In the announcement on Twitter, the LA Gladiators revealed that the decision to part ways was mutual and thanked the player for his contributions to the team this season.

ANS joined the squad’s lineup towards the end of 2021. The player started playing in the Overwatch League before the 2021 season began when the San Francisco Shock signed him. At the time, ANS was an uncertain pick for the team because while he was popular in the streaming community, he was mainly not known in the world of esports.

The sniper soon made himself an important part of the team in their pursuit of victory due to his unnerving and consistent ability to hit headshots during games. With ANS’ help, the San Francisco Shock were able to take home the trophy for the 2020 Overwatch League Championship.

While in the team, the player earned the reputation as the squad’s deadliest player due to his prowess while playing hitscan heroes like Widowmaker and Ashe. ANS eventually moved on from the professional Overwatch scene in 2021 and tried his hand at Valorant.

When he announced his retirement from the Overwatch League, ANS disclosed that he wanted to take some time off for his health condition. Prior to that, the player often talked about his struggles with his mental health as well as the continuous effect of the league on him physically.

After moving to Valorant, ANS was signed on to T1 Valorant and played in the team’s academy team. However, in the middle of the 2021 season, the DPS returned to play for the San Francisco Shock once again and took up the spot of Kwon “Striker” Nam-joo, who had retired earlier.

The LA Gladiators came into the scene not long after and signed ANS to their roster before the start of the 2022 season. As a result of his reputation as an ace-level sniper and his move from one California organization to another, the signing was one of the most high-profile events in the Overwatch League.

ANS was a regular sight in the team’s lineup during matches for most of the year. However, at a point, metas began moving away from the player’s most used heroes.

The Los Angeles Gladiators signed on hitscan Lee “Happy” Jung-woo in August, who ended up taking ANS spot. The player was previously a part of the Washington Justice, and due to the notable overlap between the player’s hero pools, ANS would likely not have gotten any playing time for the remainder of the 2022 season.

Although they won two tournaments in the Overwatch League this year, the Los Angeles Gladiators could not win the Summer Showdown. The loss was reportedly the team’s inability to adjust their gameplay to the recent metas.

The tournament is set to resume on September 22, and the team is currently striving to reach a first-place seed during the postseason.

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The post Lee “ANS” Seon-chang and Los Angeles Gladiators part ways appeared first on Esport Bet.

San Francisco Shock have had an exceptional run in OWL last season, where they won Stage 2, and finished second in Stage 1, Stage 3 and Stage 4, to claim second spot in the overall season rankings.

Entering the playoffs, Shock disappointed in round one, where they lost to Atlanta Reign (3-4) and dropped down to the lower bracket. Despite the shocking defeat, the Golden State outfit brushed themselves off quickly and produced one of the most dominant runs in the history of OWL.

On their road to the finals, crushed London Spitfire (4-0), Los Angeles Gladiators (4-0), Hangzhou Spark (4-0) and New York Excelsior (4-0). The Shock then finished what they started and stomped the regular season champions Vancouver Titans (4-0) to claim their maiden title of OWL champions.

After demolishing their opponents en route to the title of OWL Season 2 champions, San Francisco Shock revealed they will be making no changes to their roster, yet decided to not stick by those words after adding ANS as their new ADC for OWL Season 3.

ANS is a 19-year-old South Korean Overwatch pro, who started his career in March 2018, when he joined BlossoM, a South Korean team, which competes in the Overwatch Contenders. He remained with the team until mid-January 2019, when he announced his retirement from competitive Overwatch scene, however he decided to make his return by joining the North American championship roster.

Despite having a fairly short career as a professional Overwatch player, ANS did not need long to make a name for himself due to his incredible accuracy with heroes like Hanzo and Widowmaker, which made him a force to be reckoned with in Overwatch Contenders and will now look to display his skills in the top tier of Overwatch competitive scene.

The move might come off as a surprise to some, seeing how San Francisco already had four DPS players before the arrival of ANS, however, it seems like the team is doing their best to prepare themselves should there be another major meta shift in OWL Season 3.

Before the 2019 OWL season began, San Francisco Shock were under fire for having a very damage-heavy roster, however, no one questioned their decisions after they finished the season with an OWL Season 2 title in their hands and it seems like the team has full support from their fan base, despite adding another DPS ahead of 2020 OWL.

Shock = entered OWL Season 2 with four DPS players on their team, including Park “Architect” Min-ho, Kwon “Striker” Nam-joo, 2019 Overwatch League MVP Jay “Sinatraa” Won and Kim “Rascal” Dong-jun, who opted to flex as support, meaning ANS will become Shock’s fifth DPS player on their roster.

Besides the arrival of ANS, San Francisco Shock made very few changes to their team, with the only two being the departure of Andreas “Nevix” Karlsson to Toronto Defiant in early October and the arrival of a former Talon Esports coach Ji-won “Arachne” Lee in November, who will take on the role of assistant coach in San Francisco.

Despite not making any significant changes ahead of the season, San Francisco Shock look more than ready to push deep into the Overwatch League. The Shock, with the addition of an exceptional DPS and an experienced assistant coach, have the right to be confident ahead of their first match of the season, set to take place on Sunday, February 9, at 18:00 CST during Dallas Fuel-hosted competitive week at Esports Stadium Arlington, Arlington.