Toronto Esports drop Overwatch

tamagao

November 13, 2018

Toronto Esports Toronto Esports Inactive crakinlakin Hasan Alfardi off tank nero Charlie Zwarg dps Asking William Vetter dps Fusions Cameron Bosworth tank Shu Kim Jin-seo support Dino Hunter Traupe support Swimmer Gabriel Levy support , the academy team of the Boston Uprising Boston Uprising OWL Rank # Valentine Kim Byoungju dps punk Leyton Gilchrist tank Faith Hong Gyu Kim support Crimzo William Hernandez support , have announced their departure from Overwatch. Their decision comes as a result of the Toronto Defiant's exclusive naming rights of the Toronto name.

We have been informed by Blizzard that we will be forced to remove “Toronto” from our brand in only 6 weeks. Mid Contenders season 3. The reason cited: @TorontoDefiant have purchased “exclusive naming rights”. We will be leaving Overwatch effective immediately. Good riddance.
— Toronto Esports Club (@TOesports) November 13, 2018

The players and staff members of Toronto Esports will remain with the Boston Uprising, who will operate the Contenders team under a new brand. The Uprising were not a part of Toronto Esports' decision to leave Overwatch. No further details are available at this time.

We will continue to compete as a team, but obviously under a new brand. That is all I can say at the moment but will provide further details at a later date.
— Chris ‘HuK’ Loranger (@LorangerChris) November 13, 2018

Toronto Esports began their journey in Overwatch in late 2016. They found little success in the early stages, and failed to qualify for Contenders Season One in 2017. The organization rebuilt their roster following Contenders and became one of the best teams in Open Division 2017.

They became the academy team of the Boston Uprising in 2018. They finished second in Contenders Season 1 North America and qualified for the playoffs in Contenders Season 2.

The Boston Uprising has little time to establish their new brand for Contenders Season 3. The new season begins later this month.

Comments:

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#1

gomak

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https://twitter.com/TOesports/status/1062206474624159745

long time coming

#2

Redd

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the owner is a... character

#3

karzahni14

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this seems too aggressive...

#4

Rooky

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Some thing about TO being around for MULTIPLE YEARS BEFORE DEFIANT EXISTED but still Blizzard favour OWL again

I swear someone will need to start writing an obituary for tier 2 by the end of OWL season 2

#5

TearsOW

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To be fair, you can't tell me you don't see the potential for confusion here. Toronto eSports is the academy team for Boston Uprising, when there's another team called Toronto Defiant -- and if they were to have their own academy team it would be called Toronto Academy probably.

#7

Raisin

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For years the Chicago Wolves were the minor league hockey team of the Atlanta Thrashers, while the Rockford Ice Hogs were the minor league team of the Chicago Blackhawks. Fans who care enough to pay attention to the t2 scene would have been able to figure it out.

#13

FalcoNick

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But there's still a large amount of people who pay very little attention, if any at all, to T2. That is where the problem lies. In your NHL-AHL comparison, the way to distinguish the Blackhawks and the Wolves is by just using their names. Toronto Defiant could just be referred to as "Defiant", but most teams in OWL are referred to by just using the place that they represent (Come on Florida, just switch to Miami already, so I'd be able to just say city). The exceptions to that are, of course, Valiant and Gladiators, since they're both based in LA. But with Toronto esports, you can only shorten it to Toronto.

#6

Dubba

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First they kill off T3 and soon T2. (There is a joke here, find it)

#8

Wombat

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How come everything Boston related is just a pure mess?

#9

Blue

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Because bilicheck isnt there boring players and staff into line.

#10

ideekae

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wouldve been hysterical if they straight up removed the "toronto" and kept playing under the name "esports"

#14

FalcoNick

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Every match would sound like a court case.

Envy v. esports
Last Night's Leftovers v. esports
NRG v. esports (This also sounds like it could be a civil war)
GOATs v. esports (Maybe not in Contenders, Also a very good court case)

#11

SKYTRiXSHA

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The CEO seems to be very nice person.

#12

Hellafine

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Jebaited

#15

JakobCP

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It's ridiculous how close minded people are.

I realize that we have no concrete information on what happened, but people just jump to blaming blizzard. The beginning of the article says that Toronto themselves branded their name.

#16

KuroiRyuu9625

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This case is pretty black and white. TO Esports had a brand name and were told by Blizzardthey had to change it it remain in Overwatch.

The Toronto Defiant isn't in the wrong here, they'd of course want to be the only "Toronto team" in Overwatch but it'd not hard to understand why TO Esports wouldn't want to do that and would instead just drop out even if it's not a good look.

I think this is a pretty simple case to assess and given the state of the T2 scene it's not hard to think that people would be upset at Blizzard for "forcing out" another team even though the latter was given "a choice", imo.

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