liam “Mangachu” Campbell on DPS.
The team’s structure takes a different approach from the Overwatch League team. For the Overwatch League, New York plucked the LW Blue roster out of Korea, but for Contenders, the organization opted for a mix of North American players—one Canadian and four Americans—and one South Korean player.
On paper, XL2 looks strong. There’s a history of North American excellence in the roster, though it’s not a squad we’ve seen play together before. Individually, the players have the experience in tournaments—but their synergy will be important if they’re to succeed in Contenders.
XL2’s first match is less than a month away—on March 11—against Toronto Esports.
