Making Esports Gritty - The 10 Best Games For The Flyers Mascot

What if Gritty, the Philadelphia Flyers' mascot, found his way into ten of the most popular esports games available today? We think it would look something like this.

In our interview with Philadelphia Fusion CBO Joe Marsh, we talked about which Overwatch hero would be best suited for a skin of Gritty, the Philadelphia Flyers mascot and uncontrollable meme machine. Marsh nominated Hammond (aka Wrecking Ball) for the honor, but the idea got me thinking...what if the massive orange mascot took over all of esports and found himself inserted into all kinds of competitive gaming arenas? Who would don the Gritty suit best? We have a few ideas...

Overwatch - Roadhog

Roadhog would be wise to embrace the Gritty.

While Joe Marsh may think the hamster is the Grittiest, we’re thinking more along the lines of Roadhog. His bigger belly would be perfect for Gritty’s mobile waistline, and the idea of being chased by a giant orange monster wielding a massive hook on a chain is horrifying and we love it.

Street Fighter V - Zangief

The Red Cyclone could find himself orange in no time.

“I AM THE ORANGE CYCLONE!” The Russian wrestler is easily the best fit for making Gritty a Street Fighter. The clotheslines, the giant backhand, the power wrestling repertoire, we can see the newest Philly fanatic doing all of them. Abigail isn’t a bad choice, but a guy like Gritty deserves a character with more tenure, and you can’t really get more tenured than Zangief.

Fortnite

There’s no one character that Gritty could take the place of, because that’s not really how Fortnite works. Regardless, a Gritty skin would make for a wonderful Tier 100 prize in a sports-themed season, because who wouldn’t want to drop onto Fortnite Island as the Flyers’ mascot? Even Thanos would shake in his boots at the sight of that behemoth.

Tekken 7 - Kuma

Like Kuma, Gritty is a big ol' furry teddy bear.

Gritty is a massive being of a mascot, his long arms and stocky body resembling a big ol’ orange bear. Kuma, then, is the only logical choice for a Gritty skin in Tekken 7. There are a lot of Kuma attacks playing in our heads, particularly the forward roll and the Russian dance attacks, and it just makes us happy.

Arena of Valor - Maloch

Let's hope Gritty doesn't embrace Maloch's evil nature.

We chose this solely because, if this happened, we could forever call Gritty the Orange Devil and that’s a cool nickname. Also, one of Maloch’s abilities is “Soul Eater” which, let’s be fair, is the first impression we got from the Gritty One when he debuted last year. We now know of his benevolence, but there was a time where he thought he might be one of the Four Horsemen.

Super Smash Brothers Ultimate - King Dedede

If nothing else, we think Dedede and Gritty would make the same sounds.

There’s a lot of choices in Smash Bros for Gritty, from Bowser to the newest Smash Bro Incineroar. However, I feel like Dedede’s mixture of heavy hits and overall goofiness fits Gritty the most, and that hammer would be a fantastic weapon (particularly if the skin changed it to a hockey stick). This is one we’d push for the most, and we’ll give you two words as to why: Gritty Kirby.

League of Legends - Ornn

Gritty could forge himself a pretty mean pair of skates here...

Look at that majestic beard on Ornn. A mane like that is absolutely qualified to be assumed by King Gritty should the mascot ever find his way into the Nexus. Furthermore, Ornn’s ability list, including moves like Volcanic Rupture and Bellows Breath, would definitely fit Gritty’s fiery appearance. With so many champions in LoL this one was hard to pin down, but in the end Ornn stood out.

Mortal Kombat 11 - Kotal Kahn

If there was a NetherRealm for mascots, there’s no question in our minds that Gritty would be the Kahn, so why not turn the current Kahn into the mascot? Technically we haven’t yet seen everything Kotal has to offer in MK11, but we can clearly see Gritty performing the one Fatality we’ve seen so far...especially with an ice skate on.

DOTA 2 - Mars

Let's change the name of the planet to Gritty too.

“Mars, first son of heaven, spent a long existence waging endless war, and saw countless more crusades waged beneath the banner of his old name.” Gritty can relate to this lore, picking a fight with rival hockey teams as soon as he was born into the public eye and continuing the fight to this day with an entire city willing to fight for him. Also, Gritty is probably the god of war in some alternate timeline like Mars is the god of war in Roman mythos, so sharing his namesake’s appearance in DOTA 2 fits.

Dragonball FighterZ - Majin Buu

We wonder if Gritty likes chocolate as much as Buu here...

We do not select Majin Buu to insult His Grittiness, We do not wish to offend him or imply that his appearance is like that of Majin Buu. We made this choice strictly on abilities; Buu’s level 1 of him just screaming and causing a shockwave looks like something Gritty should be able to do too, and Gritty turning opponents into candy makes sense too. Broly would work in a body type sense, but Gritty isn’t that evil...right?

For more on all things esports, check out our look at an upcoming Apex Legends tournament, as well as Fusion CBO Joe Marsh talking about countering the stereotypes of the "gamer."

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