He was one of the stars for the Fusion during their playoff run last season and now Hong-joon ‘Hotba’ Choi is moving from the Philadelphia to the new Guangzhou Overwatch League team in a trade.
The trade was announced by the Fusion on Wednesday via Twitter, with no indication of what they got out of the deal for Hotba.
No mention of the trade had managed to leak out yet so the announcement caught many by surprise, especially since Hotba was considered one of the Fusion’s stronger tank players.
The Guangzhou Overwatch League team, going by Team GZ for now, have announced leadership positions, but this trade with the Fusion is one of their first player acquisitions made public so far.
We still don’t know what Philadelphia got in return for Hotba, but for an off tank of his caliber, it had better be something good.
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Trade Alert: The Fusion have traded @HOTBA_OW to @OWL_TeamGZ, the new expansion team of the @overwatchleague.
We thank HOTBA for all his hard work during our inaugural season and wish him good luck with Team Guangzhou! pic.twitter.com/mKfc5TX2vR
— Philadelphia Fusion (@Fusion) October 17, 2018
Whether or not Guangzhou will be a force to reckoned with in the Overwatch League remains to be seen but with moves like this, it’s clear they’re aiming to play with the big dogs.
There’s still a few months to go before we even start Overwatch League preseason play, but teams do have to have eight players under contract by December 1, 2018.