No More Xqcuses: How Team Canada Could Be XQC’s Chance To Show He’s Overwatch League Ready.

When it comes to professional Main Tanks. Felix “xQc” Legyel is undoubtedly one of the better players in the world and is someone who's got the potential to be the best player at the position. Yet for someone so talented, he's currently found himself in the position where the 2018 Overwatch World Cup may be his last chance to prove that he's ready to take the next step from being a professional streamer, to being the best Main Tank in the Overwatch League.

Prior to the Overwatch League starting on January 12th 2018, xQc started to make a name for himself as a part of Denial eSports on their way to winning Rivalcade twice. He started to become well known within the North American scene when he and his team now known as Arc 6, qualified for Overwatch Contenders: Season Zero. Despite the team being successful at the lower levels of the pro scene, Arc 6 were unable to make any waves and were knocked out in the group stage after a record of 1-3. Shortly after this and with the Overwatch League on the horizon, Arc 6 disbanded due to individual desires to be a part of it. While some of his team mates had started to be signed, xQc joined up with Canada as a free agent.

During the 2017 Overwatch World group stage in Katowice, xQc played well and helped lead Canada to a second place finish behind South Korea, qualifying for the knockout stages in Los Angeles. It was in LA that xQc stepped up from the main tank position showing his ability to the fullest on Winston and it was this performance during both stages of the Overwatch World that led him to become the tournaments MVP and to be signed by the Dallas Fuel. Seen by many as a future star in the league, xQc was in a position to be a part of a team expected to contend for the outright title. 

Unfortunately for Felix, his tenure in Dallas didn't reach the level of expectation that many thought that it would. After numerous infractions, that included two league suspensions (with one of these being a team suspension) and two fines from the league. His contract was terminated with Dallas after just two stages with Dallas majorly under performing and xQc not playing up to the form he previously had shown.While his career as a professional player had reached a cutoff point due to his behaviour, his stream continued to grow. Yet he continued to show the behaviour on stream that caused him to get into so much trouble in the league and he received further bans in game due to these digressions.

Then an opportunity arose with Open Division team GOATS. They had just won the North American Beat Invitational Season 3 with their newly formed triple tank, triple support compositions (now known as GOATS) and were heading into Open Division when some of their players were suspended. Despite being asked to cover and the drop in competition level to what he was used to, GOATS were only able to obtain one win in the group stage and failed to qualify for season two of North American Contenders.

This leads us to where we are at the current moment. With the Los Angels group stage starting on Friday 7th September, xQc findS himself in a similar position to the one he was in a year ago, on the outside looking in when it comes to partaking in the Overwatch League. Despite his previous problems with Blizzard, he's currently eligible to partake in the group stages and while there are questions around whether he can keep a clean record long enough to help a team during the regular season, if he were to be picked up. He still has the star potential to take over the show with both his performance and his overall presence during the Overwatch World Cup.

While it's unclear whether xQc would like to return and give the Overwatch League a second shot, one thing is for certain. If he wants to make that a reality, once again it begins for him during the Overwatch World Cup.

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(Picture Credit: Blizzard Ent)