After a year in esports, one of the first professional Overwatch teams, Reunited, will be ceasing all operations. In an ultimate news release, Reunited co-founders Frederik Kragh Christensen and Christian Jantzen announced the end of the player-owned esports organization.
“Today we are sad to announce that Reunited will cease all operations and we have allowed our players pursue new opportunities [sic] to further their careers elsewhere… We hope that the Reunited legacy will live on in the minds of our supporters in the future. Stay classy all, thanks for following us through this exciting journey!”
The team primarily cites financial reasons as the cause of dissolution, as timing for the upcoming Overwatch League aligned poorly with their internal financial model. Further, major athletic organizations were skeptically cautious in putting forward investment due to the uncertainty associated with Blizzard’s league.
Overwatch
The organization gained some serious traction early on with its Overwatch team, before the dominance of Cloud9, then EnvyUs, overwhelmed the scene. The original roster featured Hendrick William ‘vallutaja‘ Kinks, Andrei ‘uNFixed‘ Leonov, Thomas ‘Morte‘ Kerbusch, Sergi ‘Winghaven‘ Torras, Eric ‘2Easy‘ van Hoorn, and Stefan ‘stefan‘ Hof, many of whom will become the most pursued talents in the weeks and months to come.
Team highlights include a grand final appearance at Gamescom and participation in ELEAGUE, as well as the Korean APEX League by Ongamenet.
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Rocket League
After acquiring Thomas ‘ELMP‘ Prekel, Nicolai ‘Snaksi‘ Andersen, and Ryan ‘Doomsee‘ Graham, Reunited showed its face in the Rocket League Championship Series (RLCS) and Gfinity’s weekly tournaments. The team remained consistently competitive, generally finishing in the middle of the pack at events with top level teams.
The news about Reunited presents another concern for European esports. Top Overwatch teams have mostly been spawning from Korea or North America (or migrated to NA, like EnvyUs). We’ve seen a similar exodus of talent in the League of Legends community, with players finding better career opportunities in North America, where venture capitalists and angel investors have been more liberal with their spending.
Reunited is hosting a final AMA (Ask Me Anything) on Reddit, where Morte and the two founders will be answering questions.
