Chengdu Hunters announce signing of hot prospect and OWWC star Leave

Jul 30, 2019

Reading time: 2 min

The Chengdu Hunters are making plans for the future.

The team announced the addition of Huang “leave” Xin as a “contracted talent.” He will not be joining as a member of their Overwatch League roster due to age restrictions but the team indicated that it is aiming to remedy that following the season two finals.

“To clarify for our fans, Leave is not yet eligible to sign an OWL player agreement,” the Hunters said on Twitter. “He has joined the Hunters organization as contracted talent for now, and we hope to sign him as a player for the 2020 season as soon as we are permitted under OWL rules.”

Leave’s transition to the Overwatch League is a long-awaited one.

Leave made a name for himself as one of China’s best young prospects while playing with Miraculous Youngsters, but his claim to fame came during the 2018 Overwatch World Cup. His extraordinary performance and wide hero pool helped China reach the grand finals, where they were swept by South Korea.

In 2018, he left competitive Overwatch for a time to try his hand in PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds but has made his way back in the months since.

Coming into Overwatch League Season 2, expectations were quite high for the Chengdu Hunters. The team fielded a roster featuring many top Chinese players but to this point in the season, their results have been consistently average. Each stage has finished with a 3-4 record and no playoff berth.

Despite a strong start to Stage 4, their playoff hopes are hanging by a thread as they are currently sitting in 11th place and facing a tough schedule that includes matches against the Los Angeles Gladiators, New York Excelsior, and Hangzhou Spark.

As it stands, the Chengdu Hunters can still salvage their inaugural Overwatch season if they keep up their momentum. A strong finish in Stage 4 would almost guarantee them a spot in the postseason play-in tournament.

Regardless, the addition of Leave is a sign that the Hunters have big plans and high hopes for the 2020 OWL season.