Fresh from a win in Finland at the ASUS ROG tournament, Gigantti have been forced to make a roster move coming into Contenders Season One. Flex support Zuppehw has left the team to join Misfits, over.gg has learned, and Gigantti have brought in former Hammers support Shaz to plug the hole.

Zuppehw had been with this Finnish core for 11 months, joining in September to give the team a strong Ana player just before they tackled the Overwatch Open. He has seen the ups and downs of Gigantti throughout their time adapting to the meta and the dearth of competition in Europe, making his own transitions too.

Though Zuppehw began as an elite Ana, within the last few months he has made the transition over to playing majority Zenyatta, proving his strength across the board as a flex support. His strong play across both heroes has garnered attention recently, reportedly culminating in a trial and offer from Misfits.

Misfits appears to be moving away from their former aims of a full Swedish roster with the reported acquisition of Zuppehw. The team’s previous championship-winning rosters were always mixed nationality, with majority Swedish/French blends winning the Overwatch Open and DreamHack Winter. Its full Swedish roster, formed in December, has had a disappointing lack of success.

Slowly, Misfits players have been announcing their departure from the team as a shadowy outline of their new roster begins to take shape. Reinforce notified the community that he had left the roster this week, shortly followed by news that Nevix was also off the Misfits roster but had been signed during the Laser Kittenz / Cloud9 merger. With a tank spot (at least) still up for grabs and the Contenders roster deadline fast approaching, more news is expected soon.

Misfits have a spot in the Overwatch League representing Miami-Orlando, making them a lucrative opportunity for any player, though it is not yet known whether players currently signed to OWL organisations have signed the official OWL contracts or simply temporary ones covering Contenders.

In contrast to Misfits, Gigantti are sticking to their full Finnish aspirations, bringing in former Hammers player Shaz to the fold. Their goal when joining Gigantti was to create the best team that Finland could field, and Shaz is an apt replacement for Zuppehw in terms of his talent.

“We’ve been practising with him a bit over a week now,” said zappis, “he's a natural fit to the team and we've been doing great in scrims. I don’t think our power level has dropped at all.”

Gigantti will be competing in Contenders Season One this weekend after their 5th/6th finish in Season Zero. The new roster will be hoping to use its flexibility and star power to great effect, now with four fresh faces joining zappis and Fragi compared to its old NiP core.

The Contenders Season One roster for Team Gigantti is:

  • Tuomo "Davin" Leppänen (DPS)
  • Jiri "LiNkzr" Masalin (Flex)
  • Joonas "zappis" Alakurtti (Flex)
  • Joona "Fragi" Laine (Tank)
  • Jonas "Shaz" Suovaara (Support)
  • Benjamin "BigG00se" Isohanni (Support)
  • Jani "Seita" Paavola (Coach)