OverActive Media, owners of the Toronto Defiant, has confirmed that the team will remain in its OWL branding to compete in the 2024 season of the Overwatch Champions Series.
The ownership group, OverActive Media, confirmed on Wednesday that the team isn’t going anywhere.
The Toronto Defiant swiftly publicly announced its entry into the new Overwatch esports circuit. The first team that competed as a franchise in the Overwatch League to do so. The team played against the Paris Eternal during the OWL 2020 season.
Meanwhile, the OWL 2023 roster won’t be the same roster that will be competing in the Champions Series. The team will have a completely different roster for the 2024 campaign after the entire player roster and staff from the final OWL season got released back in October.
The new player roster includes DPS players Sugarfree and MER1T, supports Rupal and Vega, and tank Someone, who will operate out of the OverActive headquarters in Toronto alongside team staff.
This development is in line with OverActive’s statement in November after the team left OWL official. They revealed that a return to the game’s competitive ecosystem will happen in early 2024.
OverActive didn’t stay inactive after its departure from the league, as they have been busy with the recruitment of both the KOI and Movistar Riders brands, which they merged together with their own MAD Lions brand.
OverActive now fields brands competing in Call of Duty League, LoL via the LEC, VALORANT via VCT EMEA and Game Changers, and Counter-Strike 2, among others, in addition to Overwatch.
The Overwatch Champions Series gives teams across all regions the opportunity to return to an open circuit ecosystem for online tournaments and, eventually, LAN finals via open qualifiers.
Asia will see its Stage One qualifiers begin in February, while Stage one qualifiers for both North America and EMEA will begin in March. The Toronto Defiant will be competing in the NA division.
Daniel Ademiju Idowu
