THE DEFIANT ONES
Toronto’s newest e-sport franchise meets some instant fans as players prepare to take the city into the mushrooming Overwatch League
Consider the 300 people in the line that snaked out the EB Games store on Yonge St. last Saturday the early adopters. They were the hardcore fans who came out to meet the eight men who make up the Toronto Defiant, this city’s newest sports franchise, who enter the arena in their first game in the Overwatch League next weekend.
Overwatch is a team-based videogame built from the ground up to be an esport by Blizzard (creators of World
of Warcraft), and it’s been a substantial success since launching in 2016. The league is growing fast as it enters its second season, with an ESPN/ABC broadcast deal in hand and corporate players large and small perceiving that gaming’s emergence as popular entertainment has already happened.
“I’m emblematic of a realization that others are coming to, and that’s e-spots is not a trend. It’s not a developing opportunity. It’s here, it’s real and it’s not going anywhere.
It is going to be a part of how we speak about sports and entertainment, moving forward. It’s a generational impact. It is a global phenomenon, and it’s fair to say that not many other people understand that yet, but it is happening,” Chris Overholt, CEO of Overactive Media, Defiant’s owner, told the Star.
As the second season nears launch, Defiant is one of eight expansion teams joining a global league now rounded out to 20 squads representing places from Paris to Guangzhou, China. Virtually all of this year’s regular-season matches will take place in California, but Overwatch League having its teams adopt particular cities — taking a cue from more traditional sports — makes it stand apart from most other e-spots.
The plan is for Toronto Defiant and the other teams to host home matches and travel for away in the third season, which is one reason it is important to have the type of meet-andgreet hosted by EB Games. Next year, they need to have these butts in the seats cheering them on; this year, they will host a viewing party at Real Sports Bar and Grill — right next door to the Leafs’ and Raptors’ home — next Friday night for Defiant’s inaugural match. (With both the hockey and basketball team off for the night, it’s an opportunity to show off the latest player on this city’s sports scene.)
Overholt is one of the reasons that the Toronto Defiant, and it’s ownership group, Overactive Media, is so interesting. He’s the former CEO of the Canadian Olympic Committee and has a long career in sports management prior to that, working with the Miami Dolphins and Florida Panthers, as well as the Raptors and Leafs as part of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment (MLSE). It’s the later corporation’s name that comes up when the Star chats with Overholt about entering the world of competitive video gaming: he says “we want to be the MLSE of e-spots.”
That’s interesting, because MLSE is not shrinking from this kind of venture either. It has Raptors Uprising GC, which plays in the NBA 2K League, and has sent a player to compete in last year’s eMLS, a competitive league in the popular FIFA soccer game. Overactive, however, has global aspirations in several e-spots, even if Overholt admits that right now, he usually spends the first hour of his meetings with outsiders having to explain e-spots and how the business works.
Overactive Media is co-owned by tech entrepreneur Sheldon Pollack, Adam Adamou and Michael Kimel, the latter being a partner in the Chase Hospitality Group, which has wellknown restaurants in the city, as well as a minority owner in the Pittsburgh Penguins. The corporation has had a very active off-season, assembling the team, raising $44 million in financing and acquiring Splyce, a multi-esport organization that the company had first hired to help run and manage the team.
Back at EB Games, the fans in line are already in on the ground floor. Many watched the first season of the Overwatch League and are now stoked to have a local team to root for, with the general consensus being that Toronto has a very good chance of being competitive, thanks to some shrewd team-building moves.
Joshua Moledzki, 14, is first in line at the event and declared himself already “a big fan of the Toronto Defiant team … I’d definitely recommend it, just because it’s exciting to watch. Things you wouldn’t expect to happen, happen all the time.
“They have one of my favourite players in the league, Asher. I think they’re going to do pretty well, especially with Roky and Asher on the team. I think they’ll carry them.”
Like with most things e-spots, player are better known by their online nicknames, and the Defiant’s roster is entirely Ko- rean: Kang-Jae “Envy” Lee, SeHyun “Neko” Park, Jun-Sung “Asher” Choi, SeungHyun “Ivy” Lee, Dohyung “Stellar” Lee, Jae Yoon “Aid” Ko, JooSung “Roky” Park and Kyeongmu “Yakpung” Cho.
Envy, Asher and Neko all played in the league in the first season. The team’s coach, Beoumjun “Bishop” Lee, also comes with some pedigree. Last season, he was the coach of the London Spitfire, the team that went on to win the championship and $1-million (U.S.) prize before 11,000 in-person fans at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center. (Blizzard says more than10 million people watched over two days, on various platforms.) In the offices above EB Games, the team is mugging for cameras and doing interview with local media. The Star pulls aside Envy and Neko, and the Defiant’s general manager, Jaesun (Jae) Won to translate. One thing the team has stressed has been camaraderie, which is key during the season.
Through Won, Envy says he “learned a lot about communications issues, when he was on the L.A. Valiant last season,” working with teammates South Korea, the U.S., and Australia as well as Brady “Agilities” Girardi from Lethbridge, Alta. “And also how much practice you needed, because he could see what went well and what went wrong on this previous team.”
I ask his impressions of Toronto and Won passes this along: “This is his first visit. First winter. But he’s happy to meet the fans. He says it does make me feel good. Even though he’s Korean, he does want to make the Toronto fans very proud and that they are so welcoming to him.”
Neko is suspended for the first three matches of the season for an infraction of Blizzard’s account rules last year. “It will be all right. We’ve been prepping very hard for it,” he says, adding, “the veterans are helping the new guys get along better (and) the synergy is very strong among the team, so they have a lot of confidence.”
Asked if they feel pressure, Envy responds that they don’t. “Because they are the first espots team out of Toronto — if they do very well, they’ll help drive e-spots and bring big optics to e-spots in Toronto, and help drive Canadian e-spots in general. Everybody likes winners.”
“I’d definitely recommend (e-spots), just because it’s exciting to watch. Things you wouldn’t expect to happen, happen all the time.” JOSHUA MOLEDZKI 14-YEAR-OLD FAN OF THE OVERWATCH LEAGUE