The London Spitfire have revealed a fully European roster for its team set to compete in the second season of Overwatch Contenders: The British Hurricane.
Just like Spitfire, the name Hurricane was chosen as an homage to an iconic British aircraft that was used by the Royal Air Force—the Hawker Hurricane. The Hurricane was introduced in 1937 and played a decisive role in the Battle of Britain as it flew alongside the Supermarine Spitfire.
The roster for the squad is made up of former players from teams like Cloud9, 123, and Singularity. It consists of Cameron “Fusions” Bosworth, Hafþór ‘Hafficool’ Hákonarson, Finley “Kyb” Adisi, Phillip “Kragie” Krag Brems, Ryan “CrusaDe” van Wegen, Daniel “FunnyAstro” Hathaway, and Jakob “bock1” Kleveland. The team’s coach is Nicholas “ShiftyOW” Travis, and its manager is Ysabel “Noukkey” Müller.
Unlike the Spitfire’s all-Korean roster, the goal with forming the Hurricane’s roster was to localize it with British and European players. The organization did exactly that, as every player on the Hurricane is from Europe.
To finds its players, Cloud9 owner Jack Etienne enlisted the help of Paul “ReDeYe” Chaloner and his company Code Red Esports, and popular Overwatch YouTuber Tom “Stylosa” Stewart. Chaloner and Code Red have been running operations with Cloud9 in the UK since the Overwatch League kicked off, while Stewart has joined as a local consultant.
“If we’re going to do this and we’re going to make this a really cool esports thing in the UK and we want to base it in London, and we want to be properly based in London, then we need to start encouraging and promoting British talent,” said Chaloner. “And Contenders is a great place to do that.”
RELATED: London Spitfire reverse sweep New York Excelsior to become the Overwatch League Stage One champions
The European Overwatch scene is decently strong, thankfully, but the UK itself is not quite where it needs to be to sustain an all-British roster.
“It was also, we need to be realistic as well, we want a competitive Contenders team,” said Stewart. “Currently, right now, if we had a full British roster it wouldn’t be possible. So what we decided to do was take the best of the British that we could find and then start filtering in European players, but it was like European was a priority.”
The plan is to have the Hurricane be based and housed in London at some point in the future, in an effort to give the team the best support that they can. Fan events and viewing parties will also be a goal down the line.
It’s clear that for Cloud9 and its contingents that it truly is all about the homeland when it comes to London Spitfire and British Hurricane. The aim is for both of the squads to be teams that European fans, especially those in the UK, can be proud of.
Considering the Spitfire took home the Stage One championship for the Overwatch League already, it seems like they’re off to a good start.
