Fnatic Drop their Overwatch Team
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The trend continues as yet another eSports organization has announced that they will be dropping their entire Overwatch team and that their Overwatch efforts have come to an end. The latest organization that left Overwatch competitions is European giants Fnatic. The news about Fnatic leaving Overwatch has been just another news in a series of that kind. Many other eSports squads have also decided to drop their Overwatch teams.
During the previous month, five different organizations released a statement about the future of their Overwatch teams. All five teams said that they would be dropping their teams which automatically means that they left the competition. It all started with Team SoloMid, and it continued with Splyce, Red Reserve, Team Dignitas and Denial eSports.
Possible Return
The Fnatic is currently leaving the competition. The team has said that they are not saying permanent farewell to this title. They think that Overwatch is fantastic game. The official statement did not mention anything. However it can be read that there is a great uncertainty about the Overwatch League. The moves that Blizzard is taking recently have made Fnatic release all the players from their team.
The team has announced that Oliver ‘Vonethil’ Lager will stay with the organization. He will be working as a streamer bringing content to a huge number of people. The remaining players: Scott ‘Custa’ Kennedy, Marcus ‘Realzx’ Vining, Hafpor ‘Hafficool’ Hakonarsonis, Matthew ‘coolmatt69’ Iorio, Casey ‘buds’ McIlwain, and Warsi ‘Stoop’ Faraaz Waris will be looking for other opportunities in their careers.
It is still not familiar where these players will be. There will surely be a place for one or two of those players in FRGFE. The team that secured their spot in the Overwatch Contenders. It is currently made up of ex Gale Force Esports, Fnatic, and NRG players.
The Reasons
Fnatic has not explicitly specified the reasons why they decided to drop the entire team. However it can be seen that they too have a lot of problems with the uncertainty of the Overwatch League. Besides that, the financial aspect of the competition has not been that great lately. However Fnatic did have some very good results recently in the Overwatch competition.
The Fnatic is one of the organizations that would not have a problem with paying required amount for the spot in the Overwatch League. However the reported cost of 15-30 million dollars is too much even for this Swedish giant.
Blizzard had some very questionable decisions about the future of Overwatch in eSports, and by reducing the number of Overwatch tournaments and other aspects of the competition, Blizzard has limited Overwatch competitions to only a selected bunch that get financed through some other sources.
Final Thoughts
The future of Overwatch is currently very uncertain. The Blizzard is refusing to admit that their moves had led Overwatch to a point where it might crumble without even realizing that it is too late.
Fnatic is just another organization that realized that there is no point in participating in events that will not bring at least some financial stability for the organization. If Blizzard does not change something seriously in the upcoming period, there will be more teams that will be dropping from the competition.