The Toronto Defiant’s late Overwatch League playoff push has run into an all-too-familiar obstacle. Four members of the team have produced positive COVID-19 tests, the organization announced today.
With such a large portion of the team testing positively and displaying signs and symptoms of COVID, the Toronto Defiant has made the decision to compete remotely for the time being, with the goal of returning to the stage at full strength for both the Countdown Cup play-in tournament and the year-end OWL Playoffs.
DPS player Heesu Jeong is one of the players to confirm he’s tested positive and is currently dealing with a fever over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. This is the second time since the start of the pandemic that multiple members of Toronto have been hit with a wave of COVID. In May of last year, three members of the organization tested positive in the middle of the season.
The Toronto Defiant currently has two more scheduled matches as part of the Countdown Cup qualifiers: against the Florida Mayhem on Oct. 14 and against the Houston Outlaws on Oct. 16. Right now, Toronto sits in seventh place in the OWL West standings with an even 11-11 record.
The Countdown Cup tournament itself serves as a play-in tournament for the playoffs and would feature the seventh through tenth-ranked teams in the West. If Toronto win out these last two matches while playing remotely, they could secure a top-six record in the West and qualify for the playoffs directly. With that, the team would be afforded more time for their players to rest and recover from this recent COVID outbreak.
Published: Oct 10, 2022 12:05 pm