After playing for CLG throughout Contenders qualifiers and groups, young star silkthread will be joining the team to replace Waffletastic on the DPS position, over.gg has learned.
silkthread has been a notable figure in the North American Overwatch scene for some time, despite never being rostered on a team. His appearances for You Guys Get Paid? in Overwatch PIT and then Denial (now Arc6) in the Monthly Melee for April demonstrated his skill and ability to raise the level of those around him, as both teams placed higher than expected with major upsets en route.
silkthread will slot into the role formerly held by Waffletastic, playing predominantly Tracer in the current meta while his team plays, among other compositions, their trademark Pharah and Mercy. It fits his strengths and leaves layers waiting to be explored, as his hero pool stretches far further than being a Tracer one trick pony.
CLG is not the first team to consider silkthread for a position on their roster. Previously silkthread was unable to commit to a team full-time and had instead decided to focus on college as his studies at high school and disapproving parents had been barriers to entering the scene despite his talent.
With high school completed a few short months later, and his persuasive talents in full effect on his father, silkthread had a change of heart and decided to throw himself headfirst into Overwatch.
“I think it was definitely easier to convince my father because of the fact that CLG has a secure team and a good reputation around the organization itself but it also definitely had some stuff to do with [personal reasons] as well,” silkthread said, describing the situation. “Previously, I personally also wasn't really interested in joining a team or trying out for any because I wanted to just stick to the college path but later my own decision came to me choosing gaming and trying out this once in a lifetime opportunity I have to follow my passion in competing.”
The roster change marks CLG’s second before Contenders, with Shake already replacing The on the support role. On the back of these two shuffles, CLG looked strong, taking second place in their highly competitive group by a hair in the first round robin.
In the tightest of margins in the second round robin, by a single map in the final game of the night, CLG were unable to hang onto that second place in Group A. Their draw against an improved Liquid saw them narrowly miss out on a playoffs position to an all-new FaZe, but CLG can be happy with their consistent, hardy performance.
silkthread spoke about the level of CLG in Contenders Group A, saying:
I feel personally that our group was probably the toughest group just due to the fact that each team in our group pretty much had a recent roster change so the seedings used to form the groups were pretty invalid. However, I'm pretty impressed with our performance overall and am excited for our potential in the future.
The new roster for CLG moving forward is:
- Joao Pedro "Hydration" Goes Telles (DPS)
- T "silkthread" W (DPS)
- Nathan "Miso" Lui (Flex)
- Bryan "iShiny" McCarthy (Tank)
- Jake "Shake" Kaplan (Support)
- Daniel "Mikado" Yamilkoski (Support)