Well, there I was, planning my first few months of content for PSN and saying on my first post that the roster for the upcoming season would be revealed at a much later date and two days later they announce their roster for the 2020 season, unbelievable. So, after crying myself to sleep for the next two nights after throwing out about 10 hours’ worth of planning, I’ve decided to give you a slightly late Halloween treat, I’m going to be breaking down the new and improved (hopefully) Philadelphia Fusion roster.
Before I get into the new additions to the squad, here’s a quick roundup of who unfortunately left the team. On October 21st, the Fusion announced that mainstay support player Alberto “neptuNo” Gonzalez would be the first player who has left the team. NeptuNo had been with the Fusion since they were first founded and was a major reason why they finished 2nd in the inaugural season of the league, playing the most maps out of everyone in the league, 207 to be exact.
The second player to leave the roster was announced a day later when it was made clear that flex DPS player Josue “EQO” Corona would be leaving the roster. EQO was also a founding player for the Fusion and his work on DPS was a major reason in the 2nd place finish. Both of these announcements were huge to Fusion players as two major players for the team has departed and fans were struggling to find replacements from free agency.
A day later, two more players had left the roster ahead of the 2020 season. Flex DPS player Finley “Kyb” Adisi and main support player Elijah Hudson “Elk” Gallagher were the players leaving and, although this wasn’t the biggest news in the world, due to the fact that the players had hardly represented the team, it was a worrying sign due to us losing two support players and two DPS players, two roles that were quite scarce in free agency and available players.
We also had some coaching changes announced during this time, where we saw both Co-Head Coaches in Hayes and NamedHwi leave the team and be replaced by the new Head Coach KDG and new Assistant GM Roston. KDG is a fantastic head coach and it’s going to be really interesting to see where he takes this new roster, which I will get to now!
I’ll start with the players who are sticking with the team from the previous roster. The first player sticking with the roster is Simon “snillo” Ekstrom, who will be playing on a two-way contract, meaning he’ll probably stick with the contender’s team for now and if he is needed, we can call him up to the main roster with ease. Snillo is a DPS player and had been a fantastic player for the contender’s team, winning multiple majors with the team.
The next player to be sticking with the Fusion is hitscan DPS player Jaehyeok “Carpe” Lee. Carpe is another founding player of the roster and is known throughout the league as one of the best snipers in the scene today. Carpe has been pretty good during his time in the league and the Fusion keeping him for the 2020 season. Carpe, who represented the Fusion in the 2019 All-Star game, mainly plays Widowmaker, but he can play Tracer and McCree which makes him an even more valuable member of the team.
The third player that’s sticking with the Fusion through the 2020 season is fan favourite and league favourite off-tank player Gael “Poko” Gouzerch. Poko is a major character in the Overwatch scene and is a huge keep for the Fusion. Poko became famous with his D.Va bombs, which have now been renamed to Poko bombs due to his constant success with them. He is a legend in the scene and will be perfect for the roster both in-game and out of game, just like he has been for the past two years.
The fourth player that’s decided to stick with the Fusion is another tank player, this time it’s Su-min “SADO” Kim. SADO is another founding player for the Fusion and he has a great partnership with Poko which pretty much lead the Fusion to their 2nd place finish in season one. Keeping SADO and Poko together is a fantastic move for the Fusion, it would have made little to no sense to break them up with only a few months to try and build a new partnership with someone else.
The final player to be sticking with the Fusion through the 2020 season is flex support player Isaac “Boombox” Charles. Boombox is another founding player for the Fusion and is a fantastic support player, mainly player characters like Zenyatta and Ana. Boombox is a huge keep for the Fusion as great support players are the cornerstone of a team and Boombox is one of the best.
Now onto the exciting new additions, and oh boy do I have a surprise for you at the end!
The first new addition to the team is flex DPS player Seung-Hyun “Ivy” Lee. Ivy was recently on the Toronto Defiant’s roster and performed pretty well considering the team had a pretty bad season. Ivy looks to be a great development piece for the Fusion, someone you would sub in when you have the game won and still have a map to play so he can get the league experience he needs. He really stood out in the contender’s league over in Korea for O2 Ardeont and that’s what got him the move to the major leagues, now he has a great chance to take over the league on a stacked roster.
The second new addition to the roster ahead of the 2020 season is off-tank player Jun-Ho “Fury” Kim. Fury was recently on the London Spitfire, the team that defeated the Fusion in the season 1 final so Fury is bringing a winner’s experience and mentality to the roster. Fury can play a range of different tanks and can also play a couple of DPS characters if needed, which adds to his value for the roster. Picking up Fury is a huge move for the Fusion and is a real statement of intent from the team. It’s going to be really interesting to watch what his role with the squad will turn out to be and how he will fit in alongside Poko and SADO.
The third new addition to the roster is support player Kyungbo “Alarm” Kim. Dedicated Fusion fans will recognize the name as he has been playing for the contender’s team since it was first founded. It’s great to see Alarm be rewarded for his brilliant support play on the contender’s team and it will be interesting to see where he is used and how he adapts to the step up in quality of competition. Alarm has the skillset to be a great rookie in the league, the situation he is in is like a baseball player leaving the minors after 2 years of great play to go and make his debut in the major leagues, see esports can relate to sports!
The fourth addition to the roster for the 2020 season is support player Daniel “FunnyAstro” Hathaway. FunnyAstro has been learning his trade for the majority of his career in the contender’s league and has been regarded as one of the best support players in the contender’s scene. He recently made his major league debut for Atlanta Reign in the playoffs. Outside of the league he is a great personality and has been ranked number 1 in the world several times. The grind he puts in every day is his major strength and it will really shine through now he has a major role to play with the Fusion. Him, Alarm, and Boombox will be a very fun support stable to watch this year and could lead to big success for them personally and the Fusion as a team.
Now, onto that surprise I was on about, it’s…………… Eqo! Is the Rebekah Vardy meme dead? I don’t know, I went there, sue me!
Continued on the page below.
