With a rough season that saw them taking 15th place out of twenty in spite of having some relatively big names on the roster, is has been discovered that the Toronto Defiant is actively searching for a new head coach for the upcoming 2021 (the fourth) season of Overwatch League.
The entire job listing, which we’ll be discussing, can be found in the following tweet:
We are looking for a superstar: the search for our next @TorontoDefiant Head Coach has begun. #RiseTogether #OWL2021https://t.co/D0T1duMqlu
— OverActive (@overactivegg) September 16, 2020
There are a couple of interesting aspects that shows us how the parent organization of the Toronto Defiant, OverActive Media, is looking to shape their roster for the upcoming season to bring in a bit more firepower; the biggest aspect is that they’re looking for a head coach that is multilingual, capable of communicating in both Korean and English.
This is a bit of a mix from what we’ve seen more recently from the Defiant that have hedged their bets with a more western-focused team: many organizations that shift into Korean teams end up experimenting with a half and half mix before they inevitably go full-Korean.
Yet the DPS line-up that the Defiant currently offer looks pristine, at least on paper: legends of the title such as Lane ‘SureFour’ Roberts and Brady ‘Agilities’ Girardi along with Liam ‘Mangachu’ Campbell and Andreas ‘Logix’ Berghmans are a DPS line-up that many organizations would likely leap at the opportunity to experiment with.
Even the two primary support players, Young-Seo ‘Kariv’ Bak and Harrison ‘Kruise’ Pond have both been carrying their share of the weight. That leaves the idle speculation edging towards the tank line, hosting Nevix and Beast, as likely candidates to possibly be replaced for the upcoming season.
Whether this will ultimately result in the Defiant shifting more towards a Korean roster in the future is speculation, although speculation that is hedged with a bit of empirical data.
The question of who is available is one that has quite a few fans scratching their heads: the legendary coach Crusty is more than content to maintain with the uber-charged San Francisco Shock, and Fuel is looking for coaches as well, which effectively drops the talent pool a bit more than most would prefer.
Further, Chris ‘Gl1tch’ Infante has been coaching the Toronto Defiant and has only been there since mid-July: clearly not long enough to have a massive impact on the organization, or even impart the wisdom that he has to offer the team.
Some are pointing towards the search for a new head coach as the possibility that Gl1tch hasn’t meshed well with the organization, or that the Defiant presumes that more Chiefs in the camp couldn’t hurt. We won’t see the outcome until 2021, whatever it may be.