After successful the Overwatch League’s 2022 championship, the Dallas Gas is transferring that shiny trophy to a wholly totally different continent.
The group announced today it is going to be competing within the league’s East Area in 2023, relocating from the West Area it has referred to as dwelling for the previous 5 years of competitors. Whereas this transformation permits the Gas’s gamers to spend extra time of their homeland, South Korea, it’s the newest in a collection of huge modifications that would have an effect on the group’s fanbase.
Dallas co-owner Mike “hastr0” Rufail defined the logic behind the Gas’s massive transfer in a video posted to Twitter on March 6. For the previous two years of the OWL, gamers and workers have been primarily based out of Dallas, Texas. Although this was optimum for stay occasions, Gas gamers have been “away from dwelling for a number of years,” hastr0 stated.
Permitting them to play out of South Korea was a strategy to assist the group’s mostly-new roster.
Hastr0 famous the OWL and the Gas are in a “interval the place we have now quite a lot of transition.” Early within the offseason, Dallas administration opted to permit all the 2022 championship roster to become free agents, letting them search alternatives with different groups. Consequently, many gamers accepted presents from different squads, and the Gas was forced to rebuild.
On the league’s aspect, a lot of the East Area continues to be in flux after a broken partnership with NetEase successfully eliminated Overwatch 2 from servers in mainland China. Groups just like the Hangzhou Spark and Seoul Infernal are simply starting to announce roster additions; different groups have but to publicly announce a single change.
As of now, this swap in area means the Dallas Gas will compete alongside the Guangzhou Cost, Hangzhou Spark, Chengdu Hunters, Seoul Infernal (previously often known as the Philadelphia Fusion), Seoul Dynasty, and Shanghai Dragons.
The Los Angeles Valiant, which beforehand competed within the East for the previous a number of years, will return to the West in 2023.
For Dallas followers who’re already reeling after a worrying offseason, hastr0 supplied a crumb of hope within the video: administration “totally plans” to convey the group again to Dallas sooner or later.
The Overwatch League season begins within the West with a Professional-Am Event on March 23. All areas, together with the East, begin the full season on April 27.
