The Boston Uprising recently announced on Twitter that Vytis “Mineral” Lasaitis will be the Uprising head coach going into the 2020 season of the Overwatch League. This announcement comes after the end of a poor Boston season. They finished with a record of 8-20 - the second worst in the league and ended the second half of the season with a 1-13 record.
Throughout the 2019 season, Boston seemed lost when they were on stage. They didn’t look like they understood how to play the meta, or at least couldn’t play it well enough. The season slowly fell apart from there, before the monumental landslide in stages 3 and 4. A big factor in the Uprising’s woes was the lack of strong coaching figure for the team. The head coach slot was vacant for over a year while assistant coaches, Shake and Gunba shared the responsibilities. Gunba announced that he would not be part of the Uprising next season and is actively looking for other opportunities in the Overwatch League.
When two coaches are splitting head coaching duties, teams can become out of sorts with the matches. The coaches share different opinions on they should approach games, thus resulting in muddled direction for the players. Adding Mineral as the definitive head coach for the Boston Uprising next season indicates a positive direction the team will be going in 2020.
Mineral is the former coach of the Misfits as well as another Overwatch League team - the Florida Mayhem. Mineral parted ways with Florida in April of this year, but is excited to be getting back into coaching with the Overwatch League.
Mineral will inherit a depleted Boston team. As they progress into the off-season and into the 2020 season, the Uprising need to figure out a way to get the best out of their key players. Mineral and the Uprising would do well to build their future around explosive main tank Fusions. Fusions came onto the Overwatch League scene this season when he was picked up by Boston early in the year. The UK player helped lead the UK Overwatch World Cup team to a solid fourth place finish.
Boston has a lot of work to do to get themselves ready for next season. They didn’t perform up to the standards of their 2018 production and will look to regroup to build a team that can stand with the best in the league. Hiring a definitive head coach is probably the best start they could ask for heading into the long off-season.
