London Spitfire

London Spitfire is a professional Overwatch team based in London, United Kingdom. The Spitfire compete in the Overwatch League (OWL) as a member of the league's Atlantic North Division.

London Spitfire
Founded9 March 2016
LeagueOverwatch League
ConferenceAtlantic
DivisionNorth
Team historyCloud9
(2016–2017)
London Spitfire
(2017–present)
Based inLondon, United Kingdom
Arena
Colours     
OwnerJack Etienne
Head coachJustin "reprize" Hand
General managerYsabel "Noukky" Müller
Affiliation(s)British Hurricane
Championships2018
Main sponsorLogitech G
WebsiteOfficial website
Uniforms

Founded in 2017, London Spitfire is one of the league's twelve founding members and is one of two professional Overwatch teams based in Europe. The team is owned by Jack Etienne and the esports organization Cloud9, who also own British Hurricane, an academy team for the Spitfire that compete in Overwatch Contenders (OWC).

Lee "Bishop" Beom-joon was appointed the team's first head coach and guided London to claim the league's first stage championship in 2018. While the team parted ways with Bishop later that season, the team went on win the inaugural season Grand Finals.

Franchise history

Team creation

Formed in March 2016, London Spitfire originally started out as the Overwatch branch of American esports organisation Cloud9.[3] Under variations of the Cloud9 moniker, such as Cloud9 KONGDOO, they would go on to field rosters from multiple continents during their pre-OWL tenure.[4][5][6]

On 10 August 2017, Activision Blizzard announced that Cloud9 had purchased the London Overwatch League franchise; the franchise would be the first and only European team heading into the inaugural season.[7] Pete Vlastelica, an executive in Activision Blizzard's e-sports division, reported that several unnamed European companies were interested in purchasing the London rights to hold an Overwatch League franchise. Vlastelica noted, "Cloud9 may be a new name for some in the traditional sports world, but I can assure you they are not a niche or fringe player in e-sports. As we build this league, it was really important to us to combine the capabilities of owners from both traditional sports and the world of e-sports."[8] Jack Etienne, chief executive Cloud9, paid roughly $20 million (£15.4 million) for the franchise slot.[8] Etienne said that he chose the London slot because it is a "fantastic city with an amazing metro population [and] fantastic transportation to get people to events."[9]

On 1 November, the team revealed they would be called London Spitfire.[10][11] Shortly afterwards on 4 November, they disclosed their 12-player inaugural season roster, the maximum permitted, which would be entirely composed of South Korean players. The roster would mainly be an amalgamation of their current Cloud9 KONGDOO core and OGN's Overwatch APEX Season 4 champions GC Busan.[12][13]

Inaugural season champions
The London Spitfire won the 2018 Grand Finals.
Main article: 2018 London Spitfire season

On 11 January, the Spitfire played their first regular season Overwatch League match in a 3–1 victory over the Florida Mayhem.[14] They would end Stage 1 of the 2018 Season with a 7–3 record, earning them the third and final spot in the Stage 1 Playoffs. The team then became the first-ever stage playoffs champions, after achieving victories over the Houston Outlaws, 3–1, and the New York Excelsior, 3–2.[15] In March, midway through Stage 2, the Spitfire parted ways with head coach Lee "Bishop" Beom-joon for undisclosed reasons.[16] The team finished Stage 2 with an improved 8–2 record and attained another stage playoffs berth. However, they fell short to the Philadelphia Fusion in a thrilling 2–3 semifinals series.[17] However, after Stage 2, the Spitfire failed to make another stage playoffs, going 5–5 in Stage 3 and 4–6 in Stage 4. The team ended the season with a 24–16 record, good for 5th place and a spot in the postseason.

London lost their first postseason matchup against the Los Angeles Gladiators on 11 July by a score of 0–3, but the team turned it around the next two games against the Gladiators, winning in 3–0 sweeps in matches two and three and advancing the team to the semifinals.[18] London won both games against the Los Angeles Valiant in the semifinals, winning 3–0 in match one and 3–1 in match two.[19] London claimed the first Overwatch League championship after defeating the Philadelphia Fusion on 27 and 28 July by scores of 3–1 and 3–0, respectively.[20][21]

Quest for the second title

Looking to repeat their results from the previous season, London began their 2019 season winning only three of their matches in Stage 1. The stage ended with a 0–3 loss to the Seoul Dynasty in week 5, causing the team to miss out on the Stage 1 Playoffs.[22] London found success in Stage 2, as the team posted a 6–1 record and qualified for the Stage 2 Playoffs; however, they were knocked out in the quarterfinals by the Hangzhou Spark after losing 1–3.[23] The Spitfire parted ways with head coach Kwang-bok "Coach815" Kim in the middle of Stage 3, leaving the team without a head coach.[24] A 0–4 loss to the Los Angeles Valiant in Stage 3 eliminated London from Stage 3 playoff contention as the team went on to post a 3–4 record for that stage. After a 4–3 win-loss record in Stage 4, London finished the regular season with a 16–12 record and qualified for the 2019 Play-In Tournament for a chance to make it to the 2019 season playoffs.[25]

London took down the Shanghai Dragons 4–3 in an OWL record eight-map series to qualify for the season playoffs.[26] In the first round, London was defeated by the New York Excelsior, 1–4, sending the team to the lower bracket.[27] A 0–4 loss to the San Francisco Shock ended the Spitfire's 2019 playoff run.[28]

Second Roster Itteration and Controversy

In preparation for the 2020 Overwatch League season, the London Spitfire parted ways with Jihyeok 'Birdring' Kim, who went on to the Los Angeles Gladiators, Junyoung 'Profit' Park, Jaehui 'Gesture' Hong and Seungtae 'Bdosin' Choi, who all went to the Seoul Dynasty, Junho 'Fury' Kim, who went to the Philadelphia Fusion, Jongseok 'NUS' Kim, who went to Lucky Future in Overwatch Contenders Korea, and Heedong 'Guard' Lee and Song 'Quartermain' Ji-hoon who both retired as players, with Quartermain moving to a coaching role with the Shanghai Dragons, leaving their roster with only Yunghoon 'Krillin' Jung.[29][30][31][32] This left many fans confused as they had grown attached to the previous roster and the issues with the roster were perceived to be in the coaching. For the next season, they signed a massive 12-man roster, consisting of 6 'veteran' players from Overwatch Contenders and 1 Overwatch League team, and 6 'rookie' players with little to or no previous competitive experience. The 6 'veterans' were Lee 'Highly' Sung-hyeok, a late addition to the Seoul Dynasty, Kim 'FuZe' Tae-hoon and Se 'BERNAR' Won Shin, both from the academy team of the Philadelphia Fusion, Fusion University (now T1), Dae-han "JMAC" Choi, from LGE.Huya in Overwatch Contenders China, Gil-seong "Glister" Lim, from Gen.G and Dong-jae "Schwi" Lee a free agent previously from popular Overwatch Contenders Korea team RunAway.[33][34] The 'rookies' were; Young-hoon "Krillin" Jeong, who was on the 2019 roster but only had 1 map of play-time, Sang-jun "Babel" Park, Ji-hun "Jihun" Kim and Gun-hee "Clestyn" Cho, who all came from minor/unknown Tier 3 teams in Overwatch Open Division, Kyu-min "SanGuiNar" Lim and Hyun-wook "ALTHOUGH" Jung who both came from various tier 3 academy teams of Gen.G, who in itself was an academy team of the Seoul Dynasty.[35][36] Most fans only considered 'BERNAR' and 'Glister' as 'star talent', and most people didn't rate this roster very highly. Many fans lost trust in the London Spitfire organization which was only reinforced with mediocre results during the first half of the season. They also made some additions to the coaching staff, adding Young-bin "Twinkl" Lim from an Overwatch Contenders team, O2 Blast, Sung-hoon "aWesomeGuy" Kim, previous player/coach of the Florida Mayhem and Hyeon-sang "Pavane" Yu, previous head coach of the New York Excelsior, who had led the team to a table victory in the 2018 Overwatch League season as well as 2 stage championships, and a 3rd place table finish in the 2019 Overwatch League season but had had limited play-off success, with an early exit in their first game of the 2019 play-offs and he had rumouredly stepped down as head coach after 'not understanding the meta'.[37] While these coaching changes plugged the previous hole, many fans questioned how much talent the coaches have to work with.

Team identity

On 1 November 2017, the London Spitfire brand was officially unveiled. The name and shield-like logo were selected to pay homage to the British military plane Supermarine Spitfire, whose use during World War II by the Royal Air Force (RAF) reflected the spirit of bravery the team hoped to identify with.[38][39] The team colours were also announced as blue and orange: blue inherited from parent organisation Cloud9, and orange in recognition of British Overwatch character Lena “Tracer” Oxton who was a former RAF pilot in the game's lore.[11][10]

Sponsors

In March 2018, London signed a one-year sponsorship deal with Logitech G gaming products. The deal included equipment and gear supply, as well as the team hosting the Logitech G logo on their jerseys.[40]

Personnel

Current roster
London Spitfire roster
PlayersCoaches
RoleNo.HandleNameNationality
Damage SparkR (I)  Andersson, William   Sweden 
Damage Hybrid  Grove, Dominic   United Kingdom 
Damage 66 blasé  Tsang, Jeffrey   United States 
Damage Shax  Nielsen, Johannes   Denmark 
Tank Hadi  Bleinagel, Hadi Daniel   Germany 
Tank Molf1g  Djernes, Mikkel   Denmark 
Support Kellex  Keller, Kristian   Denmark 
Support Ripa  Toivanen, Riku   Finland 
Head coach
  • Justin "reprize" Hand
Legend
  • (C) Team captain
  • (2W) Two-way player
  • (I) Inactive
  • (S) Suspended
  • Injury/Illness

Latest roster transaction: 7 February 2021.

Head coaches
London Spitfire head coaches
Handle Name From To Span Ref.
Bishop Beomjoon Lee 7 March 2017 7 March 2018 1 year, 0 days [41][16]
Coach815 Kwangbok Kim 3 September 2018 24 July 2019 324 days [42][24]
Agape Hong Cheol-yong 21 October 2019 1 October 2020 346 days [43][44]
reprize Justin Hand 12 November 2020 88 days [45]

Awards and records

Seasons overview
Season P W L W% MW ML MT MD Pos. (league) Pos. (conf.) Playoffs Earnings
2018 402416.600102693+335th3rdChampions$1,200,000
2019 281612.57158526+67th3rdLower Round 1$225,000
2020 21615.28627510-2417th8thNot eligible$0

Individual accomplishments

Grand Finals MVP

All-Star Game selections

  • birdring (Kim Ji-hyeok) – 2018
  • Bdosin (Choi Seung-tae) – 2018
  • Fury (Kim Jun-ho) – 2018, 2019
  • Gesture (Hong Jae-hui) – 2018, 2019
  • Profit (Park Jun-young) – 2018, 2019
  • Glister (Lim Gil-seong) – 2020

Academy team
Main article: British Hurricane

On 15 February 2018, the Spitfire formally announced that their academy team for Overwatch Contenders Europe would be called the British Hurricane, and revealed their all-European Season One squad.[46] The team went to the first Atlantic Showdown, where they defeated Lowkey Esports before losing to Team Envy in the second round. They lost in the first round of the bottom half of the double-elimination bracket to ATL Academy, 3–0.

References
  1. Bishop, Sam (6 November 2019). "London Spitfire home matches are in London and Birmingham". GameReactor UK. Retrieved 6 November 2019.
  2. Koh, Bobby; Blizzard Entertainment (27 November 2019). "London Spitfire Reveals the NEC Birmingham as venue for second Homestand weekend". London Spitfire. Retrieved 11 December 2019.
  3. Flander, Danan (9 March 2016). "Top Overwatch Team Joins Cloud9". Cloud9.gg. Retrieved 10 July 2018.
  4. Carpenter, Nicole (14 August 2017). "Cloud9 picks up Laser Kittenz roster ahead of Overwatch Contenders". Dot Esports. Retrieved 10 July 2018.
  5. Carpenter, Nicole (21 September 2017). "Cloud9 signs South Korean Overwatch team KongDoo Panthera". Dot Esports. Retrieved 10 July 2018.
  6. Jeong, Seong-mo; Paek, Ji-eun (20 September 2017). "KongDoo Panthera and Cloud9 signs a naming rights sponsorship, now 'Cloud9 KONGDOO'". Inven Global. Retrieved 10 July 2018.
  7. Handrahan, Matthew (10 August 2017). "Overwatch League adds first UK franchise". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved 1 November 2017.
  8. Kelion, Leo (10 August 2017). "Overwatch League strikes London deal". BBC News. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
  9. Barrett, Ben (10 August 2017). "Cloud9 will be London's Overwatch League team but no local stadium until after 2018". PCGamesN. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
  10. Carpenter, Nicole (1 November 2017). "Cloud9's Overwatch League team is the London Spitfire". Dot Esports. Retrieved 10 July 2018.
  11. Dwan, Hannah (1 November 2017). "London's esports representation in the Overwatch League has been revealed: meet London Spitfire". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 11 April 2018.
  12. Carpenter, Nicole (4 November 2017). "London Spitfire reveals its 12-man South Korean roster". Dot Esports. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
  13. Nguyen, Steven (21 October 2017). "GC Busan completes Royal Road at APEX". ESPN. Retrieved 10 July 2018.
  14. Craffey, Liam (15 January 2018). "Fusion, Spitfire, Excelsior snag wins on Day 2 of Overwatch League". ESPN. Retrieved 10 July 2018.
  15. Waltzer, Noah (11 February 2018). "London Spitfire beats Houston, New York to win Overwatch League Stage 1 playoffs". ESPN. Retrieved 10 July 2018.
  16. Woodward, Ben (7 March 2018). "London Spitfire Parts Ways With Bishop". Retrieved 18 March 2019.
  17. Craffey, Liam (26 March 2018). "Stage 2 semifinal". ESPN. Retrieved 10 July 2018.
  18. "Spitfire shuts down LA Gladiators, advances to OWL semis". ESPN. 14 July 2018. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
  19. Lingle, Samuel (20 July 2018). "London Spitfire sweep Los Angeles Valiant, will play in OWL finals". Dot Esports. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
  20. Waltzer, Noah (28 July 2018). "London Spitfire wins inaugural Overwatch League title". ESPN. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
  21. Bright, Ryan (28 July 2018). "London Spitfire duo master Philadelphia Fusion to claim first Overwatch League title". NBC Sports. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
  22. August, Charlotte (17 March 2019). "Overwatch League Recap | Stage 1 | Week 5 | Day 1". ESTNN. Retrieved 19 August 2019.
  23. Cooney, Bill (10 May 2019). "Unfortunate C9 leads to London suffering tragic upset in Overwatch League playoff match". Dexerto. Retrieved 12 June 2019.
  24. Heinisch, Sascha (24 July 2019). "London Spitfire releases Coach815". Upcomer. Retrieved 25 July 2019.
  25. O'Brien, Joe (26 August 2019). "Overwatch League S2 playoffs set as regular season concludes - Final placements". Dexerto. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  26. Richardson, Liz (31 August 2019). "London Spitfire and Seoul Dynasty advance to Overwatch League 2019 season playoffs". Dot Esports. Retrieved 6 October 2019.
  27. "Reign upset Shock to advance in Overwatch League playoffs". ESPN. Reuters. 7 September 2019. Retrieved 6 October 2019.
  28. Richardson, Liz (7 September 2019). "Seoul Dynasty and London Spitfire eliminated from Overwatch League playoffs". Dot Esports. Retrieved 6 October 2019.
  29. London Spitfire (3 October 2019). "London part ways with Birdring, Guard, NUS and Jfeel". London Spitfire. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  30. London Spitfire (22 October 2019). "Gesture and Profit leave for the Seoul Dynasty". London Spitfire. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  31. London Spitfire (30 October 2019). "Fury leaves for the Pilly Fusion". London Spitfire. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  32. London Spitfire (12 November 2019). "Quartermain leaves for Shanghai and Bdosin leaves for Seoul". London Spitfire. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  33. Fusion University (30 October 2019). "Bernar and FuZe leave for London". Fusion University. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  34. London Spitfire (23 November 2019). "Jmac, Bernar, Krillin, Highly, FuZe, SanGuiNar, Glister and Schwi will form the first 8 players of the London 2020 roster". London Spitfire. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  35. London Spitfire (23 November 2019). "Jmac, Bernar, Krillin, Highly, FuZe, SanGuiNar, Glister and Schwi will form the first 8 players of the London 2020 roster". London Spitfire. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  36. London Spitfire (27 December 2019). "London Finalize 12 man roster". London Spitfire. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  37. London Spitfire (21 October 2019). "London add 3 new assistant coaches". London Spitfire. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  38. MacGregor, Collin (1 November 2017). "Overwatch League: London Spitfire Officially Announced". Heavy.com. Retrieved 10 July 2018.
  39. Hood, Vic (1 November 2017). "London's Overwatch team picks Spitfire logo to honour "spirit of bravery under fire"". Eurogamer. Retrieved 10 July 2018.
  40. Carpenter, Nicole (2 March 2018). "London Spitfire signs gear sponsorship deal with Logitech G". Dot Esports. Retrieved 18 March 2018.
  41. "Bishop confirms move to Cloud9 as Head Coach". over.gg. 7 March 2017. Retrieved 19 March 2019.
  42. Carpenter, Nicole (3 September 2018). "London Spitfire hires storied, long-tenured coach with multi-game experience". Dot Esports. Retrieved 18 March 2019.
  43. Field Level Media (21 October 2019). "Pavane parts with NYXL, joins Spitfire as assistant". Gwinett Prep Sports. Retrieved 21 October 2019.
  44. London Spitfire. "Today we farewell our coaching team of @Agape, @pavane_90, @BP_Twinkl and @OWSqix". Twitter. Retrieved 1 November 2020.
  45. London Spitfire. "Please welcome our new coaches for 2021, @reprize_ and @CommanderX". Twitter. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
  46. Marshall, Cass (15 February 2018). "Meet Spitfire's all-European Contenders team: British Hurricane". Heroes Never Die. Retrieved 10 July 2018.
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