OWL: Kodak leaves Atlanta Reign

German OW player Steven “Kodak” Rosenberger announces his retirement from the Atlanta Reign league team. But he wants to stay with the scene.

At the end of October 2018, Steven “Kodak” Rosenberger was announced as one of the players of the newly founded Overwatch League team Atlanta Reign.

In a Twitter posting, however, the support player announced his intention to step down from his current position in the team.

“The Overwatch League meta currently demands a lot of synergy between six core players. That’s why I didn’t play as much as I used to,” he explains.

But for the fans, there’s still good news because Kodak doesn’t plan to disappear completely from the ATL fire. He remains true to the team name and the competitive Overwatch by joining the Atlanta Academy team.

“I will continue to live in the team house and be on site should my help be needed. The Academy team has achieved incredible things in the last two seasons and only needs a little push to get to the top. I will try everything to get us the trophy.”

The change should serve personal improvement

Most recently, the Academy Team was one of Europe’s top teams to finish fourth in the Overwatch Contenders during the Atlantic Showdown.

In the western North America division, the team had even achieved second place. They only had to admit defeat against Team Envy in the final.
Atlanta Reign head coach Brad Rajani commented on the changes on Reddit as follows: “[Kodak] still participates in the daily OWL strategy meetings and is still considered part of the team by everyone”.

“The decision to make this change was created specifically to give him more experience and playing time so that he can develop as a player.

The goal is to build an Academy team that is good enough to prove itself internationally against the ever-increasing skill level of the Overwatch Contenders. Internal training matches between the Atlanta teams will also be strengthened to offer the OWL team even better preparation.

“We in the organisation have made it a priority to offer all our players as much high-level gaming experience as possible. We want Atlanta to be a place where players can develop their full potential.”

In other sports leagues too, such as the NBA, players from the first team are often lent out to the G-League or the junior team of the big franchises so that they can get a chance to play.