OWL: Boston Uprising Pick up ITSAL

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OWL: Boston Uprising Pick up ITSAL

Boston Uprising welcomes ITSAL after promoting him from their Academy.


A third Tank player is added to the Boston Uprising lineup about a month before the season begins.

ITSAL

Korean Main Tank Chang-hee “ITSAL” Kim has been promoted from Uprising Academy to the Boston Uprising. A young player by , ITSAL saw his Contenders debut less than two years ago. Playing in both Korean and North American Contenders is a good experience for ITSAL, but it's time that many worry about. His performance in Contenders was respectable, ending up with three second-place finishes. Sadly he was never able to see a Contenders championship, but he is likely much more satisfied with his current results.

As a Main Tank player, it's uncertain whether we'll see much of him at the season's kickoff. From what we've seen, Off Tanks are going to be the primary Tank selection for the early meta, but that could always change. The next question comes with what his positioning is in relation to Min-seo “Marve1” Hwang, the other Main Tank on the team.

Tank Line

Boston Uprising now has three tank players on their roster in ITSAL, Marve1, and Layton “Punk” Gilchrist. For a position that only has one player, they sure have stacked their lineup. So now we must ask, why so many? The team already had their bases covered in the Main Tank and Off Tank positions with Marve1 and Punk respectively. So why pick up another Main Tank? Well, Marve1 played the last season as an Off Tank for Seoul Dynasty. He mostly played Sigma for the team, likely putting him out of practice in the Main Tank role.

What we could be seeing is Boston's unwillingness to commit to whatever they've seen from Marve1 as a Main Tank player. We could even see him reprise his role as a Sigma specialist in worse-case scenario. The roster for the Uprising isn't seeming the most stable in the league, but it's not the worst wither. Their roster depth is going to allow them to be flexible as changes arise throughout the season. Whether ITSAL is Marve1's backup, or they both are backups for Punk is yet to be known.

OWL: Boston Uprising Pick up ITSAL
Joseph Shay
Joseph is Production Director and Writer with experience in the esports field. He has coached Overwatch teams in North American and Pacific Contenders, and has been an avid esports fan for years now. Outside of esports and media, he is a Creative Writing major based out of Virginia, USA.