Higan denied OWL spot as Vancouver Titans reveal new roster

Vancouver Titans waited until the last minute to announce their revamped roster after the former RunAway core was let go. The Canadian organisation took to Twitter to reveal an initial six-man squad.

The signed players and coaching staff are as follows:

• Randal “Roolf” Stark (Support) - Canada
• Dalton “Dalton” Bennyhoff (DPS) - USA
• Samir “Tsuna” Ikram (DPS) - France
• Abtin “Shredlock” Shirvani (Tank) - Canada
• Alhumaidi “KSAA” Alruwaili (Off Tank) - Saudi Arabia
• Carson “CarCar” First (Support) - USA
• Steven “Flubby” Coronel (Head Coach) – USA
• Ali “Pew” Anwar (Assistant Coach) - USA
• Eric “Wheats” Perez (Assistant Coach) - USA
• Justin Hughes – Assistant Manager, Team Operations - USA

Roolf, a two-time Overwatch World Cup player with experience at LAN events with Cloud9 and Gladiators Legion (Credit: @PlayOverwatch)

As the leaks pointed out, the new core consists of former Second Wind members, with all the coaching staff, CarCar, Roolf, and Dalton making the transition.

• Read More: Vancouver Titans' Head of Esports believes Koreans are "objectively better" at Overwatch after signing Western talent

Standouts include Roolf, a flex support player that's been grinding the scene since before OWL was formed, Dalton, one of  NA's most interesting damage-dealing prospects, and Tsuna, arguably EU's best Tracer player.

Another interesting thing to note is that KSAA's inclusion marks the first Saudi Arabian player to make it into the League.

Players like Nicolas "Speedily" Zou, Benjamin "UltraViolet" David, and Zachary "iced" Hughes are underage, and even if they would have still been signed, none of them could’ve seen playtime until they were 18-years-old.

A notable absentee is flex tank Colin "Higan" Arai (formerly Coluge). We detailed his Overwatch career which has been filled with toxicity, racism, and account boosting/selling in Overwatch, a past that rumours indicated cost him a chance at playing in OWL.

After community members pointed out his turbulent past, Twitter user Romanov Dub claimed Higan was being dropped from the entire operation. Once the details of the new roster were revealed, Brad "Sephy" Rajani, head coach for Atlanta Reign, confirmed via Reddit that it wasn't Vancouver's doing, but the League itself the one denying Higan an opportunity to be signed.

(Picture: Brad "Sephy" Rajani)

According to the League's rulebook, the minimum required number of signed players a team must have is seven, with Vancouver only picking up six, it seems clear an exception was made giving the circumstances.

The newly formed Vancouver Titans will take on the Washington Justice this Saturday, May 9th at 10 pm GMT, a team with issues of their own after Overwatch World Cup winner Corey announced his retirement accompanied by the news of Ethan "Stratus" Yankel following suit.