HSL Esports qualifies for Overwatch Contenders

Italian gaming organization HSL Esports has announced its Overwatch Contenders roster for the 2020 season. The team managed to defeat Finnish organization Nyyrikki Esports in the Losers’ Round 4 stage of the seeding bracket, allowing them to qualify into the league.

When the stakes are this high, every match is do-or-die. Tonight, we take the victory of @NYYRIKKIesports but there's no time to get comfortable. We'll see you again next week!#GetWild pic.twitter.com/VQkEKPlEZJ

— HSL Esports (@HSLesports) January 19, 2020

New roster into new season

The new HSL Esports roster consists of DPS players Mads “fischer” Jehg and Mathias “Fupzen” Krogh Guldbrandsen, off-tank Richard “rCk” Kanerva, tank Anders “henningsen” Henningsen, flex support Danni “Ding” Rasmusse, and support Perttu “Dolla” Palokoski. Head coach Jesse “Lov3monkey” Chedotal will be aided by assistant coaches Aymeric “Izzy” Ast and Alex “Aplox” Porter.

The majority of these players only have experience in the Contenders scene. The exception is rCK, who recently played for teams like the Boston Uprising and Dallas Fuel.

HSL recently saw the departure of tank Ilya “Txao” Makarov to Triumph Gaming. Other offseason roster changes included DPS player Nikolaj “Zaprey” Ian Moyes moving into retirement, support Valentin “Ascoft” Wulfman heading to the Boston Uprising as assistant coach, and Victor “Scaler” Godsk joining the Uprising Academy.

HSL Esports in Overwatch Contenders

The team starts the new season after a first-place finish during the past Playoffs for Season 2 of 2019’s Overwatch Contenders Europe. HSL Esports took home $54,000 of the total $200,000 prize pool and a ticket to The Gauntlet with this achievement. However, the team then tied with LGE Huya for dead last after it fell in its first match 0 – 3 against XL2 Academy.

With the new format for Overwatch Contenders in 2020, teams in the league were put into a seeding tournament. This would determine which teams would advance into Contenders and which would demote to Contenders Trials instead. HSL Esports directly advanced to the Quarterfinals of the seeding tournament, but they lost against Shu’s Money Crew EU in their first match.

Fortunately, they swept teams like Angry Titans and Nyyrikki Esports to secure their Contenders seeding. HSL Esports will still have to face off against Young and Beautiful on Jan. 24, with the winner of that match playing against the Samsung Morning Stars.