2020 London Spitfire season

The 2020 London Spitfire season is the third season of the London Spitfire's existence in the Overwatch League. The team will look upon their 16–12 record from 2019 and qualify for their third consecutive season playoffs and win their second Grand Finals title in three years. The Spitfire will host two homestand events in the 2020 season; the first will be held at The SSE Arena Wembley,[1] while the second will be at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham.[2]

2020 London Spitfire season
Head coachHong "Agape" Cheol-yong
General managerLee Seung-hwan
OwnerJack Etienne
Arena(s)
Results
Record5–7 (.417)
Place

Preceding offseason

Organizational changes

In early October 2019, the Spitfire parted ways with coach Kim "Jfeel" Jeong-min, who had been with the team since London's inception.[3]

London found their new head coach within the organization, promoting assistant coach Hong "Agape" Cheol-yong to the position. Additionally, the team signed former New York Excelsior head coach Ty "Pavane" Hyun-sang, former Florida Mayhem assistant coach Kim "SNT" Sung-hoon, and former O2 Blast assistant coach Lim "Twinkl" Young-bin all as assistant coaches. The changes reunited Agape, Pavane, and SNT, as Apage and Pavane previously coached LuxuryWatch Blue and LuxuryWatch Red together, while SNT played with LuxuryWatch Red at the same time.[4]

Roster changes
Free agents
RolePlayerContract
status		Date signed2020 team
HandleName
DamageBirdringJi-Hyeok KimFree agent6 NovemberLos Angeles Gladiators[5]
DamageGuardHee-Dong LeeFree agent––
SupportNusJong-Seok KimFree agent––
Legend
     Re-signed/Retained by the Spitfire.
     Departed from the Spitfire.

The Spitfire enter the new season with three free agents, one players which they have the option to retain for another year, and five players under contract.[6] The OWL's deadline to exercise a team option is 11 November, after which any players not retained will become a free agent. Free agency officially began on 7 October.[7]

Acquisitions

The Spitfire's first acquisitions of the offseason were announced on 30 October, when the team traded tank Kim "Fury" Jun-ho to the Philadelphia Fusion in exchange for Fusion University players tank Shin "BERNAR" Se-won and support Kim "Fuze" Tae-hoon.[8]

London announced eight players on their roster on 23 November. The five new players announced were support players Lee "Highly" Sung-hyeok and Lim "SanGuiNar" Kyu-min, DPS players Lee "Schwi" Dong-Jae and Lim "Glister" Gil-seong, as well as tank player Choi "JMAC" Dae Han. Of the players, only Highly has ever previously played for an OWL team, while the remaining had only experience in Overwatch Contenders.[9] The following month, on 27 December, London announced four more players to round out their 12-man roster in damage players Jung "Although" Hyun-wook and Park "Babel" Sang-jun and support players Kim "Jihun" Ji-hun and Cho "Clestyn" Gun-hee.[10]

Departures

The Spitfire elected not to re-sign all three of their free agents, DPS Kim "Birdring" Ji-hyeok, support Kim "NUS" Jong-seok, and alternate DPS Lee "Guard" Hee-dong, heading into the 2020 season.[3]

On 22 October, the Spitfire agreed to transfer tank Hong "Gesture" Jae-hee and DPS Park "Profit" Joon-yeong to the Seoul Dynasty.[11] The team released Choi "Bdosin" Seung-tae and Song "Quatermain" Ji-hoon in mid-November. With the release of Bdosin, no players from the Spitfire's 2018 Grand Finals roster remained with the team.[12]

Roster
London Spitfire roster
PlayersCoaches
RoleNo.HandleNameNationalityPrevious team
Damage 1 Schwi  Lee Dong-jae  South Korea  RunAway 
Damage 26 Glister  Lim Gil-seong  South Korea  Gen.G 
Damage 23 ALTHOUGH  Jung Hyeon-wook  South Korea  Gen.S 
Damage 16 Babel  Park Sang-jun  South Korea  BM Hawk 
Tank 97 JMAC  Choi Dae-han  South Korea  LGE.Huya 
Tank 18 BERNAR  Shin Se-won  South Korea  Fusion University 
Tank 30 Clestyn  Cho Gun-hee  South Korea  Griffin 
Tank 5 Jihun  Kim Ji-hun  South Korea  Bubble Burster Gaming 
Support 11 Krillin  Jeong Yung-hoon  South Korea  CRusher 
Support 10 Highly  Lee Sung-hyeok  South Korea  Seoul Dynasty 
Support 14 SanGuiNar  Lim Kyu-min  South Korea  Gen.B 
Support 99 Fuze  Kim Tae-hoon  South Korea  Fusion University 
Head coach
  • Hong "Agape" Cheol-yong
Legend
  • (C) Team captain
  • (TW) Two-way player
  • (I) Inactive
  • (S) Suspended
  • Injury/Illness

Latest roster transaction: December 27, 2019.

Standings
# Team Division W L PCT P MR MD STK
Conference leaders
1 Shanghai Dragons PAC 16 2 .889 18 41–11–1 +30 W4
2 Philadelphia Fusion ATL 15 1 .938 16 44–14–0 +30 W8
Wild cards
3 San Francisco Shock PAC 13 2 .867 15 32–11–2 +21 W9
4 New York Excelsior ATL 12 4 .750 16 39–17–2 +22 W1
5 Guangzhou Charge PAC 11 6 .647 17 32–31–0 +1 W6
6 Florida Mayhem ATL 10 5 .667 15 27–18–0 +9 L1
Play-in tournament
7 Paris Eternal ATL 8 6 .571 14 29–26–0 +3 L1
8 Los Angeles Valiant PAC 8 6 .571 14 26–25–0 +1 W5
9 Hangzhou Spark PAC 7 8 .467 15 27–31–2 -4 L1
10 Atlanta Reign ATL 6 6 .500 12 24–18–0 +6 W1
11 Seoul Dynasty PAC 6 6 .500 12 14–20–1 -6 L3
12 Houston Outlaws ATL 6 10 .375 16 25–35–3 -10 W1
In the hunt
13 Los Angeles Gladiators PAC 5 6 .455 11 21–23–3 -2 L1
14 London Spitfire ATL 5 7 .417 12 18–27–0 -9 L1
15 Toronto Defiant ATL 5 9 .357 14 25–31–0 -6 L1
16 Dallas Fuel PAC 4 8 .333 12 18–28–0 -10 L4
17 Chengdu Hunters PAC 4 12 .250 16 23–37–1 -14 L3
18 Vancouver Titans PAC 3 7 .300 10 11–23–0 -12 W1
19 Washington Justice ATL 3 12 .200 15 16–38–0 -22 L4
20 Boston Uprising ATL 2 12 .143 14 12–40–3 -28 L2

Game log
2020 game log (Overall record: 3–2)
February–March: 3–2
April–May: 0–0
June–August: 0–0
2020 season schedule

References
  1. Bishop, Sam (6 November 2019). "London Spitfire home matches are in London and Birmingham". GameReactor UK. Retrieved 6 November 2019.
  2. Koh, Bobby; Blizzard Entertainment (27 November 2019). "London Spitfire Reveals the NEC Birmingham as venue for second Homestand weekend". London Spitfire. Retrieved 11 December 2019.
  3. "London Spitfire release Birdring, NUS, Guard, coach Jfeel". ESPN. 3 October 2019. Retrieved 10 October 2019.
  4. Scrubasaurus (21 October 2019). "Spitfire add several coaches including Pavane". Over.gg. Retrieved 22 October 2019.
  5. "Los Angeles Gladiators add former Spitfire DPS birdring". ESPN. Reuters. 6 November 2019. Retrieved 6 November 2019.
  6. Morello, Matt (30 July 2019). "2020 Team Needs and Player Contract Status". Overwatch League. Retrieved 19 October 2019.
  7. Richardson, Liz (4 October 2019). "Overwatch League reveals player contract status for entire league". Dot Esports. Retrieved 10 October 2019.
  8. "Fusion, Fuel, Defiant and more make Overwatch League roster moves". ESPN. Reuters. 30 October 2019. Retrieved 30 October 2019.
  9. Almughrabi, Zakaria (23 November 2019). "London Spitfire Announces 2020 Roster". Hotspawn. Retrieved 23 November 2019.
  10. "London Spitfire add four for 2020 season". ESPN. Reuters. 27 December 2019. Retrieved 28 December 2019.
  11. Richardson, Liz (22 October 2019). "Seoul Dynasty acquire Gesture and Profit from London Spitfire". Dot Esports. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
  12. Samples, Rachel (12 November 2019). "London Spitfire release Bdosin, Quatermain ahead of 2020 Overwatch League season". Dot Esports. Retrieved 12 November 2019.
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