LA Gladiators Releases Statement on the Benching of Star Player for Overwatch League Playoff Match

Los Angeles Gladiators has released a statement regarding the change in their starting main tank for their first match of the Overwatch League playoffs.

It was revealed just a few hours before the scheduled start of their quarter-final match that main tank Baek ‘Fissure’ Chan-hyung would not be starting for the team against London Spitfire.

The move came as a big surprise to most viewers, with Fissure having been dubbed the team’s most valuable player and a candidate for the MVP award of the entire regular season. The Gladiators’ least successful stage of the Overwatch League was Stage 1, prior to his addition to the team.

The Los Angeles team has now made a statement on the topic, claiming that it “gives the team the best chance to win.”

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Unfortunately, the statement doesn’t do much to really illuminate the reasoning behind the decision. It perhaps implies that there might have been some dedication or team synergy issues with Fissure – though this would be the first suggestion of such this season – but the message is void of any specifics.

The series against London Spitfire will be the first in a best-of-three of best-of-fives – one team will need to win two best-of-five series to take the overall victory and advance to the semi-finals.

The LA Gladiators have a 3-0 match record against London over the regular season, although those matches all featured Fissure as the starting main tank.