PHILADELPHIA -- Team Dignitas has solidified its Overwatch team for 2017, the team announced Thursday. The group maintains a few familiar faces, while bringing in new ones, too.
Team Dignitas Overwatch roster for 2017:
Patrick "'Wat7" Marwal: Role -- Tank, Austria
Joshua "ToxikeN" Campos: Flex, Spain
Jose Antonio "BromaS" Ramos Gonzales: DPS, Spain
Jiri "LiNkz" Masalin: DPS, Finland
Marcel "Veineless" Lehmann: Role -- Support/Team Captain, Germany
Elvinas "Evokje" Padegimas: Role -- Support, Lithuania
The returning players are ToxikeN, BromaS and LiNkz. BromaS and LiNkz were chosen to participate in the Overwatch World Cup and made it to the playoffs for their home countries of Spain and Finland, respectively.
Wat7, Veineless and Evokje previously competed on "Ninjas with Attitude" before signing on to Team Dignitas. Wat7 also competed in the Overwatch World Cup at Blizzcon last year, representing his home country of Austria.
Coaching the new Overwatch team will is Nicholas "Shifty" Travis, who is known in the community to have coached both individual players and teams in both NA and EU since the official Overwatch launch in May 2016. Fans of the brand and players won't have to wait long to see this new European squad in action; it will compete in the Overwatch XtraCup LAN on Jan. 28 in Paris.
"We selected players who excelled in decision-making and communication to get the most out of our teamwork," Travis said. "It was important to get players experienced in their roles, but also ones that showed potential for even further development down the line.
"I feel not only do the players we selected give us a strong foundation now, but [they] possess the capability of growing with the team and becoming even better down the line. Because of this, I feel we already possess the talent to compete with any team and we will only get stronger and more consistent, the more synergy we obtain with one another."
Notable attention should be brought to newly appointed team leader Veineless; this is his third esports title he'll be competing under, finding success in all of his ventures thus far. With his heavy MOBA background in both Infinite Crisis and in Heroes of the Storm, the team has the utmost faith in his intelligence and ability to translate strategic plans into successful ventures.
"The game is very similar to [Heroes of the Storm] in regards to teamplay and ability management," Veinless said. "Both games reward individual skill but focus heavily on teamplay. Therefore my shotcalling and strategic experiences learned in [Hereos of the Storm] helped me transition into Overwatch a lot. Due to the nature of FPS not having a top-down-view of the entire map, however, communication becomes even more important. I feel very good about our ability to communicate effectively."
As the org was ranked fourth in the world in 2016, Dignitas president Michael "Odee" O'Dell has high hopes for the new roster as it fuses a mix of new and old faces for the brand. "As with all our teams, I am hoping to see them compete with the best in the world. We like the game and we have a dedicated lineup eager for success," he said.