Washington Justice Release Vigilante and Happy

Overwatch League teams Washington Justice parted ways with Lee “Happy” Jung-woo and Kim “vigilante” Jun, who left the team on Thursday, August 18. They are the last players to make moves before the OWL trade deadline.

Washington Justice released Happy and vigilante on Thursday, just days after the team waved goodbye to Kim “Mag” Tae-sung, who left for Boston Uprising earlier this week and assistant coach Jung “Tydolla” Seung-min, who was released from the roster on Tuesday.

The departure of Happy and vigilante marks the third roster move the Justice have made this season, albeit there are reports of more changes in the organization. On Thursday, Washington Justice general manager Aaron “PRE” Heckman posted a Tweet, thanking all the fans for understanding.

The fans have also noticed the PRE has removed all mentions of his association with Washington Justice before deleting his Twitter account.

While it remains to be seen what is happening with Washington Justice, Happy and vigilante have already found new homes at Los Angeles Gladiators and Atlanta Reign, respectively.

Happy made his first appearance in the Overwatch League in 2018 when he joined Guangzhou Charge and has remained with the Chinese team for two years. During his stint with the Charge, Happy has achieved middling success but has won Overwatch League 2020 – Summer Showdown and ended his last season with the team with a fifth-place finish, narrowly missing out on the 2020 Playoffs.

Since leaving the team, Happy has spent four months with Houston Outlaws, with who he has not won a single title in 2021, and ended the year with a third-fourth place finish in the Play-In stage and eighth overall.

His dry streak continued with Washington Justice, who Happy joined ahead of the 2022 season and has yet to achieve anything noteworthy. Notably, the team placed seventh-eighth in the Kickoff Clash but have since not qualified for a single tournament, missing out on Midseason Madness with a 2-4 record in the qualifiers.

On the other side, vigilante has made his OWL debut with Washington Justice, who he joined at the end of 2021 following a successful stint with Talon Esports in the Korean Overwatch Contenders. And just like Happy, vigilante has yet to taste any success, having attended just one tournament in OWL Kickoff Clash.

Despite their underwhelming run with the Justice, Happy and vigilante have found new homes at LA Gladiators and Atlanta Reign.

By joining Los Angeles Gladiators, Happy found a new home at one of the top-performing teams in the league, where he will finally be able to contest the OWL trophy. LA Gladiators have proven to be unstoppable in the league, winning both the Kickoff Clash and the Midseason Madness, and are now on their way to winning the Summer Showdown.

Over the entire season, the Gladiators have lost just five games; however, they also dropped both of their last two in the Summer Showdown qualifiers. Although dropping two games isn’t necessarily a reason for concern, it seems like the gladiators are not taking any chances and have decided to bolster its lineup with the addition of former Washington Justice DPS.

On the other side, vigilante has landed at Atlanta Reign, who have proven to be far less successful than the Gladiators. Still, the Reign have done enough to earn respect.

They’ve placed third in the OWL Kickoff Clash and have added another bronze medal from Midseason Madness, where they got knocked out by LA Gladiators. The signing of vigilante now sees the Reign field an eight-man roster with vigilante joining as the third support player of the team.

Vigilante and Happy will make their debuts with Atlanta Reign and LA Gladiators on Saturday, and Sunday, when they meet with San Francisco Shock and Paris Eterna, respectively.