In the hidden depths of Philadelphia, there lies a team that most of the city does not even know exists, which is astounding as it’s a worldwide known team. The team I am talking about is the Philadelphia Fusion, an esports team that competes in the Overwatch League (OWL for short).
Now, before you PSN natives click off this article because I’m speaking about gaming and are currently questioning why Liam has let this be published on PSN, I don’t know either! But in all seriousness, give this article a chance, I know it’s probably not what most of you are in to, but you never know until you try it!
Anyway, back to all things Fusion. Overwatch is a seriously popular first-person shooter where players aim for different objectives, either competing against each other to capture a point on the map or one team pushes an objective called a payload to certain checkpoints on the map whilst the other team defends and tries to stop them. Each playable character has different abilities and roles, some are support characters, so they mainly heal and buff allies, there are tank characters who lead the line and absorb as much damage for the team and then there are DPS characters (damage per second) who are the main damage dealers in the team and try to kill as many enemies as they can.
The Overwatch League is the professional league for Overwatch where 20 franchised teams face off against each other to determine the best team in the world. Each team represents a major city from all corners of the world, including Asia, North America, and Europe. There have been 2 seasons of the league so far, with the Fusion coming 2nd in the inaugural season and we just missed out on the playoffs in the second season that finished a couple of months back.
The 2020 season is going to be the biggest by far as it was announced that each team will be playing home and away games, so everyone in Philly gets the chance to watch their team compete right in the heart of the city, and in 2021, the Fusion will be playing in their 50 million dollar stadium that is currently under construction in South Philadelphia!
Each team consists of 6 players, 2 support players, 2 tank players, and 2 DPS players. I would report on who the Fusion currently possesses on their roster but they recently released 4 players, so I’ll save that until the 2020 roster is locked in, probably sometime around the new year. Just like Baseball has minor leagues and Basketball has the G-League, Overwatch League has the contender’s league, where most of the teams have a developmental side for upcoming talent, ours is called Fusion University and they’re quite accomplished. They also have a head coach called Chris Infante and I think our Eagles writer Chris has some explaining to do to us all about what he gets up to in his free time!
We are currently in the offseason, with the new season starting in mid-February and finishing sometime in August, but just like all the sports leagues you know and love, the Overwatch League also has trades and free agency, hell, the league is even broadcasted on ESPN and Disney XD so it’s a huge league that many still do not know about. All games are streamed live on Twitch with the viewership easily hitting 40k+ people each day.
Hopefully, this quick little introduction to the world of Overwatch and Philadelphia Fusion has enticed you to stick around and read my coverage for the future. I have some amazing plans for content, both written and streaming so I hope to see you all getting stuck in with me as we hopefully watch another Philly team win a ring (I’m not sure if that’s the term with esports and I’m supposed to be the expert…).
