2020 Los Angeles Gladiators season

The 2020 Los Angeles Gladiators season was the third season of Los Angeles Gladiators's existence in the Overwatch League and their third season under head coach David "dpei" Pei. The Gladiators planned to host two homestand weekends in the 2020 season,[1] but all homestand matches were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

2020 Los Angeles Gladiators season
Head coachDavid "dpei" Pei
General managerDavid "dpei" Pei
OwnerStan Kroenke
Josh Kroenke
ConferencePacific
DivisionWest
RegionNorth America
Results
Record11–10 (.524)
Place
May MeleeQuarterfinals
Summer ShowdownKnockouts
Countdown CupQuarterfinals
Season PlayoffsNA Lower Round 1
Total Earnings$85,000

The Gladiators finished the season with 11 wins and 10 losses to claim the sixth seed in the North America region.[2] On September 4, Los Angeles advanced to the season playoffs after 3–2 win over the Toronto Defiant in the North American Play-in tournament.[3] In the first round of the North American playoffs, the Gladiators were swept by the Philadelphia Fusion, sending them to the lower bracket.[4] They lost to the Florida Mayhem in the first round of the lower bracket, which eliminated them from the playoffs.[5]

Preceding offseason

Organizational changes

In September 2019, both head coach David "dpei" Pei and assistant coach Seetoh "JohnGalt" Jian Qing announced that their contracts lapsed with the Gladiators and were seeking other opportunities.[6] The following month, JohnGalt signed with the Washington Justice's as their new head coach,[7] while dpei signed a new contract with the Gladiators as their head coach and general manager.[8] The team signed former Guangzhou Charge assistant coach Rohit "Curryshot" Nathani to their coaching staff in late October.[9]

Roster changes
Free agents
RolePlayerContract
status		Date signed2020 team
HandleName
DamageHydrationJoão Pedro Goes TellesFree agentOctober 18Houston Outlaws[10]
DamageSurefourLane RobertsFree agentNovember 4Toronto Defiant[11]
TankVoidJun-Woo KangFree agentNovember 25Shanghai Dragons[12]
Legend
  Re-signed/Retained by the Gladiators.
  Departed from the Gladiators.

The Gladiators enter the new season with three free agents, six players which they have the option to retain for another year, and no players under contract.[13] The OWL's deadline to exercise a team option is November 11, after which any players not retained will become a free agent. Free agency officially began on October 7.[14]

Acquisitions

The Gladiators' first offseason pick-up was off-tank Indy "SPACE" Halpern, who they acquired from the Los Angeles Valiant on October 23.[15] In early November, former London Spitfire DPS Kim "birdring" Ji-Hyeok signed with the team.[16] Later that month, the team signed DPS Chris "MirroR" Trinh from Boston Uprising's academy team Uprising Academy and added former Mayhem Academy support player Nolan "Paintbrush" Edwards.[17]

After the Gladiators traded off-tank Aaron "Bischu" Kim to the Guangzhou Charge in the middle of the 2019 season, Bischu re-signed to the Gladiators from free agency on November 15.[18] A month later, on December 5, Los Angeles signed former Paris Eternal main tank Roni "LhCloudy" Tiihonen.[19] The team announced their final signing of the offseason on December 12, with the addition of DPS Jason "Jaru" White from Team Envy.[20]

Departures

On October 18, the Gladiators agreed to transfer main tank Gye "rOar" Chang-hoon to the Washington Justice, pending approval from the league.[21]

DPS João Pedro "Hydration" Goes Telles, who had been with the team since its inception in 2017, was the first of the Gladiators' free agents to leave the team, signing with the Houston Outlaws on October 18.[10] Following him was DPS Lane "Surefour" Roberts, as he signed with the Toronto Defiant the following month.[11] On November 25, off-tank free agent Kang "Void" Jun-woo signed with the Shanghai Dragons.[12] It was confirmed on December 5, after the disbandment of their academy team Gladiators Legion, that two-way tank player Lee "Panker" Byung-ho's option was not picked up for the 2020 season.[22]

Player trades

The Gladiators' first player-for-player trade of the offseason took place on October 29, when they traded flex DPS Jang "Decay" Gui-un to the Dallas Fuel in exchange for main tank Son "OGE" Min-seok.[23]

Roster
2020 Los Angeles Gladiators roster
PlayersCoaches
RoleNo.HandleNameNationality
Damage 20 birdring  Kim Ji-hyeok  South Korea 
Damage 18 kevster  Persson, Kevin   Sweden 
Damage 7 MirroR  Trịnh, Gia Huy   Vietnam 
Damage 77 Jaru  White, Jason   United States 
Tank 2 OGE  Son Min-seok  South Korea 
Tank 27 LhCloudy  Tiihonen, Roni   Finland 
Tank 16 SPACE  Halpern, Indy   United States 
Tank 31 Bischu  Kim Hyung-seok  South Korea 
Support 0 BigG00se  Ville, Benjamin   Finland 
Support 52 Shaz  Suovaara, Jonas   Finland 
Head coach
  • David "dpei" Pei
Legend
  • (C) Team captain
  • (2W) Two-way player
  • (I) Inactive
  • (S) Suspended
  • Injury/Illness

Latest roster transaction: June 20, 2020.

Transactions

Transactions of/for players on the roster during the 2020 regular season:

  • On June 6, the Gladiators acquired DPS Josh "Sideshow" Wilkinson from the Florida Mayhem on a 14-day contract.[24]
  • On June 7, the Gladiators transferred support Nolan "Paintbrush" Edwards from the Dallas Fuel.[25]
  • On June 16, the Gladiators signed DPS Kevin "Kevster" Persson.[26]

Standings
2020 Overwatch League North America standings
# Team Conference W BW L PCT P MR MD STK
Playoffs
1 Philadelphia Fusion ATL 19 5 2 .905 21 59–19–0 +40
2 San Francisco Shock PAC 18 7 3 .857 21 56–17–2 +39
3 Paris Eternal ATL 15 4 6 .714 21 50–31–0 +19
4 Florida Mayhem ATL 14 3 7 .667 21 48–30–0 +18
5 Los Angeles Valiant PAC 11 1 10 .524 21 41–41–0 ±0
Play-ins
6 Los Angeles Gladiators PAC 11 0 10 .524 21 43–39–5 +4
7 Atlanta Reign ATL 10 0 11 .476 21 43–35–0 +8
8 Dallas Fuel PAC 9 0 12 .429 21 35–44–0 -9
9 Toronto Defiant ATL 7 1 14 .333 21 32–48–0 -16
10[lower-alpha 1] Houston Outlaws ATL 6 0 15 .286 21 32–50–3 -18
11[lower-alpha 1] Vancouver Titans PAC 6 0 15 .286 21 23–48–0 -25
12 Washington Justice ATL 4 0 17 .190 21 21–54–1 -33
13 Boston Uprising ATL 2 0 19 .095 21 14–61–4 -47
Tiebreakers

  1. Houston placed ahead of Vancouver based on map differential.

Game log

Regular season
2020 game log (Regular season record: 11–10)
February–April: 3–3
May Melee qualifiers: 1–2
Summer Showdown qualifiers: 2–1
Countdown Cup qualifiers: 1–3
August: 4–1

Midseason tournaments
2020 midseason tournaments game log
May Melee: 1–1
Summer Showdown: 0–1
Countdown Cup: 1–1
Bonus wins awarded: 0

Postseason
2020 playoff game log
North America Play-ins: 1–0
North America Bracket: 0–2
Upper Round 1 September 05 Los Angeles Gladiators 0 – 3 Philadelphia Fusion Online
7:00 pm UTC    
Lower Round 1 September 06 Los Angeles Gladiators 0 – 3 Florida Mayhem Online
7:00 pm UTC    

References
  1. Richardson, Liz (August 20, 2019). "Here is the full Overwatch League 2020 season schedule". Dot Esports. Retrieved October 10, 2019.
  2. Richardson, Liz (September 2, 2020). "How do the 2020 Overwatch League playoffs work?". Dot Esports. Retrieved October 21, 2020.
  3. Richardson, Liz (September 4, 2020). "Four more teams eliminated in Overwatch League playoffs". Dot Esports. Retrieved October 21, 2020.
  4. Miller, Chris (September 5, 2020). "Overwatch League – Los Angeles Gladiators Face The Philadelphia Fusion Surprisingly Quick". Happy Gamer. Retrieved October 21, 2020.
  5. Field Level Media (September 6, 2020). "Fusion, Shock hold form at OWL NA playoffs". Reuters. Retrieved October 21, 2020.
  6. Richardson, Liz (October 2, 2019). "Overwatch League offseason trade tracker". Dot Esports. Retrieved October 10, 2019.
  7. Howard, Brandon (October 10, 2019). "Washington Justice Find New Head Coach". TheGamer. Retrieved October 10, 2019.
  8. Scrubasaurus (October 11, 2019). "Gladiators bring back dpei as head coach and GM". over.gg. Retrieved October 19, 2019.
  9. Hudsen (October 31, 2019). "Curryshot joins the Gladiators". over.gg. Retrieved October 31, 2019.
  10. Samples, Rachel (October 18, 2019). "Houston Outlaws sign Hydration ahead of the 2020 Overwatch League season". Dot Esports. Retrieved October 19, 2019.
  11. Samples, Rachel (November 4, 2019). "Toronto Defiant sign Surefour". Dot Esports. Retrieved November 4, 2019.
  12. "Dragons and Spitfire set rosters for OWL 2020 season". ESPN. Reuters. November 26, 2019. Retrieved December 6, 2019.
  13. Morello, Matt (July 30, 2019). "2020 Team Needs and Player Contract Status". Overwatch League. Retrieved October 19, 2019.
  14. Richardson, Liz (October 4, 2019). "Overwatch League reveals player contract status for entire league". Dot Esports. Retrieved October 10, 2019.
  15. Stenzel, Zach (October 23, 2019). "Space Joins Los Angeles Gladiators". The Game Haus. Retrieved October 23, 2019.
  16. "Los Angeles Gladiators add former Spitfire DPS birdring". ESPN. Reuters. November 6, 2019. Retrieved November 6, 2019.
  17. Field Level Media (November 14, 2019). "Gladiators add MirroR, Valiant release FCTFCTN". ESPN. Retrieved November 14, 2019.
  18. Richardson, Liz (November 15, 2019). "Bischu returns to the Los Angeles Gladiators". Dot Esports. Retrieved November 15, 2019.
  19. Peres, Pedro (December 5, 2019). "Los Angeles Gladiators sign LhCloudy". Dot Esports. Retrieved December 5, 2019.
  20. Samples, Rachel (December 12, 2019). "Los Angeles Gladiators sign Jaru ahead of 2020 Overwatch League season". Dot Esports. Retrieved December 12, 2019.
  21. Richardson, Liz (October 18, 2019). "Washington Justice acquire rOar from Los Angeles Gladiators". Dot Esports. Retrieved October 19, 2019.
  22. Scrubasaurus (December 5, 2019). "Gladiators sign lhcloudy". over.gg. Retrieved December 6, 2019.
  23. Magelssen, Tommy (October 29, 2019). "Dallas Fuel ship OGE to Los Angeles Gladiators for Decay in blockbuster trade, more moves appear on the horizon". The Dallas Morning News. Retrieved October 29, 2019.
  24. Howard, Brandon (June 8, 2020). "Florida Mayhem Trade Sideshow To Los Angeles Gladiators". TheGamer. Retrieved October 15, 2020.
  25. Samples, Rachel (June 7, 2020). "Dallas Fuel acquires Paintbrush from Los Angeles Gladiators". Dot Esports. Retrieved October 14, 2020.
  26. Richardson, Liz (June 16, 2020). "Los Angeles Gladiators acquire flex DPS Kevster". Dot Esports. Retrieved October 16, 2020.
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