Boston Uprising Part Ways With Marve1 and Striker

Overwatch League team Boston Uprising announced the departure of DPS player Kwon “Striker” Nam-joo and tank Hwang “Marve1” Minseo, who left the team on Monday, May 23. The news surfaced following Uprising’s poor start to the season.

Boston Uprising announced the first roster changes of the year just a few weeks into the new season. Although a surprising change, the squad seems to look for some adjustments following a very disappointing start to the season.

Interestingly, the Uprising decided to make roster changes despite rebuilding its lineup ahead of the 2022 season, giving the new acquisitions little time to adapt to the new squad. Nevertheless, it was clear that things weren’t clicking in the team.

Boston Uprising debuted its new lineup in the Overwatch League Kickoff Clash earlier this month when they faced Vancouver Titans. The Uprising won the match 3-2 but failed to find the same success in the next two outings.

The Uprising first lost against Los Angeles Gladiators (1-3) and suffered a devastating 1-3 defeat against London Spitfire in the second week of play. Unfortunately, things did not improve last week either, as Boston Uprising added another L to their record against Toronto Defiant before finally picking up their second win against Washington Justice (3-1) on Sunday.

Still, despite bouncing back, Boston Uprising felt like the current team composition won’t earn them any long-term success, leaving them with no other choice but to cut ties with two of their players.

As a part of the first roster change of the 2022 season, Boston Uprising announced the departure of Marve1 and Striker, who got cut from the team on Monday, May 23. With that, the Korean duo left the team after spending just seven months with the Uprising.

Both got picked up by the Boston squad at the end of 2021 as the newest members of Uprising’s 2022 roster. However, it seems like the two did not fit well with the rest of the team.

However, of the two, Striker’s departure is the most shocking, knowing that he was Uprising’s biggest acquisition of the offseason. But for Overwatch fans, his departure isn’t as surprising.

On May 21, when Boston Uprising faced off against Toronto Defiant, Striker was not playing and was replaced by Gi-hun “Victoria” Oh, which was the first hint at Striker’s departure.

“We are grateful for what Striker has brought to the Boston Uprising in his two separate stints with our organization,” read the announcement.

“We concluded that where we are as a team is not the right fit for Striker at this point.”

Striker re-joined Boston Uprising in October 2021 after spending two years and a half with San Fransisco Shock. With the Shock, Striker won the 2019 and 2022 Overwatch league titles and the Overwatch League – 2019 Stage 2 Playoffs, Overwatch League 2020 – Countdown Cup, May Melee, and the North American Playoffs.

Unfortunately, despite achieving a lot of success over his Overwatch career, Striker has seemingly not clicked well with the Uprising.

Despite the departure of two players, Boston Uprising still fields a seven-man lineup, allowing the team to continue competing without needing to search for a replacement. Victoria will take over for Striker as Uprising’s new DPS, whereas Uprising have Leyton “Punk” Gilchrist and Chang-hee “ITSAL” Kim to take over for Marve1.

With the new lineup, Boston Uprising has gone 1-1 with a defeat against the Defiant and a win against Washington Justice. Now, with a 2-3 record, Boston Uprising faces elimination from the OWL Kickoff Clash, but not all hope is lost as the team still needs to face Dallas Fuel on Sunday, May 29, in the final round of the tournament.