Controversy as LA Valiant Drop Roster for Chinese Squad
Controversy follows the LA Valiant, as they announce their new Chinese roster. The confusing part is that, at the end of 2020, Valiant secured a new roster, ready for the 2021 OWL season. In January 2021, that whole team was dropped. Now, a full new roster has been picked up, with seven Chinese players, ready to get back into the Overwatch League and try to conquer. It’s a pretty serious group of powerhouses, and we’re glad to see them getting a chance to shine. It’s just fascinating how quickly they dropped a whole roster to get a new one instead. The reveal came courtesy of LA Valiant’s Weibo account, but was also linked on the team’s Liquipedia.
Who Represents LA Valiant?
Back in January, when the Valiant team announced they’ll be competing from China with a new roster, there was a pretty serious backlash. The reason stated was that it was due to COVID-related VISA issues. But the people the LA Valiant initially signed had nearly zero time to find a new team to be signed by, thanks to the absolute last minute decision by the team owners.
In particular, Rod “Slasher” Breslau talked about how the Immortals Gaming Club (Valiant’s former owners) made this shameful move:
IGC has now betrayed the hometown OWL LA Valiant fanbase, ran the legendary Optic brand into the ground, absolutely ruined MiBR as the premier Brazilian esports organization and its CS team several times, and Immortals itself is barely relevant from the days of Noah. solid work👍
— Rod Breslau (@Slasher) January 29, 2021
“IGC has now betrayed the hometown OWL LA Valiant fanbase, ran the legendary Optic brand into the ground, absolutely ruined MiBR as the premier Brazilian esports organization and its CS team several times, and Immortals itself is barely relevant from the days of Noah. solid work”
However, IGE no longer controls this OWL team. Ownership was transferred to LGE, a Chinese-based organization. So the LA Valiant will be playing out of China. Despite the controversial move, it seems like LA Valiant stand by it. Now that the OWL has been restructured, LA Valiant’s Chinese roster will compete in the East division for the 2021 Season. Who is a part of the roster though?
- Cai “Krystal” Shillong (DPS)
- Liao (MoLanran” Yang (DPS)
- Han “Silver3” Haibo (Tank)
- Wen “NvM” Yelin (Tank)
- Cheng “ShowCheng” Yu (Tank)
- Zhang “Highbee” Zening (Support)
- Qi “Wya” Haomiao (Support)
The actual experience of the team is varied. A few of the teams were Ultra Prime Academy players (Krystal, Wya), whereas MoLanran, Highbee, and Silver3 were both The One Winner players. NvM retired back in 2018 and is now back to play again. Finally, ShowCheng came from Flag Gaming. This team will have to work hard and come together, as they play the Chengdu Hunters on April 17th, when the 2021 season begins.
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