It seemed the biggest signings of the Overwatch League season were behind us. The midway point has passed, and teams are focused on being a cohesive group. But, oh boy, were we wrong. It seems one of the teams experiencing a downward trend, the Toronto Defiant, need to make yet another attempt to improve. With that goal, they have signed two players fans were shouting to join an Overwatch League team.
The Toronto Defiant have signed DPS players Andreas “Logix” Berghmans and Liam “Mangachu” Campbell.
Who are these players?
These two DPS players have been playing in the Overwatch Contenders league frequently, with Logix formerly playing for the Florida Mayhem (in season one). First, let’s look into Logix, who was announced first on Defiant’s Twitter.
Logix
Today we call up another from @MTLRebellion. Making his way back into the big leagues, please welcome @LogixOW to the team!#RiseTogether | #OWL2019 pic.twitter.com/PoRCSTaGQm
— Toronto Defiant 🖤 #RiseTogether (@TorontoDefiant) June 28, 2019
Logix was primarily known for his Widowmaker and Tracer play. When playing for the Mayhem in season one, he was one of the most underrated players in the league, being on a poor team. When a new player came into the squad and took his spot, Mayhem benched and eventually released him.
He continued the grind and got picked up by the New York Excelsior’s Contenders team, XL2 Academy, where he improved continually alongside Mangachu. But XL2 announced at the end of the season that they wanted more local New York talent, releasing both Logix and Mangachu. Logix wasn’t discouraged, joining the Defiant’s Contenders team, the Montreal Rebellion. He picked up playing Zarya and was the best player on the roster, making this call up easy and smart.
Mangachu
Canada, we've got an early #CanadaDay present for you! Please welcome our new DPS player, Canadian born and raised, @Mangachu_! 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦#RiseTogether | #OWL2019 pic.twitter.com/ITfndVV60c
— Toronto Defiant 🖤 #RiseTogether (@TorontoDefiant) June 28, 2019
Next up is the local guy. Mangachu has had a similar trajectory to Jin-ui “im37” Hong, but in a much, much longer time frame. He has been in the Contenders scene since it began, much like new teammate Daniel “Gods” Graeser. Mangachu has shown his skill playing for his country, helping his team to medals in the past two World Cups. A fun fact about him is that he is the only player in Overwatch World Cup history to have killed someone with Torbjorn’s Hammer, which he did in the 2017 Gold Medal Match.
With his improvements shifting to any meta and his immense skill on plenty of heroes, Mangachu is a swiss army knife of a DPS player. Plus, he was born in Toronto, which makes him the first Canadian to play for a Canadian team in the Overwatch League.
How will this help the Defiant?
This should help make Defiant a strong team in the long term future. Both Mangachu and Logix have shown that they can perform against the best and succeed. The only issue is that they are joining a mixed roster team that is on the decline right now. If they want to play season playoffs, they have to be even more adaptable than they already are. Still, if the team works together and plays well, stage four could be their redemption arc.
In the end, we’ll have to just wait and see if this works out this year, or next year.
Published: Jun 28, 2019 10:56 pm