2020 London Spitfire season

2020   London Spitfire season
Head coach	Hong "Agape" Cheol-yong
General manager	Lee Seung-hwan
Owner	Jack Etienne
Conference	Atlantic
Division	North
Region	Asia
Results
Record	6–15 (.286)
Place	Asia: 7th League: 17th
May Melee	Quarterfinals
Summer Showdown	Quarterfinals
Countdown Cup	Quarterfinals
Season Playoffs	Did not qualify
Total Earnings	$0
←  2019 London Spitfire 2021  →

The 2020 London Spitfire season was the third season of the London Spitfire's existence in the Overwatch League. The Spitfire planned to host two homestand events in the 2020 season; the first was to be held at The SSE Arena Wembley, ^[1] while the second was to be at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham. ^[2] However, all homestand events were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Preceding offseason

Organizational changes

In early October 2019, the Spitfire parted ways with coach Kim "Jfeel" Jeong-min, who had been with the team since London's inception. ^[3]

London found their new head coach within the organization, promoting assistant coach Hong "Agape" Cheol-yong to the position. Additionally, the team signed former New York Excelsior head coach Ty "Pavane" Hyun-sang, former Florida Mayhem assistant coach Kim "SNT" Sung-hoon, and former O2 Blast assistant coach Lim "Twinkl" Young-bin all as assistant coaches. The changes reunited Agape, Pavane, and SNT, as Apage and Pavane previously coached LuxuryWatch Blue and LuxuryWatch Red together, while SNT played with LuxuryWatch Red at the same time. ^[4]

Roster changes

Free agents

Role	Player		Contract status	Date signed	2020 team
	Handle	Name
Damage	Birdring	Ji-Hyeok Kim	Free agent	6 November	Los Angeles Gladiators [5]
Damage	Guard	Hee-Dong Lee	Free agent	–	–
Support	Nus	Jong-Seok Kim	Free agent	–	–
Legend   Re-signed/Retained by the Spitfire.   Departed from the Spitfire.

The Spitfire enter the new season with three free agents, one players which they have the option to retain for another year, and five players under contract. ^[6] The OWL's deadline to exercise a team option is 11 November, after which any players not retained will become a free agent. Free agency officially began on 7 October. ^[7]

Acquisitions

The Spitfire's first acquisitions of the offseason were announced on 30 October, when the team traded tank Kim "Fury" Jun-ho to the Philadelphia Fusion in exchange for Fusion University players tank Shin "BERNAR" Se-won and support Kim "Fuze" Tae-hoon. ^[8]

London announced eight players on their roster on 23 November. The five new players announced were support players Lee "Highly" Sung-hyeok and Lim "SanGuiNar" Kyu-min, DPS players Lee "Schwi" Dong-Jae and Lim "Glister" Gil-seong, as well as tank player Choi "JMAC" Dae Han. Of the players, only Highly has ever previously played for an OWL team, while the remaining had only experience in Overwatch Contenders. ^[9] The following month, on 27 December, London announced four more players to round out their 12-man roster in damage players Jung "Although" Hyun-wook and Park "Babel" Sang-jun and support players Kim "Jihun" Ji-hun and Cho "Clestyn" Gun-hee. ^[10]

Departures

The Spitfire elected not to re-sign all three of their free agents, DPS Kim "Birdring" Ji-hyeok, support Kim "NUS" Jong-seok, and alternate DPS Lee "Guard" Hee-dong, heading into the 2020 season. ^[3]

On 22 October, the Spitfire agreed to transfer tank Hong "Gesture" Jae-hee and DPS Park "Profit" Joon-yeong to the Seoul Dynasty. ^[11] The team released Choi "Bdosin" Seung-tae and Song "Quatermain" Ji-hoon in mid-November. With the release of Bdosin, no players from the Spitfire's 2018 Grand Finals roster remained with the team. ^[12]

Roster

2020 London Spitfire roster
Players	Coaches
Role No. Handle Name Nationality Damage 1 Schwi Lee Dong-jae South Korea Damage 26 Glister Lim Gil-seong South Korea Damage 23 ALTHOUGH Jung Hyeon-wook South Korea Damage 16 Babel Park Sang-jun South Korea Tank 97 JMAC Choi Dae-han South Korea Tank 18 BERNAR Shin Se-won South Korea Tank 30 Clestyn Cho Gun-hee South Korea Tank 5 Jihun Kim Ji-hun South Korea Support 11 Krillin Jeong Yung-hoon South Korea Support 10 Highly Lee Sung-hyeok South Korea Support 14 SanGuiNar Lim Kyu-min South Korea Support 99 Fuze Kim Tae-hoon South Korea	Head coach Hong "Agape" Cheol-yong
Legend: (I) Inactive (S) Suspended (2W) Two-way player Substitute Injury / Illness	Latest roster transaction: 27 December 2019.

Standings

Pos	Con	Team v t e	Pld	W	BW	L	PCT	MW	ML	MT	MD	Qualification
1	PAC	Shanghai Dragons	21	19	8	2	0.905	59	15	1	+44	Advance to playoffs
2	PAC	Guangzhou Charge	21	14	4	7	0.667	44	39	1	+5
3	ATL	New York Excelsior	21	13	3	8	0.619	50	30	2	+20	Advance to play-ins
4	PAC	Hangzhou Spark	21	10	2	11	0.476	36	40	2	−4
5	PAC	Seoul Dynasty	21	9	3	12	0.429	33	40	2	−7
6	PAC	Chengdu Hunters	21	7	1	14	0.333	33	47	1	−14
7	ATL	London Spitfire	21	6	0	15	0.286	27	51	0	−24

Source: The Overwatch League
Rules for classification: 1) Wins plus bonus wins 2) winning percentage (excluding bonus wins); 3) map differential; 4) head-to-head record; 5) head-to-head map differential

Game log

Regular season

2020 game log (Regular season record: 6–15)
February–April: 3–2 1 8 February London Spitfire 1 – 3 New York Excelsior New York City, NY 8:00 pm GMT     Hammerstein Ballroom Hosted by New York Excelsior 2 Lijiang Tower 0 2 King's Row 3 1 Horizon Lunar Colony 2 0 Junkertown 3 2 9 February London Spitfire 0 – 3 Paris Eternal New York City, NY 6:00 pm GMT     Hammerstein Ballroom Hosted by New York Excelsior 0 Nepal 2 3 King's Row 4 1 Hanamura 2 3 23 February London Spitfire 3 – 2 Washington Justice Washington, DC 12:00 midnight GMT     The Anthem Hosted by Washington Justice 0 Oasis 2 1 Hanamura 2 1 Dorado 0 3 Blizzard World 0 2 Nepal 1 4 29 February London Spitfire 3 – 2 Houston Outlaws Houston, TX 12:00 midnight GMT     Revention Music Center Hosted by Houston Outlaws 2 Busan 0 2 Blizzard World 1 1 Temple of Anubis 2 2 Junkertown 3 2 Ilios 1 5 1 March London Spitfire 3 – 2 Florida Mayhem Houston, TX 10:00 pm GMT     Revention Music Center Hosted by Houston Outlaws 1 Ilios 2 2 Eichenwalde 1 3 Horizon Lunar Colony 4 3 Havana 2 2 Oasis 0
May Melee qualifiers: 1–3 6 9 May London Spitfire 3 – 0 Chengdu Hunters Online 10:00 am UTC     7 10 May London Spitfire 1 – 3 Guangzhou Charge Online 10:00 am UTC     8 16 May London Spitfire 0 – 3 Shanghai Dragons Online 10:00 am UTC     9 17 May London Spitfire 0 – 3 Hangzhou Spark Online 10:00 am UTC
Summer Showdown qualifiers: 2–2 10 13 June London Spitfire 0 – 3 Shanghai Dragons Online 8:00 am UTC     11 20 June London Spitfire 3 – 0 Chengdu Hunters Online 10:00 am UTC     12 21 June London Spitfire 1 – 3 New York Excelsior Online 12:30 pm UTC     13 27 June London Spitfire 3 – 0 Hangzhou Spark Online 12:00 noon UTC
Countdown Cup qualifiers: 0–3 14 18 July London Spitfire 1 – 3 Guangzhou Charge Online 10:00 am UTC     15 25 July London Spitfire 2 – 3 Shanghai Dragons Online 10:00 am UTC     16 1 August London Spitfire 0 – 3 Hangzhou Spark Online 10:00 am UTC
August: 0–5 17 14 August London Spitfire 0 – 3 Seoul Dynasty Online 8:00 am UTC     18 15 August London Spitfire 0 – 3 Shanghai Dragons Online 10:00 am UTC     19 16 August London Spitfire 0 – 3 Seoul Dynasty Online 8:00 am UTC     20 22 August London Spitfire 1 – 3 New York Excelsior Online 10:00 am UTC     21 23 August London Spitfire 2 – 3 Seoul Dynasty Online 8:00 am UTC

Midseason tournaments

2020 midseason tournaments game log
May Melee: 0–1 Quarterfinals 23 May London Spitfire 2 – 3 Shanghai Dragons Online 11:30 am UTC
Summer Showdown: 0–1 Quarterfinals 4 July London Spitfire 1 – 3 Seoul Dynasty Online 10:00 am UTC
Countdown Cup: 0–1 Quarterfinals 8 August London Spitfire 0 – 3 Chengdu Hunters Online 8:00 am UTC
Bonus wins awarded: 0

Postseason

2020 playoff game log
Asia Play-ins: 0–1 Round 1 4 September London Spitfire 1 – 3 Chengdu Hunters Online 9:00 am UTC

References

1. Bishop, Sam (6 November 2019). "London Spitfire home matches are in London and Birmingham". GameReactor UK. Retrieved 6 November 2019.
2. Koh, Bobby; Blizzard Entertainment (27 November 2019). "London Spitfire Reveals the NEC Birmingham as venue for second Homestand weekend". London Spitfire. Retrieved 11 December 2019.
3. "London Spitfire release Birdring, NUS, Guard, coach Jfeel". ESPN. 3 October 2019. Retrieved 10 October 2019.
4. Scrubasaurus (21 October 2019). "Spitfire add several coaches including Pavane". Over.gg. Retrieved 22 October 2019.
5. "Los Angeles Gladiators add former Spitfire DPS birdring". ESPN. Reuters. 6 November 2019. Retrieved 6 November 2019.
6. Morello, Matt (30 July 2019). "2020 Team Needs and Player Contract Status". Overwatch League. Retrieved 19 October 2019.
7. Richardson, Liz (4 October 2019). "Overwatch League reveals player contract status for entire league". Dot Esports. Retrieved 10 October 2019.
8. "Fusion, Fuel, Defiant and more make Overwatch League roster moves". ESPN. Reuters. 30 October 2019. Retrieved 30 October 2019.
9. Almughrabi, Zakaria (23 November 2019). "London Spitfire Announces 2020 Roster". Hotspawn. Retrieved 23 November 2019.
10. "London Spitfire add four for 2020 season". ESPN. Reuters. 27 December 2019. Retrieved 28 December 2019.
11. Richardson, Liz (22 October 2019). "Seoul Dynasty acquire Gesture and Profit from London Spitfire". Dot Esports. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
12. Samples, Rachel (12 November 2019). "London Spitfire release Bdosin, Quatermain ahead of 2020 Overwatch League season". Dot Esports. Retrieved 12 November 2019.