2020 Los Angeles Gladiators season

The 2020 Los Angeles Gladiators season is the third season of Los Angeles Gladiators's existence in the Overwatch League and their third season under head coach David "dpei" Pei. The team will look to improve upon their 17–11 record from 2019 season and qualify for their third consecutive season playoffs. The Gladiators will host two homestand weekends in the 2020 season, although the venues have yet to be determined.[1]

2020 Los Angeles Gladiators season
Head coachDavid "dpei" Pei
General managerDavid "dpei" Pei
OwnerStan Kroenke
Josh Kroenke
Results
Record5–6 (.455)
Place

Preceding offseason

Organizational changes

In September 2019, both head coach David "dpei" Pei and assistant coach Seetoh "JohnGalt" Jian Qing announced that their contracts lapsed with the Gladiators and were seeking other opportunities.[2] The following month, JohnGalt signed with the Washington Justice's as their new head coach,[3] while dpei signed a new contract with the Gladiators as their head coach and general manager.[4] The team signed former Guangzhou Charge assistant coach Rohit "Curryshot" Nathani to their coaching staff in late October.[5]

Roster changes
Free agents
RolePlayerContract
status		Date signed2020 team
HandleName
DamageHydrationJoão Pedro Goes TellesFree agentOctober 18Houston Outlaws[6]
DamageSurefourLane RobertsFree agentNovember 4Toronto Defiant[7]
TankVoidJun-Woo KangFree agentNovember 25Shanghai Dragons[8]
Legend
     Re-signed/Retained by the Gladiators.
     Departed from the Gladiators.

The Gladiators enter the new season with three free agents, six players which they have the option to retain for another year, and no players under contract.[9] The OWL's deadline to exercise a team option is November 11, after which any players not retained will become a free agent. Free agency officially began on October 7.[10]

Acquisitions

The Gladiators' first offseason pick-up was off-tank Indy "SPACE" Halpern, who they acquired from the Los Angeles Valiant on October 23.[11] In early November, former London Spitfire DPS Kim "birdring" Ji-Hyeok signed with the team.[12] Later that month, the team signed DPS Chris "MirroR" Trinh from Boston Uprising's academy team Uprising Academy and added former Mayhem Academy support player Nolan "Paintbrush" Edwards.[13]

After the Gladiators traded off-tank Aaron "Bischu" Kim to the Guangzhou Charge in the middle of the 2019 season, Bischu re-signed to the Gladiators from free agency on November 15.[14] A month later, on December 5, Los Angeles signed former Paris Eternal main tank Roni "LhCloudy" Tiihonen.[15] The team announced their final signing of the offseason on December 12, with the addition of DPS Jason "Jaru" White from Team Envy.[16]

Departures

On October 18, the Gladiators agreed to transfer main tank Gye "rOar" Chang-hoon to the Washington Justice, pending approval from the league.[17]

DPS João Pedro "Hydration" Goes Telles, who had been with the team since its inception in 2017, was the first of the Gladiators' free agents to leave the team, signing with the Houston Outlaws on October 18.[6] Following him was DPS Lane "Surefour" Roberts, as he signed with the Toronto Defiant the following month.[7] On November 25, off-tank free agent Kang "Void" Jun-woo signed with the Shanghai Dragons.[8] It was confirmed on December 5, after the disbandment of their academy team Gladiators Legion, that two-way tank player Lee "Panker" Byung-ho's option was not picked up for the 2020 season.[18]

Player trades

The Gladiators' first player-for-player trade of the offseason took place on October 29, when they traded flex DPS Jang "Decay" Gui-un to the Dallas Fuel in exchange for main tank Son "OGE" Min-seok.[19]

Roster
Los Angeles Gladiators roster
PlayersCoaches
RoleNo.HandleNameNationalityPrevious team
Damage 20 birdring  Kim Ji-hyeok  South Korea  London Spitfire 
Damage 18 kevster  Persson, Kevin   Sweden  Team Doge 
Damage 7 MirroR  Trịnh, Gia Huy   Vietnam  Uprising Academy 
Damage 77 Jaru  White, Jason   United States  Team Envy 
Tank 2 OGE  Son Min-seok  South Korea  Dallas Fuel 
Tank 27 LhCloudy  Tiihonen, Roni   Finland  Paris Eternal 
Tank 16 SPACE  Halpern, Indy   United States  Los Angeles Valiant 
Tank 31 Bischu  Kim Hyung-seok  South Korea  Guangzhou Charge 
Support 0 BigG00se  Ville, Benjamin   Finland  Team Gigantti 
Support 52 Shaz  Suovaara, Jonas   Finland  Team Gigantti 
Head coach
  • David "dpei" Pei
Legend
  • (C) Team captain
  • (TW) Two-way player
  • (I) Inactive
  • (S) Suspended
  • Injury/Illness

Latest roster transaction: June 20, 2020.

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: 1–2)
February–March: 1–2
April–May: 0–0
June–August: 0–0
2020 season schedule

References
  1. Richardson, Liz (August 20, 2019). "Here is the full Overwatch League 2020 season schedule". Dot Esports. Retrieved October 10, 2019.
  2. Richardson, Liz (October 2, 2019). "Overwatch League offseason trade tracker". Dot Esports. Retrieved October 10, 2019.
  3. Howard, Brandon (October 10, 2019). "Washington Justice Find New Head Coach". TheGamer. Retrieved October 10, 2019.
  4. Scrubasaurus (October 11, 2019). "Gladiators bring back dpei as head coach and GM". over.gg. Retrieved October 19, 2019.
  5. Hudsen (October 31, 2019). "Curryshot joins the Gladiators". over.gg. Retrieved October 31, 2019.
  6. Samples, Rachel (October 18, 2019). "Houston Outlaws sign Hydration ahead of the 2020 Overwatch League season". Dot Esports. Retrieved October 19, 2019.
  7. Samples, Rachel (November 4, 2019). "Toronto Defiant sign Surefour". Dot Esports. Retrieved November 4, 2019.
  8. "Dragons and Spitfire set rosters for OWL 2020 season". ESPN. Reuters. November 26, 2019. Retrieved December 6, 2019.
  9. Morello, Matt (July 30, 2019). "2020 Team Needs and Player Contract Status". Overwatch League. Retrieved October 19, 2019.
  10. Richardson, Liz (October 4, 2019). "Overwatch League reveals player contract status for entire league". Dot Esports. Retrieved October 10, 2019.
  11. Stenzel, Zach (October 23, 2019). "Space Joins Los Angeles Gladiators". The Game Haus. Retrieved October 23, 2019.
  12. "Los Angeles Gladiators add former Spitfire DPS birdring". ESPN. Reuters. November 6, 2019. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
  13. Field Level Media (November 14, 2019). "Gladiators add MirroR, Valiant release FCTFCTN". ESPN. Retrieved November 14, 2019.
  14. Richardson, Liz (November 15, 2019). "Bischu returns to the Los Angeles Gladiators". Dot Esports. Retrieved November 15, 2019.
  15. Peres, Pedro (December 5, 2019). "Los Angeles Gladiators sign LhCloudy". Dot Esports. Retrieved December 5, 2019.
  16. Samples, Rachel (December 12, 2019). "Los Angeles Gladiators sign Jaru ahead of 2020 Overwatch League season". Dot Esports. Retrieved December 12, 2019.
  17. Richardson, Liz (October 18, 2019). "Washington Justice acquire rOar from Los Angeles Gladiators". Dot Esports. Retrieved October 19, 2019.
  18. Scrubasaurus (December 5, 2019). "Gladiators sign lhcloudy". over.gg. Retrieved December 6, 2019.
  19. Magelssen, Tommy (October 29, 2019). "Dallas Fuel ship OGE to Los Angeles Gladiators for Decay in blockbuster trade, more moves appear on the horizon". The Dallas Morning News. Retrieved October 29, 2019.
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