“Platinum” Overwatch player wins pro match after emergency substitution
Blizzard Entertainment[jwplayer C4aVz0Uy]A Platinum ranked Overwatch player made his professional debut in Contenders North America on July 28, shocking the competitive landscape by managing to secure a surprising win for his team.
Right before their losers’ bracket match against Triumph, Square One’s flex support Tomáš ‘Exorath’ Kotačka was unable to play due to a power outage.
With no one available, the team had to get their player development coach, Sebastian ‘Tokki’ Hutchinson, to fill in.
What made this fill so strange is that Tokki’s Support rank appeared as a mere 2534 SR. That’s extremely low and far below the SR of Contenders players, who often make up the Top 500 leaderboards.
ggs @TriumphGamingGG pic.twitter.com/GXYz8P8WZU
— Tokki (@Tokki_GG) July 28, 2020
Additionally, Tokki’s career peak on this particular account was 3.8 SR, which means he never even reached Grand Master. However, Tokki clarified in a statement to Dexerto that the rank wasn’t quite representative of their skill. The account in question was “made only for spectating scrims,” he explained. “So it never got to rank up.”
According to caster Thomas ‘Tridd’ Underwood, the emergency substitution was agreed upon by both teams. However, looking back at it, Triumph may wish they never agreed to the arrangement, as they ended up losing the first-to-two series two maps to none.
On the Brigitte, Tokki was able to help rally his team to victory with ease, winning Oasis 2-0. Then, on Volskaya Industries, Square One secured the win 3-2 to take the series. (Match begins at 54:10 for mobile viewers)
“I really couldn’t tell that was a sub playing for Square One,” Rosemary ‘Nekkra’ Kelley noted after the match.
It’s unclear whether the victory is a testament to Tokki’s hidden skill or the power of Brigitte as a hero. It would have been interesting to see how the assistant coach would have performed on a hero like Lucio, Zenyatta, or Ana.
Coaches being emergency substitutions are rare, but not completely unheard of. To use traditional sports as an example, in 2015, Florida Panthers goaltending coach Robb Tallas had to briefly suit up in pads after both of the team’s NHL caliber goalies suffered injuries.
It just goes to show that sometimes being a coach means having to do a bit more than just review tape.