Overwatch World Cup: Team USA ready to defend title with new GM, coach
Team USA announced today on Twitter that Florida Mayhem general manager Albert “yeHHH” Yeh would serve as the team’s general manager and that Atlanta Reign’s Blake “Gator” Scott had been hired as the team’s head coach. With the hiring, the team is now prepared to defend its World Cup title.
YeHHH’s experience includes more than four years as the general manager of the Florida Mayhem. The former off-tank player had been an analyst for the Florida Mayhem and a coach for NRG Esports before being promoted to general manager.
Meanwhile, Gator rose to prominence as a founding member of GOATS, a team that developed the famous triple-tank and triple-DPS team combination. In 2018, the 30-year-old became a tank player for the Atlanta Reign, although he was later demoted to the ATL Academy squad. It was in November of 2012 when he was introduced as coach of the Reign.
Under the leadership of former head coach Aaron “Aero” Atkins and GM Analynn “bawlynn” Dang, the team won a gold medal in the last World Cup in 2019. Before that, Team USA lost in the quarterfinals of the 2016, 2017 and 2018 World Cups.
Overwatch Canada’s new committee
Team USA isn’t the only team to change its management ahead of the upcoming World Cup. Team Canada announced yesterday that Leena Ly-Matz would become its general manager, and former Atlanta Reign assistant coach Danny “Danny” Mychakov would be the new head coach.
Ly-Matz has been the Titans’ and Seattle Surge’s operational services coordinator at Canucks Sports & Entertainment for the past two years. Ly-Matz was promoted to manage Titans players in January.
Danny is the most experienced team member, even though he hasn’t been an outstanding player or coach compared to the U.S. and U.K. teams competing against him.
The 20-year-old spent three years as an analyst for the Atlanta Reign before becoming its assistant coach last season. In 2018 and 2019, Danny was also the Canada OW team’s analyst. Canada finished third in 2018. However, the team got eliminated in the first round the following year.
In the most recent World Cup, hosted by Blizzard three years ago, the Canadian team was led by GM Justin “Jayne” Conroy, head coach Louis “Tikatee” Lebel-Wong and community leader Nathan “KarQ” Chan.
2023 Overwatch World Cup format
The 2023 Overwatch World Cup will run throughout the year, with three conferences being spread over the schedule. Each will bring representatives from two sets of six countries.
Applications for competition committees have begun this month. During three weekends in February, each participating country and region will organize World Cup Trials. Competition committees will conduct more team tryouts in March and select a team of seven athletes in April.
In addition to the 36 countries that have been chosen, the 2023 Overwatch World Cup will include a wild card challenge that will offer four additional seats for teams. Details regarding the wildcard round will be revealed later this month.
The tournament’s group phase will consist of 16 countries that make it through the six regional events scheduled for June. There will be four groups, each comprising four teams. Each group will compete in a round-robin format during the in-person LAN tournament. The leading eight teams from this stage will then progress to the finals.
