Philadelphia Fusion
| |
Founded | September 20, 2017[1] |
---|---|
League | Overwatch League |
Division | Atlantic |
Team history |
Philadelphia Fusion 2017–present[2] |
Location | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
Colors |
Orange, black, white[2][3] |
Owner | Comcast Spectacor |
President | Tucker Roberts[4] |
Head coach | Yann "Kirby" Luu |
General manager | Yann "Kirby" Luu[5] |
Championships | 0 |
League titles | 0 |
Division titles | 0 |
Stage titles |
0 Stage 1: — Stage 2: — Stage 3: — Stage 4: — |
Website | Official website |
The Philadelphia Fusion are an American-based professional Overwatch esports team based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Fusion compete in the Overwatch League (OWL) as a member of the league's Atlantic Division. The team are one of twelve founding members of the Overwatch League.
Franchise history
On September 20, 2017, Overwatch developer Activision Blizzard officially announced that Comcast Spectacor had acquired the rights to the Philadelphia-based Overwatch League franchise.[6][1] On November 1, the franchise name was revealed as the Philadelphia Fusion.[2] Shortly afterwards on November 3, their diverse inaugural season roster was unveiled with players from Europe, Israel, and South Korea.[7]
Prior to the season start, Kim "SADO" Su-min was handed a 30-match suspension for account boosting and player logistics issues regarding visas would cause the team to withdraw from the inaugural preseason.[8] With a lack of preparation time heading into the regular season, the team struggled for form in Stage 1 and would only manage to notch 6 victories, with a notable win over the New York Excelsior. Using the stage-break to catch up on lost practice time and welcoming the arrival of Israeli DPS player Josue "Eqo" Corana, Stage 2 would prove to be a turning point for the team. After opening up the stage with back-to-back sweeps over the Boston Uprising and Florida Mayhem, the team would continue to impress and go on to achieve a much improved 3rd place finish – good enough for a stage playoffs berth.[9]
During the Stage 2 Playoffs, the team surprised many after defeating heavily favored Stage 1 champions London Spitfire in the semi-finals, however a finals match-up with the New York Excelsior would prove a juggernaut too much as the Fusion would fall short in a hard-fought 5-map match.[10]
During the Post-Season Playoffs, Philadelphia Fusion first faced the Boston Uprising. After a dominant first game they lost the second one, forcing a tie-breaker game which Fusion managed to win. After that they faced the New York Excelcior, who were heavy favorites to win the Post-Season playoffs. Fusion upsetted them in the first game, winning 3-0 and then narrowly winning the second game 3-2, which sent them to the grand finals. In the Grand Finals they faced another underdog; the London Spitifire. The Spitfire however showed the potential their team had and beat the Fusion in a best of 3 game series, winning 2-0.
Seasons
Table key
W | Champions | RU | Runners-up | SF | Semi-finalist | QF | Quarter-finalist | ↑ | Postseason berth |
---|
Record: Matches won – Matches lost
Finish: Final position in league or division standings
Prize money: Total performance bonuses earned in United States dollars
Overview
- As of 18 June 2018
Season | Division | Record | Win% | Finish | Postseason | Stage 1 | Stage 2 | Stage 3 | Stage 4 | Prize money | Awards | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
League | Division | Rank | Finals | Rank | Finals | Rank | Finals | Rank | Finals | |||||||
2018 | Atlantic | 24–16 | .600 | 6th ↑ | 4th | RU | 7th | — | 3rd | RU | 8th | — | 6th | — | $525,000 | — |
Players
- As of 12 September 2018[11]
Current roster
No. | Handle | Name | Hometown | Role | Transaction notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
42 | Boombox | Isaac Charles | Boston, England | Support |
|
18 | Carpe | Lee Jae-hyeok | Daejeon, South Korea | Damage |
|
1 | Eqo | Josue Corona | Netanya, Israel | Damage |
|
54 | fragi | Joona Laine | Turku, Finland | Tank |
|
7 | Hotba | Choi Hong-jun | Seoul, South Korea | Flex |
|
8 | Neptuno | Alberto González Molinillo | El Puerto de Santa María, Spain | Support |
|
21 | Poko | Gael Gouzerch | Nîmes, France | Flex |
|
9 | SADO | Kim Su-min | Gwangju, South Korea | Tank |
|
3 | Snillo | Simon Ekström | Hallstahammar, Sweden | Damage |
|
OWL All-Star selections
The following Fusion players were selected to the Overwatch League All-Star Game.
Players selected as starters are denoted with an asterisk (*)
- Carpe (Lee Jae-hyeok) – 2018*
- Poko (Gael Gouzarch) – 2018
Head coaches
- As of 3 July 2018
Handle | Name | From | To | Span | Ref. | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Kirby | Yann Luu | November 3, 2017 | Present | 344 days | [5] |
Academy team
On January 29, 2018, the Fusion formally announced their academy team would go under the name "Fusion University" for Overwatch Contenders North America.[12][13]
In Season One, the team would claim 1st place and bragging rights after they convincingly took down Boston Uprising's academy team, the Toronto Esports, in the NA playoffs finals.[14][15]
Academy roster
- As of 6 July 2018[16]
Handle | Name |
---|---|
Alarm | Kim Kyung-bo |
Beasthalo | Adam Denton |
BERNAR | Shin Se-won |
Elk | Elijah Gallagher |
WhoRU | Lee Seung-Joon |
ZachaREEE | Zachary Lombardo |
References
- 1 2 Palmeri, Christopher; Smith, Gerry (20 September 2017). "Comcast Buys Philadelphia Esports Team". Bloomberg. Retrieved 12 July 2018.
- 1 2 3 Goslin, Austen (1 November 2017). "Philadelphia Fusion are the newest addition to the Overwatch League". Heroes Never Die. Retrieved 12 July 2018.
- ↑ Entertainment, Blizzard (1 November 2017). "PRESENTING THE PHILADELPHIA FUSION". Overwatch League. Retrieved 12 July 2018.
- ↑ Frankel, Daniel (10 January 2018). "Brian Roberts' son Tucker to head Comcast's $20M Philadelphia esports team". FierceCable. Retrieved 12 July 2018.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Bright, Ryan (3 November 2017). "Carpe, Shadowburn lead Fusion's 2017 Overwatch League roster". NBC Sports Philadelphia. Retrieved 12 July 2018.
- ↑ Fernandez, Bob (20 September 2017). "E-sports goes pro, as Comcast buys a professional 'Overwatch' franchise for Philly". Philly.com. Retrieved 12 July 2018.
- ↑ Carpenter, Nicole (3 November 2017). "Philadelphia Fusion announces international Overwatch League roster". Dot Esports. Retrieved 12 July 2018.
- ↑ Myers, Maddy (5 December 2017). "Philly's Overwatch League Team Has Pulled Out Of The Entire Preseason". Compete (Kotaku). Retrieved 12 July 2018.
- ↑ Van Allen, Eric (25 February 2018). "Philly's Secret Weapon Shines In Overwatch League Debut". Compete (Kotaku). Retrieved 12 July 2018.
- ↑ Nguyen, Steven; Craffey, Liam (26 March 2018). "New York Excelsior reverse-sweeps Philadelphia Fusion to win Stage 2". ESPN. Retrieved 12 July 2018.
- ↑ "PLAYERS". Overwatch League. Retrieved 15 September 2018.
- ↑ "Philadelphia Fusion Reveal Fusion University Contenders Roster". Dexerto. 30 January 2018. Retrieved 10 July 2018.
- ↑ "Fusion University". Philadelphia Fusion. 29 January 2018. Retrieved 10 July 2018 – via YouTube.
- ↑ O'Brien, Joe (14 May 2018). "Fusion University Wins Overwatch Contenders NA Season One - Final Placements". Dexerto. Retrieved 6 July 2018.
- ↑ Meyer, Guilherme (14 May 2018). "In Case you Missed Anything: Esports Weekend + Monday News Recap". Inven Global. Retrieved 12 July 2018.
- ↑ "THE TEAMS". Overwatch Contenders. Retrieved 6 July 2018.