Reddit caught fire this morning after COOLLER revealed on his stream that roster changes were due to be announced for DreamHack Winter Overwatch Championship winning Misfits roster that would create an all-Swede lineup.
Speculation spread like wildfire as it emerged that the shuffle would also see Rogue move toward a full francophone setup. As people tried to piece together the the new Swedish and French jigsaw puzzles it became apparent that Luminosity Gaming were involved in some way. In the last hour Hollywood.com Esports broke the incredible story, laying it bare for the world - which you should definitely read.
There are a lot of moving parts, but the synopsis is as follows:
Misfits have created an all Swedish roster bringing in TviQ and Reinforce from Rogue, and acquiring Manneten and Zave from Luminosity
Rogue have been traded SoOn and skipjack from Misfits to create a French-speaking roster (skipjack taking lessons from Lanf3ust)
Luminosity Gaming have been traded Hidan and Kryw (who was still under contract despite being dropped from the starting lineup) from Misfits, with both players set to relocate to Toronto
COOLLER will no longer be playing with Misfits (he was never contracted)
There is no talk of money in the press release in what appears to have been a straight up three way trade, with the supposed catalyst behind it all being the original "best player in the world" TviQ - no doubt inspired Sweden's bronze finish at the BlizzCon's Overwatch World Cup alongside Zebbosai and Zave.
For Misfits the shuffle will see Nevix return to the Ana flex support role that he once pioneered, whilst Zebbosai will continue in his new found flex position previously held by Kryw in the recent past. Perhaps most interesting is pickup of Manneten, a player tipped for great things back when he was first unearthed by the 2sTroNk roster that would go on to sign with LG. He now has earned an incredible opportunity to learn from the most decorated players in Overwatch history.
Although often cited as one of the best Zarya's in the world, it seems like Kryw will initially be filling Manneten's vacant DPS slot rather than contesting SPREE for the pinked haired Russian. Although, in the current world of tanks, DPS status doesn't count for much. In the bigger picture, the move marks the end of an era for Kryw, who founded the Graviton Surge team alongside SoOn after plans to build an all French roster fell through largely due to the formation of Rogue.
It is Rogue who are now making the French all-star dream a reality and they might well have the easiest transition of all the teams involved with SoOn and skipjack slotting directly in the the vacated DPS and tank roles - not to mention the storied esports histories of SoOn, uNKOE and the Bignet brothers.
With the two European representatives for IEM Gyeonggi yet to be announced one might wonder if we will be seeing TviQ facing off against his former teammates in Korea in the next two weeks. Whatever happens, it's an incredible time to be a fan of European Overwatch!
The new roster for Misfits is:
- Andreas "Nevix" Karlsson (Flex Support)
- Sebastian "Zebbosai" Olsson (Flex)
- Kevyn "TviQ" Lindström (DPS)
- Jonathan "Reinforce" Larsson (Tank)
- Kalle Haag "Zave" Nilsson (Support)
- Tim "Manneten" Byhlund (DPS)
The Rogue roster is now:
- Dylan "aKm" Bignet (DPS)
- Michael "winz" Bignet (Flex)
- Benjamin "uNKOE" Chevasson (Flex Support)
- Jean-Louis "KnOxXx" Boyer (Support)
- Terence "SoOn" Tarlier (DPS)
- Nicholas "skipjack" Rosada (Tank)
- Philippe "Lanf3ust" Rivain (Coach)
The Luminosity Gaming roster is now:
- Alexandre "SPREE" Vanhomwegen (Flex)
- Vytis "Mineral" Lasaitis (Support)
- Arthur "EISSFELDT" Marx (DPS)
- Bastien "SuperPlouk" Klau (Tank)
- Mikaël "Hidan" Da Silva (Flex Support)
- Jonathan "Kryw" Nobre (DPS)
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