London Spitfire

Formed in March 2016, London Spitfire originally started out as the Overwatch branch of American esports organisation Cloud9.[3] Under variations of the Cloud9 moniker, such as Cloud9 KONGDOO, they would go on to field rosters from multiple continents during their pre-OWL tenure.[4][5][6]

On 10 August 2017, Activision Blizzard announced that Cloud9 had purchased the London Overwatch League franchise; the franchise would be the first and only European team heading into the inaugural season.[7] Pete Vlastelica, an executive in Activision Blizzard's e-sports division, reported that several unnamed European companies were interested in purchasing the London rights to hold an Overwatch League franchise. Vlastelica noted, "Cloud9 may be a new name for some in the traditional sports world, but I can assure you they are not a niche or fringe player in e-sports. As we build this league, it was really important to us to combine the capabilities of owners from both traditional sports and the world of e-sports."[8] Jack Etienne, chief executive Cloud9, paid roughly $20 million (£15.4 million) for the franchise slot.[8] Etienne said that he chose the London slot because it is a "fantastic city with an amazing metro population [and] fantastic transportation to get people to events."[9]

On 1 November, the team revealed they would be called London Spitfire.[10][11] Shortly afterwards on 4 November, they disclosed their 12-player inaugural season roster, the maximum permitted, which would be entirely composed of South Korean players. The roster would mainly be an amalgamation of their current Cloud9 KONGDOO core and OGN's Overwatch APEX Season 4 champions GC Busan.[12][13]

The London Spitfire won the 2018 Grand Finals.

On 11 January, the Spitfire played their first regular season Overwatch League match in a 3–1 victory over the Florida Mayhem.[14] They would end Stage 1 of the 2018 Season with a 7–3 record, earning them the third and final spot in the Stage 1 Playoffs. The team then became the first-ever stage playoffs champions, after achieving victories over the Houston Outlaws, 3–1, and the New York Excelsior, 3–2.[15] In March, midway through Stage 2, the Spitfire parted ways with head coach Lee "Bishop" Beom-joon for undisclosed reasons.[16] The team finished Stage 2 with an improved 8–2 record and attained another stage playoffs berth. However, they fell short to the Philadelphia Fusion in a thrilling 2–3 semifinals series.[17] However, after Stage 2, the Spitfire failed to make another stage playoffs, going 5–5 in Stage 3 and 4–6 in Stage 4. The team ended the season with a 24–16 record, good for 5th place and a spot in the postseason.

London lost their first postseason matchup against the Los Angeles Gladiators on 11 July by a score of 0–3, but the team turned it around the next two games against the Gladiators, winning in 3–0 sweeps in matches two and three and advancing the team to the semifinals.[18] London won both games against the Los Angeles Valiant in the semifinals, winning 3–0 in match one and 3–1 in match two.[19] London claimed the first Overwatch League championship after defeating the Philadelphia Fusion on 27 and 28 July by scores of 3–1 and 3–0, respectively.[20][21]

Looking to repeat their results from the previous season, London began their 2019 season winning only three of their matches in Stage 1. The stage ended with a 0–3 loss to the Seoul Dynasty in week 5, causing the team to miss out on the Stage 1 Playoffs.[22] London found success in Stage 2, as the team posted a 6–1 record and qualified for the Stage 2 Playoffs; however, they were knocked out in the quarterfinals by the Hangzhou Spark after losing 1–3.[23] The Spitfire parted ways with head coach Kwang-bok "Coach815" Kim in the middle of Stage 3, leaving the team without a head coach.[24] A 0–4 loss to the Los Angeles Valiant in Stage 3 eliminated London from Stage 3 playoff contention as the team went on to post a 3–4 record for that stage. After a 4–3 win-loss record in Stage 4, London finished the regular season with a 16–12 record and qualified for the 2019 Play-In Tournament for a chance to make it to the 2019 season playoffs.[25]

London took down the Shanghai Dragons 4–3 in an OWL record eight-map series to qualify for the season playoffs.[26] In the first round, London was defeated by the New York Excelsior, 1–4, sending the team to the lower bracket.[27] A 0–4 loss to the San Francisco Shock ended the Spitfire's 2019 playoff run.[28]

In preparation for the 2020 Overwatch League season, the London Spitfire parted ways with Jihyeok 'Birdring' Kim, who went on to the Los Angeles Gladiators, Junyoung 'Profit' Park, Jaehui 'Gesture' Hong and Seungtae 'Bdosin' Choi, who all went to the Seoul Dynasty, Junho 'Fury' Kim, who went to the Philadelphia Fusion, Jongseok 'NUS' Kim, who went to Lucky Future in Overwatch Contenders Korea, and Heedong 'Guard' Lee and Song 'Quartermain' Ji-hoon who both retired as players, with Quartermain moving to a coaching role with the Shanghai Dragons, leaving their roster with only Yunghoon 'Krillin' Jung.[29][30][31][32] This left many fans confused as they had grown attached to the previous roster and the issues with the roster were perceived to be in the coaching. For the next season, they signed a massive 12-man roster, consisting of 6 'veteran' players from Overwatch Contenders and 1 Overwatch League team, and 6 'rookie' players with little to or no previous competitive experience. The 6 'veterans' were Lee 'Highly' Sung-hyeok, a late addition to the Seoul Dynasty, Kim 'FuZe' Tae-hoon and Se 'BERNAR' Won Shin, both from the academy team of the Philadelphia Fusion, Fusion University (now T1), Dae-han "JMAC" Choi, from LGE.Huya in Overwatch Contenders China, Gil-seong "Glister" Lim, from Gen.G and Dong-jae "Schwi" Lee a free agent previously from popular Overwatch Contenders Korea team RunAway.[33][34] The 'rookies' were; Young-hoon "Krillin" Jeong, who was on the 2019 roster but only had 1 map of play-time, Sang-jun "Babel" Park, Ji-hun "Jihun" Kim and Gun-hee "Clestyn" Cho, who all came from minor/unknown Tier 3 teams in Overwatch Open Division, Kyu-min "SanGuiNar" Lim and Hyun-wook "ALTHOUGH" Jung who both came from various tier 3 academy teams of Gen.G, who in itself was an academy team of the Seoul Dynasty.[35][36] Most fans only considered 'BERNAR' and 'Glister' as 'star talent', and most people didn't rate this roster very highly. Many fans lost trust in the London Spitfire organization which was only reinforced with mediocre results during the first half of the season. They also made some additions to the coaching staff, adding Young-bin "Twinkl" Lim from an Overwatch Contenders team, O2 Blast, Sung-hoon "aWesomeGuy" Kim, previous player/coach of the Florida Mayhem and Hyeon-sang "Pavane" Yu, previous head coach of the New York Excelsior, who had led the team to a table victory in the 2018 Overwatch League season as well as 2 stage championships, and a 3rd place table finish in the 2019 Overwatch League season but had had limited play-off success, with an early exit in their first game of the 2019 play-offs and he had rumouredly stepped down as head coach after 'not understanding the meta'.[37] While these coaching changes plugged the previous hole, many fans questioned how much talent the coaches have to work with.

Grand Finals MVP

• Profit (Park Jun-young) – 2018

All-Star Game selections

• birdring (Kim Ji-hyeok) – 2018
• Bdosin (Choi Seung-tae) – 2018
• Fury (Kim Jun-ho) – 2018, 2019
• Gesture (Hong Jae-hui) – 2018, 2019
• Profit (Park Jun-young) – 2018, 2019
• Glister (Lim Gil-seong) – 2020