Overwatch League Season 2 Countdown – LA Gladiators (#4)

#5 – Vancouver Titans |  #6 – LA Valiant |  #7 – Seoul Dynasty – |   #8 – Paris Eternal |   #9 – San Francisco Shock |  #10 – Toronto Defiant |   #11 – Dallas Fuel |   #12 – Shanghai Dragons |   #13 – Atlanta Reign |   #14 – Guangzhou Charge |   #15 – Hangzhou Spark |   #16 – Houston Outlaws |   #17 – Florida Mayhem |   #18 – Boston Uprising |   #19 – Washington Justice | #20 – Chengdu Hunters

With Season 2 of the Overwatch League drawing ever closer, it’s time to take a look at some of the best teams in the league. Let’s take an in-depth look at the Los Angeles Gladiators.

Finishing in a very respectable fourth place in the Season 1 overall standings, the Gladiators retain much of their solid core of players from last year. Despite losing to London in the playoffs, the Gladiators finished off Season 1 with an awe-inspiring record,  while having defeated every team in the League at least once. With the right direction and focus, the Gladiators are capable of dominating any team that stands in their way. While the loss of Fissure, Asher, and Silkthread does hurt, the Gladiators made up for it with several notable pickups in the offseason. Let’s take a more in-depth look at the Gladiators’ fearsome roster.

DPS

One of the fan-favorites of the Los Angeles Gladiators roster is the DPS star Surefour. Known for his incredible plays on Widowmaker, McCree, Tracer, Soldier: 76, and others, Surefour can very easily be one of the scariest players in the league. In addition to his impressive resume in the League, Surefour has put up great results on the Canadian World Cup team. At Blizzcon last year, he helped bring home third place for his country.

Surefour had a fantastic showing in Season 1 alongside his partners in the role, including the stylish player Hydration. Hydration is a very flexible damage player, specializing in characters including Pharah, Doomfist, Genji, and many others when the team needs it. While he had to share the limelight last year with other players, this year we may get to see a bit more of the American star.

New Comers

Joining the DPS lineup will be one of the two new Korean players, the prodigy Decay. Speculated to have been signed for around $300,000, Decay brings an impressive list of achievements with him. His Contenders teammate rOar has also signed with the Gladiators.

In Overwatch Contenders Season 2: Korea, these two players helped bring KongDoo Panthera to second place. rOar is a main tank and team leader from KongDoo Panthera and should mesh well with Decay and the rest of the tanks for the Gladiators. However, we may not get to see that much of Decay right away, as he will not be 18 until a few weeks after the start of Season 2. Despite that, Decay and rOar are well known from Contenders as some of the strongest players in their respective roles. The new additions to the Gladiators are likely to continue to perform well in the Overwatch League.

Returning Tanks

The tank roster for Los Angeles brings back some familiar faces from the inaugural season in Bischu and Void. While both players share a hero pool including Zarya and D.Va, both of them consistently performed at the highest level in Season 1.

While the old tank duo of Fissure and Bishu is no more, we will still get to see what this new duo has to offer. The final tank for the Gladiators will be Panker, on a  two-way contract with the Gladiators Legion. Panker is a main tank as well, and could very well see play on the main lineup, depending on how LA wants to run the team.

Support

The support lineup for the Gladiators looks very similar to how it did in Season 1. The dynamic duo of Shaz and BigGoose make their return to the stage in Season 2, where they hope to continue to have elite results. Shaz specializes in Zenyatta, Ana, Sombra, and can even play other characters including Tracer or Soldier: 76 if needed. BigGoose fills out the majority of the support hero pool, focusing on Lucio and Mercy.

Both players were very reliable and put on a show in the inaugural season, with Shaz even bringing out the Genji against London in the pre-season. Joining these players is a third Finnish player, Ripa. Ripa joins Los Angeles from Team Gigantti and has shown solid play as Zenyatta and Moira. The supports for the Gladiators have an excellent record of strong play from Season 1 and are looking to continue that trend here in 2019.

Final Thoughts

Overall the Los Angeles Gladiators look to continue their record of consistently strong play in Season 2 of the Overwatch League while putting on a show for their fans. While the Gladiators lost a few critical pieces of their past roster, they have picked up several fantastic additions that should help them see great results this season. While we will not see the full roster right out of the gate, the Los Angeles Gladiators are sure to impress in Season 2.  You can watch the Gladiators in action on Thursday, February 14th against the Seoul Dynasty.

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