- Gesture brings years of experience to the New York Excelsior
- He was one of the best tanks in the Overwatch League before he retired late last year
- The team hopes this will solidify their shaky score so far
Overwatch veteran tank Jae-hee “Gesture” Hong returns to the game as the New York Excelsior’s new assistant coach.
NYXL Signs Gesture as New Assistant Coach
With the 2022 Overwatch League fast approaching, organizations are making last-minute preparations. Teams are training hard, the caster lineup for the League has been revealed, and fans are buying tickets.
Amongst the many entities preparing for the event, be they participants or organizers, is New York Excelsior who is making some last-minute purchases to their staff. To be exact, the organization signed Jae-hee “Gesture” Hong as an assistant coach for the 2022 Overwatch League season.
The 24-year-old South Korean retired from professionally competing in Overwatch last year. He is perhaps best known for his time with the Seoul Dynasty, where he played the 2020 and 2021 seasons as the main tank. Before that, he was part of the London Spitfire team. During his time as a pro player, Gesture made his name playing with heroes such as Winston, Orisa, and Roadhog.
The New Coach Has a Rich Career
Gesture’s career spans a long time before he even played Overwatch professionally. The player actually started his career in the League of Legends Japan League known as Corn. He played for Rascal Jester and 7th heaven. Later, Gesture entered professional Overwatch where he became one of the best tanks in the league.
Gesture was also part of one of the longest-lasting duo partnerships with another player in Overwatch League history. He and a player named Profit have been playing together on the same team ever since their pro careers began in 2017. Both started as players for GC Busan, where they played until 2019. Later, they were both transferred to Seoul Dynasty, where they continued playing together until Gesture retired on October 12, 2021.
The Korean pro’s decision to retire from professional Overwatch late last year is most likely influenced by the idea to play the 2022 season on a different build of Overwatch 2. It eliminates the main tank position and reduced the composition to just one tank.
New York Excelsior, who returned to the West region after spending a year overseas and playing in the East region, hopes that by signing Gesture, its fortunes would turn around. The team is currently sitting low in the rankings after the first two weekends of the OWL and is heading in with a 3-1 score in the third week.
The New York Excelsior’s next match will be against Florida Mayhem on May 21.
