Some insight into my OWL career as I started a new chapter in my journey

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Fusion:

First of all I am truly grateful to Fusion for granting me the experience of competing in the inaugural season of the Overwatch League, many European players got left to dry and just a few teams gave any of us a fair chance at tryouts. The season was full of ups and downs, especially the start was difficult for us as we had a late start and many players came from different countries and team cultures/structures which naturally lead to frustration at times with the amount of teamwork, communication and cohesion needed to play Overwatch at the highest level.

Personally as a main tank, whose job is often to lead the tempo of the team, I also had a fair share of difficulties with adapting my playstyle to work on a brand-new team with stylistic differences and communication issues, so I didn't improve as fast as I would have liked to but in the end was quite happy with the progress I made overall during the first three stages. Come Stage 4 coaches decided to play Sado (and Hotba) to give them a fair chance to prove themselves which I completely understand. We ended up barely making the playoffs and proceeded mostly with the same lineup which worked out until the bitter defeat in the Grand Finals against Spitfire, so as a member of Fusion I was happy with the results we achieved in our first season together, but still as a player as the season ended I was left pondering what I could have done better and heavily regretted not being able to play in the playoffs and especially in front of almost 20000 fans in the Barclays Center.

Off-season was really busy for me with Team Finland practice taking most of the break, had a good run at the qualifiers in Incheon but ended up losing to China 3-0 in our first game at Blizzcon, scoreline which could have easily been different. It was a good experience with unfortunately a disappointing result considering all the preparation we put in but I set my sights on Season 2 with Fusion.

Coming into the new season I assumed we would have a fresh start as a team with the newly trimmed roster and I felt quite confident in my personal play with all the practice I put in during the off-season but due to various reasons I didn't end up getting much of a shot to get into the starting 6. Obviously a disappointed man, I ended up stagnating on the bench for 9 long months, a time which was tough for me as a professional but I tried my best to keep my spirits up and think about the future. I contemplated maybe moving into coaching as I feel that would be a really good fit for me but as I watched all these scrims and Overwatch League games I had a strong feeling I could definitely still compete as a player with many teams and players seemingly struggling.

So as the opportunity to get traded to Guangzhou arose, I figured it was the chance I had been waiting for to prove myself once again and took it.

Fusion has a lot of players and staff who I now call friends and even as our paths for now have separated I will forever cherish all the good memories I have from our time together.

For all the Fusion fans I apologize for having disappeared from social media this year, I just want you to know that I really appreciate all the kind words and encouragement I've gotten from you guys throughout both seasons.

Guangzhou:

Having lived in the Guangzhou house for about a week now I feel blessed as everyone has been really friendly and welcoming even through language barriers. I am really motivated to prove my worth and work really hard to improve the team in any way I can as we go in the last
stage of the season.

I'm looking forward to meeting all the Guangzhou fans as well!


Hopefully you will see me on stage again one day.

- Joona "fragi" Laine

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