OWKings have just announced a shuffle that sees half of their roster switch places like a game of musical chairs. Support player Likely is the new addition to the roster, allowing ADETONIAN to move onto DPS, and further shifting ex-DPS player Oksii onto the bench in a coaching capacity.

OWKings are the current fifth ranked European team by GosuGamers' system, whose recent results include a 2nd and 1st place finish in the ESL Go4Overwatch Cups alongside an unblemished performance in The Battle's Group A. Their play elsewhere has been up and down though and they've been unable so far to qualify for the Amazon Gaming Series or the Acer Pro Challenge or really take consistent matches against the elite teams.

The team was forced to make the change after Oksii became unable to play due to undisclosed personal reasons. He will continue as the team's coach, but his absence left the team with a hole for a fragging player to fill.

After trying out a number of candidates for the spot, ADETONIAN says the team decided not to go with any of the potential outside DPS replacements:

We trialed a few DPS players and for one reason or another it just didn't really work for us. My teammates have wanted to try me on DPS for a while but I always preferred playing support. Then we heard that Likely was on the market and it just felt like a natural change after we played with him on support and me on DPS.

It seems odd that the team has been keen to try ADETONIAN on DPS, as he has not played DPS so far in Overwatch and the change of roles will have no effect on the calling or playstyle of the team. So perhaps ADETONIAN was a fragging god at a previous esport?:

Not really, I've always played support/combat medic focused roles. That said, the games I've played competitively, Enemy Territory and Dirty Bomb, are aim/mechanically heavy games so I'm comfortable holding my own.

Their new teammate Likely was previously seen playing Mercy support for Impulse 11, a full Swedish team with a talented roster that performed to a reasonable level in March and April. Since the death of Impulse 11, he has had issues with his ISP preventing him from rejoining the top level but a few weeks ago Likely fixed his internet and became a free agent. OWKings snatched him up, and will be looking for their new addition to match the level that ADETONIAN was hitting before the switch.

Likely spoke to us about his reasons for joining OWKings:

[Since returning, OWKings] was the first and only option provided to me. My former teammate ryb was already playing in OWKings, so when they approached me it only felt natural to try playing with them.

Do you enjoy playing with them? How do you feel the games have gone so far?

If I didn't enjoy playing with them I wouldn't have signed with them. We have been a little bit inconsistent lately, but that's to be expected with big changes are being made. We still have a lot of things to improve on but I believe this team can step up and become really good given some time.

OWKings performed with their new roster tonight in the GosuGamers Weekly EU #14, finishing in 9th-12th after being upset by 2stronK in the Upper Bracket Round of 8 and upset once again in their first match in the Lower Bracket against Russian team Kabina ot Kamaza.

When asked about the recent performances of the team, ADETONIAN said:

We're not performing how we want to but we know why. We've been trialing different players and swapped me into another role so we're in a 'work in progress' kind of state at the moment.

OWKings roster now features:

  • Ruben "ryb" Ljungdahl (Flex)
  • Remy "ADETONIAN" Cabresin (DPS)
  • Oula "OLBAA" Räsänen (DPS)
  • Jussi "twidi" Tiipiö (Tank)
  • Andreas "Likely" Lindberg (Support)
  • Michael "michr" Rosen (Support)
  • Dennis "Oksii" Srock (Coach)