London Spitfire has announced their new academy team for the Overwatch Contenders - a separate league for aspiring pro players - and the name is in keeping with the plane theme: British Hurricane.
The Hawker Hurricane preceded the Supermarine Spitfire in war production, and the Overwatch team are playing on history in the academy team being the precursor to the main Overwatch League team.
Following the announcement, the British Hurricane team line-up was then announced on London Spitfire's Twitter account.
And unlike the Spitfire team, British Hurricane will fully consist of European players, three of which are British.
As well as the three British players, there are also players from Iceland, Denmark, Netherlands, and Sweden.
British Hurricane's team coach, Nicholas 'ShiftyOW' Travis is from the USA, and the team manager is Ysabel 'Noukky' Muller from Germany.
British Hurricane will compete in dark and light blue, contrasting the blue and orange of the London Spitfire team.
This new multi-european roster is likely a reaction to recent criticism of the London Spitfire franchise, largely because a Los Angeles-based company is fielding an all-Korean roster in the Overwatch League for a team that lacks a British identity.
The British Hurricane team is completely made up of Europeans, and FunnyAstro, Fusions and Kyb are all British players who will be hoping to progress to the eventual goal of the Overwatch League.
Code Red Esports, a company headed by esteemed host Paul “Redeye” Chaloner, have been working with Cloud9, the organisation which owns the Spitfire, on helping them target the British demographic.
Chaloner told Mail Online: “The team we’ve ended up with is the best for us, not just because there are Brits on the team, but it’s very European-based as well. It’s got a great manager, so it’s been really good.”
"If we're going to do this and we're going to make this a really cool esports thing in the UK and we want to base it in London, and we want to be properly based in London, then we need to start encouraging and promoting British talent," added Chaloner.
"And Contenders is a great place to do that."
The British Hurricane will be in action for the first time when the next season of the Overwatch Contenders begins in March.
• Main Tank - Cameron ‘Fusions’ Bosworth (United Kingdom)• Off Tank - Hafþór 'Hafficool' Hákonarson (Iceland)• Flex DPS - Finley ‘Kyb’ Adisi (United Kingdom)• Hitscan DPS - Phillip 'Kragie' Krag Brems (Denmark)• Main Support - Ryan ‘CrusaDe’ van Wegen (Netherlands)• Support - Daniel ‘FunnyAstro’ Hathaway (United Kingdom)• Flex Support - Jakob 'bock1' Kleveland (Sweden)• Coach - Nicholas 'ShiftyOW' Travis (USA)• Manager - Ysabel ‘Noukky’ Müller (Germany)
