The season one champions finalized their Overwatch League line-up for the upcoming season. Let’s take a closer look at the 2020 London Spitfire roster. Will they stand a chance of leaving a mark once the third season comes along?

Is This Really the New Roster?

The announcement left fans confused. The 2020 London Spitfire roster is significantly worse than their previous one. Even though London was synonymous with inconsistency, they still had a fair bit more potential on paper. They had a line-up that was seasoned, although that wasn’t always evident on stage.

In all fairness, London’s previous roster peaked. They weren’t getting any better, nor were they consistent enough to warrant a spot at the top of the Overwatch League. A worse team might end up being better if they’re willing to learn and grow.

The former line-up was also supposedly extremely expensive and fairly uncoachable (according to industry analysts and insiders). They were no longer delivering results, so they might as well build a brand-new roster in their place and try to attain the same amount of success.

If you’re rebuilding, you might as well rebuild from the ground up. You’re getting a bunch of players who need to develop synergy, which will undoubtedly result in growing pains. The long-term benefits could heavily outweigh the negatives.

It's been a long time coming – no more teasers or riddles (or leaks), meet the Initial 8 of the #OWL2020 London Spitfire! #AcesHigh pic.twitter.com/6WPllCYNxK

— London Spitfire (@Spitfire) November 23, 2019

Can London Spitfire Succeed Without Key Players?

Finally, the 2020 London Spitfire roster won’t be comprised of anonymous or unproven talent. These are all stellar players (some of which already played for top-tier Korean teams). But, they have yet to compete at the Overwatch League level. They certainly have a tall task ahead of them come February.

If anything, the biggest problem is that the organization decided to sign four supports, two tanks and two DPS players. The Overwatch League season is a marathon. It’s a taxing, draining marathon at that. By forcing the same four players to play every single game literally, they’re bound to burn out sooner rather than later. While the organization still has the option to sign additional players, it’s unclear whether they’re interested in doing so.

London Spitfire has been teasing its roster for a couple of days now. It’s hard to understand where all the hype is coming from. Perhaps that’s an overly harsh way of phrasing things, but it’s hard not to expect more from a team that was once capable of producing highlight-reel plays weekly.

How will London look now that they no longer have the likes of Park “Profit” Joon-yeong to clutch things out when it matters the most? We’ll have to wait to find out, but the road ahead of them will undoubtedly present a plethora of different challenges.

Hopefully, they’ll be able to succeed even with a roster many deem inadequate.