On September 20, 2017, Overwatch developer Activision Blizzard officially announced that Philadelphia Flyers owner Comcast Spectacor had acquired the rights to the Philadelphia-based Overwatch League franchise. With the purchase, the franchise became the first professional esports team to be based in the city of Philadelphia. Dave Scott, CEO at Comcast Spectacor, said that his decision to buy into the league was based on research that showed there were over 300,000 Overwatch players in the market. "I was surprised as we started to look at this seriously a few months ago, just the number of gamers worldwide being in the hundreds of millions," he said. "It’s amazing when you really get into it — 350,000-plus Overwatch players in this market." On November 1, the franchise name was revealed as the Philadelphia Fusion. Shortly afterwards on November 3, their roster was revealed.
Early years (2018–present)
Philadelphia opened their inaugural season with a 3–2 victory over the Houston Outlaws on January 11. On January 25, Philadelphia upset the undefeated New York Excelsior, which marked New York's only loss in Stage 1. During the Stage 2 playoffs, the team defeated the Stage 1 champions London Spitfire in the semifinals, though they lost to the New York Excelsior, 3–2, in the stage finals. The team then missed both the Stage 3 and 4 playoffs. They claimed the sixth seed in the season playoffs They defeated the Boston Uprising in the quarterfinals, 2 games to 1. They then faced the three-time stage champions Excelsior, who the Fusion defeated 2 games to 0, which sent them to the Grand Finals. They faced the Spitfire in the Grand Finals; the Spitfire defeated the Fusion 2 games to 0. For their 2019 season, the team was led by co-head coaches Go "NamedHwi" Se-hwi and Elliot "Hayes" Hayes. The Fusion had a solid Stage 1 performance, finishing the stage with a 5–2 record and making it to the Stage 1 Playoffs, but they lost 0–4 in the semifinals to the San Francisco Shock. After posting 3–4 and 4–3 records for Stage 2 and Stage 3, respectively, Philadelphia failed to qualify any other stage playoffs. A 3–1 victory over the Seoul Dynasty in their final regular season match gave the Fusion a 15–13 season record and qualified them for the Play-In Tournament. Philadelphia fell 2–4 to the Shanghai Dragons in the first round of the tournament, ending their hope of qualifying for the season playoffs.
Team identity
On November 1, 2017, the franchise name was revealed as the Philadelphia Fusion; the name "Fusion" was inspired by the word's origin, "which surrounds the process of several distinct entities coming together to create a new whole that generates power and heat. The team’s marks depict a visual of speed and energy as the Philadelphia Fusion stand at the genesis of an amazing journey." The logo and official colors were also released. The logo for the Philadelphia Fusion features a stylized letter P with orbiting atoms, a call-back to the team's name, in the team's orange and black colors. Dave Scott noted that the colors, which are the same as that of the Philadelphia Flyers, were chosen as they are "the colors of passion here in Philadelphia."
Sponsors
On January 21, 2019, Philadelphia Fusion received an official jersey sponsorship from telecommunications equipment manufacturing company ARRIS.
On January 29, 2018, the Fusion formally announced their academy team, Fusion University, that would begin competition in the North American division of Overwatch Contenders. The team won all three North American championships in 2018, as well as the first North American East championship in 2019. After winning the first Atlantic Showdown, Fusion University announced that they would be moving from the North American division to compete in Korean Trials; the move was reportedly made to abide by the new region lock rules, which were implemented in 2019 Season 1, though FU was given a season-long grace period.
