New York Excelsior has unveiled their full lineup for the upcoming OWL season with only a few days left until the start of the 2023 Overwatch League Pro-Am West tournament, which will mark the beginning of the sixth OWL season. One tank, three DPS, and four supports make up the NYXL roster, which also includes a handful of players making their OWL debuts from the Contenders competition. Haley “Halo” Hamand, who previously represented Boston Uprising in the OWL, and Yunhee “Aniyun” Chi are two more players on the squad that identify as she/her. With the Altoria Artemis team, the support team recently won the Calling All Heroes Challengers Cup Final.
The mixed roster represents a scaleback of sorts from the originally reported NYXL plan to build a full roster of players representing underrepresented genders. Sources familiar with the organization’s plans that spoke to Dot Esports back in late November said that while the original plan was well-intentioned, there was concern there wasn’t enough OWL-level talent from that group of players.
Interestingly, that source that spoke to Dot Esports explicitly stated that NYXL did “not want to consider a mixed roster” because the “statement isn’t wide enough.” Months later, however, a mixed roster is precisely what the organization has gone with heading into the 2023 season.
NYXL is heading into the 2023 season after a lackluster end to a disappointing 2022 season where they went 4-20, leading to a full release of the roster at the start of the offseason. The team however did re-sign one former player to a new deal in sole tank player Kim “Kellan” Min-jae.
NYXL will make its debut at the OWL 2023 Pro-Am West exhibition tournament on March 30, against the Houston Outlaws.