Top new players to watch as Overwatch League resumes

Fariha Bhatti Published 17/01/2019

Some new challengers are preparing to take the Overwatch League by storm.

The second year of the Overwatch League begins on February 14. During the runup to the new season, a total of eight new teams have been introduced to the league, bringing with them a plethora of new players.

Existing teams have also been recruiting new players, giving fans a lot of new names to learn before the start of the season. To make things easier, here are three new players to watch out for in the sea of fresh talent.

Benbest, Paris Eternal

Benjamin “Benbest” Dieulafait is a French player who was relatively unheard of before getting the chance represent his country at the Overwatch World Cup in 2018. BenBest’s talent playing tank heroes Reinhardt and Winston was so impressive that he was picked up for his national team despite his previous teams’ lack of success in the European contenders series.

Nlaaer, Atlanta Reign

Russian player Ilya “Nlaaer” Koppalov will be joining expansion team Atlanta Reign for Season 2 as a DPS player. His long history in competitive gaming started out with Counter-Strike: Global Offense in 2014, where he played at the professional level in Russia. That experience makes it easier to understand his amazing accuracy with DPS heroes such as Soldier and Tracer.

Decay, Los Angeles Gladiators

It’s not only expansion teams who are bringing new blood into the mix, as the Los Angeles Gladiators have their share of new players. One who stands out above the rest is Jang “Decay” Gui-un. Decay been recruited to join the Gladiators from the contenders scene, having previously played for KongDoo Panthera. Decay’s skills as a hitscan specialist helped his team finish second behind only Team Runaway after a tight seven-game series. At just 17 years of age, he won’t be able to debut on stage until his 18th birthday in February.

The new OWL season will open with London Spitfire and Philadelphia Fusion clashing in the first match of the season. It will be a rematch of the inaugural season’s grand final.

Fariha Bhatti

About Fariha Bhatti

Fariha Bhatti is a long-time gaming writer who loves competitive FPS games and slots with particularly fun themes. She got her start playing classic games developed by SNK, from legendary fighting game series The King of Fighters to challenging platform franchise Metal Slug. She now spends most of her time playing Valorant and Counter-Strike 2 while working her way through new slot releases to find her next favorite. Fariha has been published at PCGamesN, TalkEsport and ONE Esports.

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