I was bored and decided to make a list of what are in my opinion our top 5 wins over the last two years under chris. Go rewatch some of these classics for a trip down memory lane if you're feeling sad about OWL ending :(

5. 3-0 vs Outlaws, Summer Showdown Qualifiers 2022

This felt like one of the few times we absolutely demolished a team that was considered to be elite tier at that moment in time. A complete and utter thrashing against one of the better teams in the league in the JQ meta.

​

4. 3-2 vs Atlanta, Kickoff Clash Qualifiers 2022

This felt like the beginning of an era. I cannot imagine how the season would've turned out had we lost this game. One of the most significant Spitfire wins since the 2018 grand finals imo. Plus it was nice to get our revenge against atlanta and sparked one of the most entertaining rivalries in OWL history.

​

3. 3-1 vs Toronto, 2023 Play-ins

The loudest I have ever cheered watching a London Spitfire game. Call me cringe but I nearly cried after this win. The way we went from i think 2-8 to making play-offs was inspirational. Against a team that was apparently scrim gods during this meta too. Its not so much the game that makes this so special, it's the whole entire run.

​

2. 3-1 vs Glads, 2022 Play-offs

A monumental, convincing win against one of the best teams in the league in one of the highest stakes possible. This game cemented Chris as the best coach in the league and felt like the one win the whole season had been leading up to. shame we crashed out of play-offs later but i would've told you to seek therapy if you had told me we would get this far at the start of 2022

​

1. 3-0 vs Atlanta, 2023 Play-offs

How could this not be number 1? Arguably our most convincing win as a team EVER against the number 1 team in the entire league that season, in a play-off match, in front of a crowd. If only spark hadn't reverse sweept boston...

​

gn everyone have a nice week

By now you've likely seen that blizzard and Faceit have announced the overwatch championship series, the new structure of overwatch esports. This ecosystem will be moving forward in place of the overwatch League.

So let's talk about the pros and heavy cons of this and what it means for any potential future of our team.

OWCS: the new structure of the overwatch esport scene will see an open format where any team can compete their way up to championship level by winning through local heats and majors all the way up to grand finals. It removes the previous structure that was in place meaning there's no more contenders scene or path to Pro - instead this has all been folded into the new champion structure and will be one product from top to bottom. It's a savvy move and one that commenters and industry experts have been asking for for a while.

It's also showing renewed interest and investment in the EU with the grand finals for this year being held in Europe for the first time in overwatch esports.

TEAMS: the most major update around teams in the new structure is that the previous franchising model has now been put to rest. Teams no longer have to buy into this model and those who do choose to take part have no obligation to do so aligned to a location. This means we will likely see a spread of Brands and identity like we previously would have seen in contenders i.e ex oblivione vs team peps and so on.

However the teams that previously owned the location-based brands still own those identities and they can choose to continue with them if they so please. We've already seen the suggestion that the Toronto Defiant will be returning and there's also speculation around the NYXL.

SAUDI ARABIA: if we're talking about the pros it's important we talk about the cons and unfortunately there is a fairly significant one attached to the new structure. ESL facet the company running this new league (including all of its broadcasts and events) owned by the Saudi Arabian public investment fund. This means that OWCS is likely an example of the practice of sportswashing.

Sports washing is the practice of using corrupt money to purchase your way into further power through entertainment and use this entertainment power to bury other discussions. Saudi Arabia engages in awful practices in human rights violations, political accountability and climate change. I'll pop some links in the comments so you can inform yourself better on why this is a problem and why many will choose not to watch the OWCS as a result - I encourage you to watch the sideshow video on the practice of sports washing in particular given his previous involvement with our scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIilD9qAzeA

SPITFIRE: so what does all this actually mean for the London Spitfire? it means there is a sliver of hope that the spitfire will return - but it's a very thin sliver. Other Overwatch League teams have and the investments being made in the European scene is a good sign that the appetite for EU players and brands still exists.

The same players could return together and compete alongside each other under the spitfire or another brand as they have done previously in flash op tournaments and so on. Some of the ex spitfire players have already posted LFT posts though not all of them.

To continue as the London spitfire they'd either have to continue under the ownership of cloud9 or purchase the brand from cloud9. This is now the biggest hurdle to the spitfires return if there is an interest in them continuing. Cloud9 often use their own branding in teams so if I were a betting man I'd suggest it's more likely we see a team compete in the owcs under a brand like "cloud9 spitfire" rather than London - if we see the spitfire moniker at all.

Alternatively cloud 9 could sell off the London Spitfire brand. This isn't out of the realm of possibility as it was known to be being discussed during the overwatch league days but it's hard to envisage a grassroots European overwatch team having the money for that kind of investment and not just choosing to build their own brand-up from scratch. It's not impossible but I would say it's improbable.

So will the spitfire return? Shrug I've been surprised at all to see overwatch League franchises hint at their return in their previous location based identity so it's not out of the realm of possibility (and by the end of the league model it's fair to say that London had one of the stronger brands because of their EU alignment). But there are still some fairly significant hurdles to it happening.

WRAP UP: so that's basically it for now, we now know what overwatch esports will look like going forward. We know the unfortunate final hurdles between that scene and a spitfire return which makes it highly unlikely to happen. We know when the new scene will kick up and we know that any and all things overwatch league won't be around for much longer.

As for me I'm unsure whether I'll continue to engage with the scene. With basically no money in esports right now it's difficult to avoid ESL FACEIT and other saudi-backed ventures but it's also impossible to ignore where that money comes from and the awful things it's contributing to globally and socially. If I do choose to continue engaging with the scene I'll be ensuring I make donations to green and lgbt+ charities and frankly I encourage you to at least educate yourself on these issues if not do the same.

I can't promise how many more updates there will be going forward I'll do my best to keep this community in the loop if significant news breaks.

Aces high and hang loose 💙

MISC: TOKENS AND SKINS: It's entirely unclear what will happen around the overwatch in game shop and overwatch League tokens. The in-game shop hasn't been sunsettered alongside the rest of the overwatch brand and in the announcement of the owcs it was referred to in a "we'll talk about that later" manor. There is discussion about in-game items and incentives for watching however it's unclear whether this will be a token system and whether your current tokens will convert to it in any way. It is likely that if the spitfire are dead and buried for good that regardless of whether you're tokens convert you won't have long to purchase their skins or other items. To be clear I'm not encouraging you to spend money on skins but I do think it's like the window you'll how to continue purchase them is closing.

MERCH: Whilst the overwatch league brand has been sunseted merch is still available via its website. Spitfire jerseys have long sold out unfortunately and though they're still listed on cloud nine's website it seems there's no effort been made to restock them. But if you didn't get an opportunity to own any spitfire match at the time there are still some coosies and T-shirts and so on available via overwatch read with some heavy reductions on their price because of the sun setting of the brand. There are also jerseys available still for other teams (including the Paris eternal - lol) and this includes some of the sixth season jerseys with the cool new designs. Much like above I'm not encouraging you to spend money on overwatch eastports or any of these teams but it's pretty clear to see that the window to make these purchases is closing.

TLDR: The London Spitfire are likely dead as is the Overwatch League. Something new will replace it but there’s questions in the air about who that will be and what that will look like.

Okay all so here’s an update on my long comment in another post summarising the latest updates on the league.

The results of the team owners vote has come through and the long and short of it is: The overwatch League has been dissolved and all 20 teams (yes even the Chengdu Hunters) are now clear of their contractual obligations to put a team forward in competitive overwatch and have received a 6 million dollar payout.

The Overwatch team has committed to replacing the league with something new in the future. hell, they may even still call it "the overwatch League" (though I doubt this would happen it will likely have some new or amended title.) We don't know what this new thing will be yet and it will likely be a little while until we find out the details, structure and the nature of who is competing within it.

As for the Spitfire: they posted this across their socials recently effectively confirming, though not in so many words, that with the dissolution of the overwatch league the London Spitfire are either dead or on hiatus.

So what next?

Next move is waiting to find out what the next format of pro overwatch play looks like and who's running it. The “who's running it” is a big thing because they will be more or less likely to attract talent depending on who blizzard goes with. Once we know that we'll get a sense of how much interest there is in the EU and wider scene for this new format and then we'll start to see what teams will sign up to this new format and what branding those teams will take on.

Until we know those things the OWL virtual store is still up as is the merch store (though Jerseys for this year are long sold out unfortunately) So you can still get skins and hoodies if you feel the need to show your support to our now ex-team.

Hope that helps, Aces High, Hang loose

I've just seen the announcement about all the players and coaches being released, though its kinds vague. I've been out of the loop on OWL as I stopped watching and playing around the second season.

Is London Spitfire as a team shutting down?

Or is this more broadly to do with the troubles of OWL as a whole?

So Houston outlaws have already qualified for play offs so maybe they use the match on the 3rd as a way to try new comps so maybe spitfires will win hopefully thinking but IDK

Sure we have gone 4-0 in our last 4 games but it was far to competitive against Vegas idk if we will win against valiant on our penultimate game

Listen I know that hadi is good but he cannot play this meta very well which is I think we need a new tank.

I don’t think skairipa was thaaat good at Vancouver, I never heard him spoken about and didn’t think he was very good. Was he any good? And how decent is lethal?

The only reason I supported Philly over London to begin with was because Philly had British players and London didn’t.

The tables have turned.

Proud to come back home.

LFG

Overwatch League 2022 Season | Playoffs Day 4

https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxaJtCxB_i-J_wVAvGODLIjKn7bALt2w9u

The moment I heard the Announcer say this ONE sentence...

What came to mind was: The London Bridge Is Falling Down Nursery Rhyme

Anyone know why there are no london spitfire team jerseys on the owl site?

Let's look back at some memorable moments and interesting insights from last year.

Your top 10 posts:

• "Hello people, I have been collecting all the OWL team pins and the only I'm missing is the London pin. If anyone has it please DM me. <3" by u/Girafflesnake
• "After four and a half years of watching OWL streams, I have finally collected every London Spitfire skin." by u/Stanimator
• "London Spitfire sign Poko" by u/callummr
• "#HadiUnderrated #SpiloBestCoachEver" by u/Hypocritical_Midget
• "London Spitfire welcome ChristTFer as new Head Coach" by u/attywolf
• "[Halo] According to multiple sources, the London Spitfire are closing in on the signing of two British players for their 2022 roster." by u/attywolf
• "London Spitfire sign Backbone" by u/attywolf
• "Happy Cakeday, r/LondonSpitfire! Today you're 4" by u/AutoModerator
• "Does anyone know if Poko is happy with London?" by u/red_cloverr
• "London Spitfire vs Paris Eternal | Overwatch League 2022 Season | Regular Season: Week 9 | Post-Match Discussion" by u/Cloud9Jack

I don’t know if I’d be happy if I was being benched, and I don’t want to see Poko go. So does anyone know if he is happy with londons org?

Title.