London Spitfire DPS Birdring Will Sit Out of OWL All-Star Game
London Spitfire DPS player Kim “birdring” Ji-hyeok will not participate in the Overwatch League’s All-Star Weekend due to a wrist injury. Instead, Park “Profit” Jun-young, birdring’s Spitfire DPS partner, will be fighting in his place.
“Farewell Profit. We’ll miss you … in Korea, because your favorite Overwatch League finals MVP is traveling to Los Angeles for All-Stars,” London Spitfire wrote on Twitter. “As the leading votes-getter, Profit will be taking birdring’s place, allowing the latter to give his wrists some much-deserved rest.”
Farewell @PROFIT_OWL. We'll miss you… in Korea, because YOUR FAVOURITE #OWL2018 FINALS MVP IS TRAVELING TO LA FOR ALL STARS!
As the leading votes-getter, Profit will be taking @Birdring's place, allowing the latter to give his wrists some much deserved rest. Let's go Atlantic! pic.twitter.com/1dG22Ms6nd
— London Spitfire (@Spitfire) August 8, 2018
London Spitfire didn’t provide any further details on birdring’s wrist injury, but the South Korean player previously said he didn’t hurt his wrist playing Overwatch; he actually got his injury from playing Bennett Foddy’s Getting Over It, a famously frustrating game in which players must hurl themselves over a mountain as a man with a cauldron for a lower body.
Birdring said during an August stream that he hurt his wrist after slamming his wrists on his desk while playing the game.
Birdring’s replacement is no one to scoff at, either. Profit was named the Overwatch League grand finals MVP after London Spitfire were crowned champions of the inaugural season.
Here is a look at the starters for each division’s teams.
Atlantic Division
- Bang “JJoNak” Seong-Hyun, New York Excelsior support
- Hong “Ark” Yeon-Jun, NYXL support
- Hong “Gesture” Jae-Hui, London Spitfire tank
- Kim “Pine” Do-Hyeon, NYXL flex
- Lee “Carpe” Jae-Hyeon, Philadelphia Fusion DPS
- Park “Saebyeolbe” Jong-Ryeol, NYXL DPS
Pacific Division
- Baek “Fissure” Chan-Hyung, Los Angeles Gladiators tank
- Brandon “Seagull” Larned, Dallas Fuel flex
- Kim “Fleta” Byung-Sun, Seoul Dynasty DPS
- Kim “Geguri” Se-Yeon, Shanghai Dragons tank
- Ryu “Ryujehong” Je-Hong, Seoul Dynasty flex-support
- Scott “Custa” Kennedy, Los Angeles Valiant support
There are also 12 substitute Overwatch League players on each side that will see gameplay.
The Overwatch League’s All-Star Weekend is set for Aug. 25 and 26 at Blizzard Arena Los Angeles in Burbank, California. The Atlantic and Pacific Division teams, which were voted in by fans and OWL staff, will compete in a series of skill-based challenges, followed by the official All-Star Game.
Get the low-down on the game modes being played during the All-Star event on August 25th and more details on the legendary All-Star skins for Tracer and Genji! https://t.co/7BNPl27ucs pic.twitter.com/gsJabG371P
— Overwatch League (@overwatchleague) August 10, 2018
Blizzard has revealed the game modes the two teams will be facing off in before Aug. 26’s game.
- Lucioball Showdown: A three-on-three series with five-minute long games played on the new Busan map
- Mystery Heroes
- Widowmaker one-on-one
- Talent Takedown: Teams will be up against OWL casters and analysts
- Lockout Elimination
Then on Sunday, the two teams will battle in a six-on-six standard set in a five-map series: King’s Row, Rialto, Horizon Lunar Colony, Route 66 and Ilios. Substitutions will only be available between maps and each team will have a coach to help “manage rosters and strategy.”
Not only is there a ton of Overwatch content for fans to enjoy during All-Star Weekend, but Blizzard is also releasing two new Legendary skins, one designed around each division’s team. The skins are available from Aug. 17 to 27 for 300 Overwatch League credits ($20 if you are tokenless).
Fans located in California can buy tickets to watch the event in person, but everyone else will be able to catch the competition in live streams on Twitch, Overwatch League’s website, and MLG.