Same Story. New Chapter.

Atlanta's new DPS Andrej "Babybay" Francisty

Atlanta's Life After Dafran

After the announcement of Dafran's retirement, it was obvious that the Atlanta Reign had an more difficult hill to climb and even more unanswered questions than at the start of the season. The team was quick to make roster moves throughout the franchise, and new blood was injected to address a number of issues, even some of the less obvious ones. The main topic of discussion revolved around who the team would call upon to replace Dafran in what is expected to be a much more DPS reliant Stage 2.

The only option on the roster at the time was NLaaer who had seen some playing time sprinkled throughout Stage 1, but nothing was guaranteed moving forward that he would be handed the starting spot. Even if he did earn the job, there wasn't even a backup DPS on the roster, the team had to make some moves, and they did. In what was a small splash signing the team managed to acquire Andrej "Babybay" Francisty (so many Frans) from the San Francisco Shock. A player known for his electric personality who specializes in hitscan DPS. With the signing happening only days before the start of Stage 2, it still wasn't very clear who would get the start against Boston. I have to say the result was surprising, but more on that in a minute.

To go along with the signing of Babybay, the team also aquired Nathan "FrdWnr" Goebel, also know as "Fried Weiner" from the LA Academy team Gladiators Legion. Before his time with the LA Academy team, Frd spent time with Second Wind, but more importantly Last Night's Leftovers, so the team is familiar with him. Frd is an off tank player who specializes in D.Va, so this move made some people scratch their heads, but depth is always a good thing, so most of us just let it ride, but this signing may have more impact than we originally thought.

Lastly, the team added Daniel "FunnyAstro" Hathaway as their second Two-Way Player alongside Gator. FunnyAstro is a rather nasty Lucio main, who came out of retirement to join the team. He was a former member of the Spitfire Academy team British Hurricane, and has dominated the competitive ladder during his "retirement". With that signing Atlanta now have three very competent Lucio's in the franchise (Ajax in the Academy), and a wealth of support players at our disposal. Granted, Atlanta Academy was in need of another Flex support ever since Dogman got the call to the big leagues but they also aquired Troy "berd" Grady (animals everywhere) to fill that roll. Where FunnyAstro ends up settling in on the roster should be an interesting story to follow. We could see a shake up at the T2 level as their season plays out.

The Debut

Atlanta had made their moves. Now it was time to see how it all would play out. Ohh boy, Atlanta pulled no punches. Right out of the gate Babybay and FrdWnr got the start in place of Nlaaer and Daco. The new line up looked pretty impressive on the first two maps. They showed coordination, flexibility and adaptablility. We saw GOATs, triple DPS, PharMercy, Hamster, Sombra, Soldier, Mei, and a variety of compositions. Players were subbing and rotating throughout the night with NLaaer and Kodak getting a fair amount of playtime as well. With a relatively new roster to play with I think this is the time of the season to see what you have in real game situations, and I've always admired Atlanta's gusto to give new things a shot even if it is considered risky. I wouldn't read too much into the Daco situation for now, but its something to keep an eye on in weeks to come.

In the end Atlanta ended up falling to the Boston Uprising 3-2, but honestly, they looked much more potent than I thought they would. Sure, the reverse sweep #feelsbadman, but the team showed some real promise. To quote Babybay, the only had "two scrims" before they played Boston. Considering that, I think there's a enough from this match to be excited about. These guys need time to gel and acclimate to each other's play styles. Now its on to the London Spitfire. Keep an eye out to see if any of these trends continue, but hold off on forming any concrete opinions for now. We know the team will continue to tweak and experiment with their roster to find the best situation going forward, and we must allow them to do so even if that means there's some growing pains over the next few matches. Hopefully sooner rather than later. Stay tuned.