Boston Uprising Releases Mistakes, Philadelphia Drops Three Players
Boston Uprising announced Sunday that they’ve released Stanislav “Mistakes” Danilov heading into the second season of the Overwatch League.
“You were a sub that played here and there, but stepped up for the team when we needed you most,” The Kraft Group gaming president Chris Loranger wrote of the player. “We went on to have a perfect stage and the longest win streak in the League during one of our toughest times as a team.”
Though Mistakes didn’t start out as a key player for Boston, he ended up on the main roster after Jonathan “DreamKazper” Sanchez was removed from the team in April after allegations of sexual misconduct. Uprising then got hot with a 14-game win streak. Overall, the team finished in third place in the OWL’s regular season, behind Los Angeles Valiant and New York Excelsior.
Thank you Mr. Danilov for all your hard work. You will be missed. pic.twitter.com/hUbIugQOz1
— Boston Uprising (@BostonUprising) September 2, 2018
Last week, Boston also released Shin “Kalios” Woo-Yul, Connor “Avast” Prince, and Mikias “Snow” Yohannes from the team. Now, six players are left on the season two roster. All teams are required to have a minimum of eight players under contract by Dec. 1. Replacements for the dropped players haven’t been named yet.
Philadelphia Fusion also dropped three players Sunday: Georgii “ShaDowBurn” Gushcha, Joe “Joemeister” Gramano, and Park “DayFly” Jeong-Hwan. All three of these players have been a part of the roster since last November. Both DayFly and Joemeister played support, while ShaDownBurn brought the damage as a DPS. ShaDownBurn’s departure comes as a bit of a shock, since he is known as one of the more talented DPS players in the OWL.
“Our success in the inaugural Overwatch League season could not have been achieved without their dedication,” Fusion wrote on Twitter. “They will always be part of the Fusion family and we wish them the best.”
Philadelphia had a pretty successful inaugural season, qualifying for the league’s first season playoffs in Brooklyn, New York. In the grand finals event, Fusion fell to London Spitfire.
The Overwatch League’s free agency period is scheduled to start on Sept. 9. At that point, any player that’s not on an OWL team roster will enter free agency. Expansion teams and current teams will be able to pick up players from this pool. Then, in October players from outside the league and Contenders will enter the free agent pool.
Overwatch League officials haven’t yet announced a start date for season two, but more information is expected to be revealed in the next few months.