Canadian Overwatch DPS player Liam “Mangachu” Campbell will transition to a hybrid coach-player role at Toronto Defiant, the North American Overwatch League team announced this Wednesday.

Mangachu, who has been a member of Toronto Defiant since June 28, 2019 will transition to coaching. While he will remain available to play for the team if need be, the 23-year-old stated in his Twitter post, that he has officially updated his role in the team to coach.

"Still under a player contract but I've updated my role in the Toronto Defiant as a coach. I've spent most of my time so far working with the DPS players and I've been enjoying it. Appreciate the org letting me explore this potential career path," said Mangachu.

It remains to be seen why the team decided for this move, however, unlike other Overwatch teams that are currently struggling to keep their rosters intact, Defiant still boast with a healthy nine-man roster. Additionally, Defiant also have Andreas "Logix" Berghmans, Brady "Agilities" Girardi, Lane "Surefour" Roberts as three other DPS options, so Mangachu's decision makes a lot of sense.

Mangachu has begun his Overwatch career in February 2016, when he first appeared at a few lesser Overwatch tournaments while playing under Prime. The Canadian DPS later played for onTILT, Grouchy Desperados, Northern Gaming Red and in August 2016 teamed up with Tempo Storm NA. In January 2017, Mangachu joined Renegades, where he remained for over nine months and claimed a few notable results namely sixth-place finish at Overwatch Winter Premiere, a third-place finish at Overwatch Carbon Series, as well as top-six place finish at Overwatch Contenders 2017 Season Zero: North America.

While playing for Renegades, Mangachu also made his first appearance for his national team at the Overwatch World Cup 2017 – Katowice Qualifier, where Canada finished first and later made it to the finals of Overwatch World Cup 2017, where they lost to South Korea (1-4). Mangachu left Renegades in October 2017 and returned to play for Grouchy Desperados and later for Heroes and Sun With Face Clap, before joining XL2 Academy.

With XL2 Academy Mangachu finished top-eight at Overwatch Contenders 2018 Season 1: North America and second at Overwatch Contenders 2018 Season 2: North America. By the end of the year, he also helped Canada claim bronze at Overwatch World Cup 2018. In January 2019, Mangachu made one last appearance for XL2 Academy and finished top-four at Overwatch Contenders 2018 Season 3: North America, before moving to Mirage Sport, Mayhem Academy and in June 2019 teamed up with Toronto Defiant.

Mangachu helped Toronto Defiant finish 17th at the Overwatch League – 2019 Regular Season, where the Canadian team won only eight games out of 28 played which saw them miss the playoffs by five wins. Since the turn of the year, Mangachu also played for Montreal Rebellion but failed to see much success outside of most recent results, which saw Rebellion claim a second-place finish at Contenders 2020 NA Season 1 Trials – Week 2 and third-fourth place finish at Contenders 2020 NA Season 1 – Week 2.

As it stands now, Toronto Defiant are seventh in the Atlantic Conference and 15th overall in the 2020 Overwatch League with a 4-7 record, however, they're within striking distance of securing a spot in the playoffs, as they're only one win short of getting themselves above the line and into a spot that will earn them a ticket for the play-in stage.

Throughout his four-year-long career, Mangachu has become known for his Pharah, Junkrat, Torbjorn, Hanzo and Genji as his five signature heroes. In Season 2, Mangachu also reached a skill rating of 4697 and is as of now ranked 17th in the PC Overwatch Leaderboards with 4549 Skill Rating points and 59% win rate.

The post Mangachu takes over as coach for Toronto Defiant appeared first on Esports Guides and Esports News.

Boston Uprising's tank player Thomas "brussen" Brussen has retired from the professional Overwatch scene and is leaving the Uprising team, the North American esports organisation announced this Tuesday.

Brussen's departure comes during a difficult time for Boston Uprising, who have already parted ways with DPS Sangbeom "Munchkin" Byun, Support Gabriel "Swimmer" Levy and assistant coach Ilias T. "iLka" Kaskanetas since the beginning of March, while Minseob "Axxiom" Park took a leave of absence due to medical procedure.

While losing three members of the team in only two months is a huge blow for any organisation, Boston Uprising have already filled the holes with the acquisition of Support Kobe "Halo" Hamand, and Tank Leyton "Punk" Gilchrist, with the latter signing a contract with the team earlier on Monday.

Halo and Punk have joined Kelsey "Colourhex" Birse, Cameron "Fusions" Bosworth, Sang-min "Myunbong" Seo and Tae-hee "Jerry Min at Boston Uprising's, meaning Boston are operating with only six members. Although Overwatch League rules previously stated each team needs to have a minimum of eight members on the roster, the number was reduced to only six, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused many teams struggling to keep their rosters intact.

Brussen has begun his Overwatch career in May 2017, when he made his first appearance in a competitive environment at Go4Overwatch Europe Cup #49 with Dolphin Squad. The Dutch Tank continued competing in some lesser tournaments throughout the whole year and into the early months of 2018, before he got picked up by Freefall in March 2018.

With Freefall, brussen won Go4Overwatch Europe Cup #95 and later made it to the semi-finals of Go4Overwatch Europe Monthly Final – March 2018. His stay at Freefall, was, however, short-lived as brussan ended up leaving for One.PoinT barely three weeks later. During his six-month sting with One.PoinT, brussen finished third at Open Division 2018 Season 2 – Europe and Overwatch Contenders 2018 Season 2 Trials: Europe, while also pocketing a top-eight finish at Overwatch Contenders 2018 Season 2: Europe. In September, the Dutch pro made his first appearance for his national squad and finished third at Overwatch World Cup 2018 – Paris Qualifier.

Brussen left One.PoinT in October 2018 and has since played for Bazooka Puppiez, returned to play under Freefall between March and May 2019, Young and Beautiful and Angry Titans. In November 2019, he once more represented the Netherlands national Overwatch squad at the Overwatch World Cup, where he helped his nation finish fifth-sixth. His impressive performance at the World Cup eventually earned Brussen a spot in the Boston Uprising, who decided to offer him a contract two weeks after the World Cup concluded.

During the 2020 Overwatch League season, brussen was called up for the Uprising's starting off-tank position after the team parted ways with Walid “Mouffin” Basal, who was released from the team following sexual misconduct allegations and while the Dutch player had huge shoes to fill, he performed admirably well, although Boston Uprising failed to see much success in their competitive endeavours since they won only one match so far this season out of 11 played.

“I've decided to take a break from Overwatch. I've thought about it for a while and it's been a hard choice, but it is what is best for me right now," said brussen in his announcement.

"It's disappointing that I couldn't represent The Netherlands better, but I'm sure there will be new Dutch talent in the league by the time the 2021 season rolls around.

"I want to thank Boston Uprising for the opportunity and everyone from the organisation for helping me. I'm going to miss the guys and wish them good luck in the remainder of the season. They've had a really tough season and I hope things turn around, they deserve better."

With that, Brussen ended his career as an Overwatch professional player. While he has not unveiled what his plans are for the future, he has stated that he will "been enjoying VALORANT," while he decided on his long-term plans.

Brussen’s career history:

2020: Boston Uprising (OWL)

2019: Angry Titans (Overwatch Contenders EU)

2019: Young and Beautiful (Overwatch Contenders EU)

2019: Freefall (Overwatch Contenders EU)

2018: Bazooka Puppiez (Overwatch Contenders EU)

2018: One.PoinT (Overwatch Contenders EU)

The post Brussen announces retirement from Overwatch appeared first on Esports Guides and Esports News.

Washington Justice DPS player Ethan “Stratus” Yankel will be stepping away from competitive Overwatch scene in a bid to pursue a career as a content creator, the 19-year old announced this Friday.

The announcement regarding Stratus' decision surfaced on Washington Justice's Twitter page, where the North American esports organisation unveiled their DPS player will play his final match under Justice's banner this weekend against the newly-formed Vancouver Titans, after which he will transition to a new role within the team.

"Our match this weekend will be Stratus' last one in the Overwatch League. While still a member of the Justice team, he'll be taking a step back from competitive play to focus on content creation," read the announcement.

"Please join us tomorrow to give him the amazing send-off he deserves!"

The news come shortly after Justice unveiled their star DPS and captain Corey "Corey" Nigra announced his retirement from the professional Overwatch scene in a bid to pursue a career in VALORANT.

Stratus has begun his Overwatch career in May 2017 with an American Overwatch team Prestige Worldwide, where he saw a fair amount of success in the Overwatch competitive scene, winning a handful of titles in some lesser tournaments. In September, Prestige Worldwide's Overwatch roster got picked up by Rockets Esports, where Stratus remained up until December when he and his teammate Albert "yeHHH" Yeh got picked up by NRG Esports, where Stratus got his first taste of Overwatch Contenders league.

Shortly after joining NRG, Stratus claimed a fifth-eight place finish at Overwatch Contenders 2018 Season 1: North America, to which he added a silver medal from BEAT Invitational – Season 4, gold from Overwatch PIT Championship – North America Season 3 and a top-four finish at Overwatch Contenders 2018 Season 2: North America.

In October 2018, Stratus left NRG to join the Washington Justice. Despite his immense skill on his signature Heroes in Pharah, Genji, Mei, Doomfist and Junkrat, which earned him renown as one of the best flex DPS players in the league, Stratus failed to see much success in the OWL, where Justice finished 17th with a disastrous 8-20 record.

Although his team failed to impress with their performances throughout the 2019 season, Stratus did not fail to entertain the crowds. He often garnered attention from the fans due to his positive behaviour and entertaining personality, which made him one of the crowd favourite players in the league.

Stratus will remain a part of Justice's Overwatch team as a content creator, as revealed by the North American esports organisation. He already made his first steps in becoming a content creator for his team during offseason, when Stratus created humorous content on his social media pages, meaning the transition will be a smooth one.

Since Stratus is moving away from competitive play and Corey recently retired, Washington Justice are now left with only one DPS player on the roster, Lee “TTuba” Ho-sung. What's more, with two players leaving the active roster in only a couple of days, Justice now field only six players in Yeonjoon "ArK" Hong, Elliot "ELLIVOTE" Vaneryd, Gye "rOar" Chang-hoon, Lee "TTuba" Ho-Sung and Minseok "AimGod" Kwon, which is below the seven-player roster minimum, meaning Justice will have to act quickly and add more players to their squad.

The post Stratus leaves competitive play to focus on content creation appeared first on Esports Guides and Esports News.

Overwatch League flex support Luís “Greyy” Perestrelo has announced he is leaving Paris Eternal and retireing from professional Overwatch due to mental health concerns and loss of passion of the game.

The 26-year-old Portuguese flex support has officially retired from the Overwatch professional scene this Thursday, April 7, ending his three-year-long career as an Overwatch pro, which began in early 2017.

Greyy joined Paris Eternal in November 2018, shortly after the team was formed, and has remained the sole representative of Portugal in the Overwatch League since. He also played for his nation in the Overwatch World Cup in 2017 and 2019, where he finished fifth-sixth and 21-28th respectively.

With Paris Eternal, Greyy finished 14th in 2019 season with an underwhelming 11-17 record, which sat them two wins short of entering the playoffs. Throughout the season, Greyy also picked up three MVP awards for his performance, which was the most out of entire Eternals roster besides Terence "SoOn" Tarlier.

In his Twitter announcement, Greyy spoke how he was thinking about this decision for a while but through time, he realised he lost his passion for the game he once loved and enjoyed. Although Greyy refrained from revealing what caused him to lose his passion, the Portuguese support explained that he felt like he was forcing himself to play the game and to have fun, which eventually took a toll on his mental health.

Greyy also talked about how he wanted to make this move before, but due to Damien "HyP" Souville's retirement, he felt like leaving the team would put then in an unenviable spot, as they would struggle to find a replacement for him due to the COVID-19 situation.

"This is something I've been thinking about for a very long time. I used to be incredibly passionate about the game, but this passion hasn't been there for a long time now," said Greyy.

"There are many reasons that resulted in this, I don't really want to go into detail listing those. I kept trying to force myself to enjoy it, to have fun, to practise and do my best for my teammates, but my mental health was hard tanking and this was for sure the correct way to go.

“The only reason I didn't do this move earlier is because with Hyp's retirement it left me in a weird spot because I was concerned my team wouldn't be able to easily find a replacement amidst COVID-19, so I kept practising and playing with them for some time after telling staff that this is what I wanted to do."

With his retirement, Greyy has become only one of many Overwatch players, who left the scene after losing the passion for the game, with some deciding to transition to VALORANT, while others deciding to go on an indefinite break from being involved in the competitive CS:GO scene.

Greyy has started his Overwatch career in February 2017 with Bench Boys' roster, which got picked up by Laser Kittenz in March, the same year. With Laser Kittenz, Greyy won Rivalcade Weekly #6 Europe, finished fourth at HND Overwatch Invitational I and seventh-eighth at Overwatch PIT Championship – Europe Season 1. In July 2017, Greyy also claimed a top-four finish at Overwatch Contenders 2017 Season Zero: Europe, before the whole roster got picked up by Cloud9 EU in August.

Greyy's last stop before joining Paris Eternal was GG Esports Academy, who signed him in February 2018. With GGEA (before known as OpTic), Greyy pocketed a third-fourth place finish at Overwatch Contenders 2018 Season 1: North America and later in July ninth-10th at Overwatch Contenders 2018 Season 2: North America.

As Greyy's replacement, Paris Eternal signed Kwon “Fielder” Joon from GC Busan Wave at the start of May. Fielder has played his first match for Eternals last week, although he had to do it from Korea, resulting in extremely high ping. Despite the huge obstacle, however, Fielder performed well, which earned him a permanent spot in the team and made Greyy's departure easier.

Paris Eternal's are now set to clash with Los Angeles Gladiators on Saturday, May 9, in Week 14 of Overwatch League, where Eternal will chase their sixth win of the season.

The post Greyy leaves Paris Eternal and retires as Overwatch pro appeared first on Esports Guides and Esports News.

The Vancouver Titans have announced they're dropping their entire active Overwatch League roster this Wednesday, due to the internal struggles caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The announcement named "A letter to our fans" surfaced on Vancouver Titans' official Twitter page, where Tim Holloway, the esports director at the Aquilini Entertainment (Vancouver Titans’ parent company) spoke to the fans and explained the situation that has caused the inevitable release of Titan's Overwatch roster.

Mr Holloway started the announcement by thanking the fans for their patience during these difficult times, during which the organisation was dealing with some very complicated situations, that included sensitive information and player confidentiality made the whole ordeal even more challenging by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The season started well for Titans, who had their spirits at an all-time high and were ready to avenge their loss in the Grand Finals of 2019 Overwatch League. With the addition of ex-Seoul Dynasty support Jehong "ryujehong" Ryu and Chanhyung "Fissure" Baek, who came out of retirement to play for the OWL 2019 silver-medalists, Titans were ready to take on the world.

Titans' newly-established partnership with Adamas Esports Training + Performance further lifted the spirits in the team, that now had a world-class facility located in one of the top human performance centres in the country, Fortius Sport & Health. As revealed by Mr Holloway, Adamas also provided the players with a built-in esports training centre "that came with chef-prepared meals, top-end equipment for both gaming and fitness, and access to physical training and mental health resources".

Everything looked to be going well for Titans, who were set for another successful run and even started the season with two convincing wins, but all the while, the impact of COVID-19 that was felt all over the globe, slowly started to affect Vancouver Titans as an organisation and business as well. Due to the cancellation of homestand events and with travel becoming increasingly limited, Titans players were bound to their training facility and once it became apparent this would be an extended situation, the players were flown to their homes in South Korea in order to stay with their families.

"Our initial plan was for the team to join the Asian division and continue to play the new schedule from the comfort of players’ homes, but it was quickly apparent that this created a whole new set of challenges. The time difference made it difficult for management and the home fanbase to connect with the team and technical challenges for the players playing from home further exacerbated the situation," said Mr Holloway.

"With the organization unable to meet the players' expectations in Korea, and after much deliberation and conversation with the players, the difficult decision was made to move the team back to the North American division and both the players and management agreed that finding a new home for the players would be in everyone’s best interest. "

Due to the unfortunate situation, HyoJong “HakSal” Kim, Minsoo “Seominsoo” Seo, Seongjun “Slime” Kim, Chunghee “Stitch” Lee, Juseok “Twilight” Lee, JeHong “RyuJeHong” Yu, Yangwon “Yang1” Kweon (coach) and Jae Hong “Andante” Hwang (coach) all agreed to mutually part ways with the team, while Titans released Fissure from the roster.

Mr Holloway ended the announcement by thanking all the players and coaches for everything they have done for the organisation and the positive memories they have helped to create. He added that going forward, Titans will be supporting young, talented and passionate Overwatch players on their path to pro, although refrained from unveiling too much about Titan's plans. Mr Holloway also hinted that Vancouver Titans are working on building a new core of players who will represent the team, with more information said to become available sometime soon.

The Overwatch League transitioned to the online format in March when the league also cancelled all live events amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused many teams to not only suffer financial losses due to cancelled home series, but as it's the case with Titans, the coronavirus pandemic also resulted in players leaving for their home countries.

“A force of nature is a collective one, and we know that we need to step up our game in order to truly make that force felt across the league for years to come,” added Holloway.

“We look forward to announcing our new roster of Titans in the coming days. We hope that you join us as we move into this new chapter of Vancouver esports.”

The post Vancouver Titans release Overwatch Roster appeared first on Esports Guides and Esports News.

Overwatch League support Harrison “Kruise” Pond has parted ways with Paris Eternals and joined Toronto Defiant OWL roster, the team announced today.

"Please join us in welcoming Kruise to the team as main support, coming over from Paris Eternal," read the announcement on Toronto Defiant's official Twitter page.

"Very excited to start a new chapter and I couldn't ask for a better team to do it with, everyone is really friendly and I can't wait to start playing alongside them. Thanks for all the love and support it means a lot," said Kruise on Twitter.

The 23-year-old British support begun his career as an Overwatch pro in October 2015, when he joined a European team WatchOutGaming, which got acquired by Arcane eSports in February 2016. The newly-formed Overwatch squad, however, did not last for long and disbanded its roster in March 2016. Kruise later played for REUINTED, which was an Overwatch team formed by ex-Fnatic roster members.

During his 10-month stay at REUNITED, Kruise saw immense success in the Overwatch competitive scene, winning several minor tournaments, as well as placing second at The Battle 2016, 2016 ESL Overwatch Atlantic Showdown – Gamescom, Lenovo Cup and GosuGamers Overwatch Weekly EU #18. Kruise's potential and skill did not go unnoticed, however, and in February 2017, the Brit got picked up by eUnited, who he helped place second at Overwatch TaKeOver 2 and secure gold at Overwatch Contenders 2017 Season Zero: Europe.

Despite the team's success, eUnited decided to disband its Overwatch roster in October 2017, leaving Kruise without a team once more. In November, the same year, Kruise made another appearance for his national team at the Overwatch 2017 World Cup, where the British team reached quarter-finals.

Shortly after his World Cup appearance, Kruise joined Orgless and Hungry, where he remained up until March 2018, when the British support got signed by Toronto Defiant's Academy team – Toronto Esports. With his new team, Kruise finished second at Overwatch Contenders 2018 Season 1: North America and top-eight at Overwatch Contenders 2018 Season 2: North America. Although both solid achievements, his best results of 2018 came with his national team, with whom he finished second at Overwatch World Cup 2018 – Paris Qualifier and later secured a fourth-place finish at the 2018 World Cup after UK narrowly losing to Canada (2.3) in the third-place match.

Since joining Paris Eternal in October 2018, Kruise failed to see much success in the Overwatch League. The French squad struggled to leave much of an impact in OWL 2019, where they finished the regular season at 14th place with a humiliating 11-17 record. Nonetheless, Kruise's contribution to the team and his talent did not go undetected by Toronto Defiant, who decided to pick up the talented Brit to join their roster for the ongoing season.

Kruise is, however, not the first support to leave Paris Eternal this month. At the start of April, Eternal already said goodbye to Flex support Damien “HyP” Souville, who retired from the Overwatch scene, citing "well-being and health" as the reasons for his decision. Similarly, Jung “Xzi” Ki-hyo, ex-Eternal DPS decided to return to Korea on April 12, where he is to receive medical treatment for severe neck pain, however, it was said that Xzi will rejoin the team at a later date.

Kruise will join Toronto Defiant as their main support and will serve as a replacement for Kristian "Kellex" Keller who announced his retirement from Overwatch competitive play on Friday.

The post Kruise leaves Part Eternals to join Toronto Defiant appeared first on Esports Guides and Esports News.

Boston Uprising unveiled the departure of their assistant coach Illias "iLka" Kaskanetas, who has decided to step away from competitive Overwatch coaching in a bid to pursue other life goals.

The announcement of iLka's departure surfaced earlier this Sunday, on the official Boston Uprising website, where Chris “HuK” Loranger, President of Gaming for the Uprising thanked the 23-year-old Greek coach for everything he has done of Uprising since his arrival in October.

iLka's first steps in the competitive Overwatch scene came in January 2018, when he signed for Wind and Rain who disbanded their roster in February ushering iLka to join Freefall. His second attempt at finding a permanent home and start building his career as a professional Overwatch player, however, came to nothing, as Freefall disbanded in April 2018.

The Greek support player eventually decided to hang up his mouse and keyboard and turn to coaching, which took him on a very colourful journey from Wind and Rain, to CIS Hope, Winstrike, One.PoinT and ATL Academy, who he helped win Overwatch Contenders 2019 NA Season 1 – Atlantic Showdown Tiebreaker, claim silver at Overwatch Contenders 2019 Season 1: North America West and a fourth-place finish at Overwatch Contenders 2019: Atlantic Showdown. ILka later joined a European team Angry Titans and secured a fifth-sixth place finish at Overwatch Contenders 2019 Season 2: Europe, which proved to be enough for the Greek strategist to be scouted by Boston Uprising, who offered him a coaching contract in October 2019.

"I am very grateful for this season with Boston, and I learned a lot through both the good and rough times," said iLka.

"It was a very hard decision, but ultimately I know it's for the best. I will miss everyone and wish them all a good rest of the season. It was a pleasure working with the team."

In his Twitter post, iLka claimed that the decision to leave Overwatch was tough to make, but a necessary one nonetheless, due to many issues he has been dealing with, namely mental problems, feeling of being burnt out and general disagreement with the current state of competitive Overwatch.

The latter issue was already addressed numerous times by other pro players and prominent personalities in the OWL scene, who either decided to leave to pursue careers in other esports titles or announced their retirement, due to the lack of belief Overwatch scene has any future with the way things are being handled as of now. On a more positive note, iLka stated there is a chance he might return, yet it remains to be seen when.

"I gotta take care of myself for the time being. I still love coaching so I ll possibly be back but I want to see cital changes to the game as well from a competitive standpoint," added iLka.

"I want to thank everyone for this season, my players and staff that I worked with and I wish I could have done a better job this year. There's much to learn and improve on though."

The post Boston Uprising wave goodbye to iLka appeared first on Esports Guides and Esports News.

Tense1983 and Test Team 1 won their respective regional events of Overwatch Flash Ops: Echo Showdown earlier this Sunday, and with that secured US $10,000 in tournament winnings each.

Often times, when a new hero is introduced to Overwatch, it pays dividends to practice on it and become an expert, but rarely did that earn player any monetary reward. That, however, changed this Sunday, when Tense1983 and Test Team 1 won the gold medal and $10,000 in tournament winnings at Overwatch Flash Ops: Echo Showdown EMEA and NA respectively.

The Overwatch Flash Ops: Echo Showdown was a Blizzard-ran Overwatch tournament which took place over the weekend, featuring hundreds of teams who competed against each other for the largest slice of the $25,000 prize pool, while the whole idea behind the tournament was for each team to have at least one player using the newly released Echo hero at all times. Although the tournament was meant for amateur teams and players, each team was allowed to have up to two players from the Overwatch League of OVerwatch Contenders on their roster, which resulted in tougher and more exciting competition.

Tense1983 who won the Overwatch Flash Ops: Echo Showdown – EMEA fielded took advantage of that rule and fielded a few current and ex- Overwatch pro players who competed and are still competing in the Overwatch League and Overwatch Contenders. The team was assembled mostly from Raspberry Racers players in tank Esteban "Helv" Fernandez, DPS Niclas "sHockWave" Jensen and suppoer Watery. Joining the trio were the retired Overwatch Contenders flex players Thimo "TwolzZ" Wilts, Lars "Kaas" van Oorschot, as well as Pastor.

With strong synergy, Tense1983 took over the Overwatch Flash Ops: Echo Showdown – EMEA and put up a dominant display. The team secured a spot in the final 16, where they defeated bigbiceps (3-0), edged past (INT)ERNATIONALS (3-2), took down Gigantti V4 (3-1) in the semis and defeated don't test out gangster (3-1) in the grand finals.

Test Team 1, on the other side, fielded multiple current and former Overwatch League players and some of the biggest and most well-known personalities in the Overwatch scene, including the retired Houston Outlaws tank Jacob "JAKE" Lyon, his former teammate and still active OWL DPS player Dante "Danteh" Cruz, former Skyfoxes tank James "Cloneman16" D'Arcangelo Overwatch streamer and ex-Contenders offtank for Luminosity Anthony "harbleu" Ballo, Toronto Defiant support Young-seo "KariV" Park, as well as Francine “Fran” Vo and Redshell and Redshell.

Competing through the North American version of Overwatch Flash Ops: Echo Showdown, Test Team 1 proved to be unstoppable and did not struggle to secure a spot in the playoffs, where Test Team 1 defeated HurrieUppers! (3-1), Bulldoza! (3-0), HogAndBall (3-1) and crushed Scion Esports (3-0) in the grand finals to pocket the top reward.

Their grand finals fixture was one for the books, especially considering Scion were very effective in shutting down Test Team 1's Echo, effectively leaving them without the main source of damage. Nonetheless, Danteh's performance on Echo was not to be underestimated as he quickly showcased his prowess on the new hero – something Overwatch teams should take note of as they should get ready to face Danteh's Echo soon.

The two teams each took home $10,000 in tournament winnings, while the second-placed teams got awarded a $5,000 consolation prize, while the third-placed teams from each tournament won $2,500.

The post Tense1983 and Test Team 1 win Overwatch Flash Ops: Echo Showdown appeared first on Esports Guides and Esports News.

Montreal Rebellion, the academy team of the Toronto Defiant in Overwatch Contenders have decided to pull the cord of their Overwatch project due to the economic concerns that come as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

The announcement of Montreal Rebellion's disbandment surfaced on Monday when it was revealed all seven members in Park "RoKy" Joo-seong, Lian "Mangachu" Campbell, Lucas "Leaf" Loison, Alban "Shuh" Pfleger, Arthur "dridro" Szanto, Seb "numlocked" Barton and Niclas "sHockWave" Jensen have been let go from the team due to budget cuts, as stated by players themselves.

With that, RoKy and Mangachu both returned back to Toronto Defiant, as they were previously two-way players, meanwhile Leaf and Shuh both announced retirement from competitive Overwatch. The remaining three players in dridro, sHockWave and numlocked have yet to unveil where they will continue their careers, however, all three stated they are not planning on retiring yet and will look for other options.

The British Overwatch pro and ex-Rebellion main tank took on Twitter to shed some light on his plans for the future, stating that he will take a break from competitive Overwatch, not because he does not enjoy the game anymore, but rather because of the second tier of Overwatch (Contenders) is in a bad spot as of now, with many academy teams pulling out, while the COVID-19 pandemic only made the matters worse.

"I've put my heart and soul into this game, and worked especially hard in the last year to get to where I wanted to be, and I didn't make it," said numlocked.

"I don't know if I have it in me to keep grinding in a tier 2 scene without at least academy teams.

"If there were any opportunities still available in Overwatch, either as a player or coach, I would of course jump at them, because I do still love this game, but with how unlucky this last 6 months has felt for me and with it looking like everyone is making cuts rather than signings, I'm just not sure there's a reason to still be here right now."

The disbandment of Montreal Rebellion further deepens the problem Overwatch scene has been dealing with, as many prominent names opted to step away from Blizzard's team-based FPS title and explore their options in other esports titles. With the release of VALORANT on the horizon, many ex-Overwatch players and analysts opted to announce they will dip their toes into Riot Games' tactical FPS title, a decision that split the gaming community in half.

Overwatch analyst Tanishq “Tanizhq” Sabharwal is one of the latest names who announced he will be moving from Overwatch to VALORANT, stating that he believes the second-tier of Overwatch is "fully dead" and that the lack of any serious investment and poor viewership simply "isn't worth any level of investment" from him.

"I am moving to Valorant since OW Tier 2 is fully dead," said Tanizhq in his Twitter post.

"Can't even blame the OAM/Toronto for making this decision, since getting 1k viewers max on the Contenders stream isn't worth any level of investment."

On the other side, the ex-Montreal Rebellion DPS sHockWave has a completely opposite view on the situation. Shortly after announcing his departure from the team, the Danish Overwatch pro stated that he is not ready to quit Overwatch for VALORANT, which he described as a "cheap-looking paladins remake," even though he received the beta key to test the game out.

Montreal Rebellion, however, are not the only Overwatch Contenders team that has decided to end their project and perhaps not the most shocking announcement, given that last month, it was Atlanta Reign's academy team, the Atlanta Academy, who announced their exodus from the league, despite the fact they were widely regarded as one of the most successful North American Contenders team.

Montreal Rebellion were established in February 2019, when they acquired Shayne "Chayne" La Rocque, Anthony "Goliath" Pietro, Joshua "Tensa" Small, Estevao "Hooey" Gama, Nikolai "Naga" Dereli, Andreas "Logix" Berghmans and David "nomy" Lizarraga Ramirez Osmar as their inaugural members. Joining them were Brian "Blizzard" Childers as the team's General Manager, Alex "byZenith" Ames as an assistant coach and Chris "Dream" Myrick as head coach.

Throughout their venture through Overwatch Contenders, Rebellion produced quite a few solid runs, which included top-four placement at Overwatch Contenders 2019 Season 1: North America East and top-six placement at Overwatch Contenders 2019 Season 2: North America West, to which they added a silver medal from Contenders 2020 NA Season 1 Trials – Week 2 and top-four finish at Contenders 2020 NA Season 1 – Week 2 earlier last month.

The team also fostered some of the biggest talents in the scene, including  Paris Eternal tank Eoghan "Smex" O'Neill, as well as DPS Andreas "Logix" Berghmans, Flex player Daniel "Gods" Graeser and tank Normunds "sharyk" Faterins who currently play for Toronto Defiant.

The post Montreal Rebellion cuts entire Overwatch Contenders roster appeared first on Esports Guides and Esports News.

The Boston Uprising flex tank Walid "Mouffin" Bassal has reportedly found himself benched from the team after allegations of several cases of sexual misconduct surfaced on Twitter and other social media.

On Friday, March 27, a popular female Overwatch streamer KhaleesiBB made a Twitter post, detailing allegations of sexual assault she and her friends experienced, involving Mouffin. According to the streamer, the Boston Uprising star has been sending messages via social media platforms to other girls, asking them for nude photos, regardless of their age, with one of the incidents supposedly involving a 17-year-old and even younger girls.

KhaleesiBB went on to address the incident that happened at TwitchCon 2019, in a lengthy Twitlonger post. In the post KhaleesiBB talked about how she got approached by Mouffin, who was at the time drunk and supposedly became hostile and aggressive towards her.

“During the trip he was being aggressive with other girls at the AirBnB, being creepy, touching them and grabbing their wrists so hard he left bruises on them. This led to the other girls and I telling the other guys at the AirBnB to watch out for us, not to leave us alone with him and to check on us because we were all scared for our safety. I'm sure these girls would be comfortable coming forward and testifying their own side of this night, confirming everything that has happened,” said KhaleesiBB 

Although KhaleesiBB and Mouffin supposedly made up after the incident at TwitchCon, KhaleesiBB claimed she heard Mouffin has started sending some questionable messages to underage girls.

"Him and I made up, but I was notified around that time that the reason he might be going on an apology spree for any bad behavior, is because he had been dming underage girls sexually and a girl and others had posted on their private twitters," added KhaleesiBB 

"He had sent them videos and engaged with sexual behaviour with them. My blood ran cold, my mental flashed back to the second girl he slide into the dms of when him and I were exclusive… I knew then that I couldn't really deny what I had first heard back then. Mouffin had a penchant for underage girls and overall extremely predatory behavior towards women." 

Although an issue that began between Mouffin and KhaleesiBB, it soon developed into a much greater problem, which concerns several other girls, who stepped forward and unveiled Mouffin's private messages. In her rant, KhaleesiBB also unveiled some of those girls were "no older than 15," which raises some serious concerns about Mouffin and his actions.

As a result of all the allegations and claims that confirmed Mouffin's sexual misconduct, his Overwatch team Boston Uprising, decided to remove the Canadian Overwatch pro from their team, while they conduct an investigation, which should unveil more detalis about the incident.

Boston Uprising's announcement on their official Twitter page read:

"The Boston Uprising has learned of allegations against Walid "Mouffin" Bassal. We take all allegations of this nature very seriously and as a result, Mouffin will not be competing in today's match. We will not be commenting any further while we investigate the matter."

At the time of writing, no updates on the matter were unveiled yet, however, should the allegations prove to be true, Mouffin just might see his career as a Overwatch pro come to an end, given his actions are not only against the law, but OWL rules as well.

The post Boston Uprising benched Mouffin amid sexual misconduct allegations appeared first on Esports Guides and Esports News.