It was revealed today that, after fifteen years as an organisation, the Envy Gaming brand would be retiring from esports. This news comes mere months after a merger between Envy Gaming and OpTic Gaming, which impacted several esports leagues and teams. For instance, the OpTic Chicago squad in the Call of Duty League was rebranded as OpTic Texas, and the Envy-owned Dallas Empire ceased to exist.
Now, in an episode of Hector ‘H3CZ’ Rodriguez’s Eavesdrop podcast, it has been revealed that the Envy Gaming brand will disappear from esports entirely. It was a joint announcement of sorts from Rodriguez, the President of OpTic Gaming, and Mike Rufail, the Founder and Chief Gaming Officer at Envy Gaming.
This decision marks a poignant moment in the history of esports, given that Envy Gaming has for many years been something of an industry leader.
OpTic Gaming: Establishing an Empire
Rufail and Rodriguez discussed the decision on the podcast
There are few brands in the world of gaming more iconic than OpTic Gaming. With foundations rooted firmly in the far-reaching history books of esports, OpTic Gaming has long been a staple in the community. It’s a prestigious brand that boasts affiliation with some of the greatest esports players in the business, and for years, it has been growing in many ways. While Envy Gaming has also been growing, it admittedly doesn’t have ‘the reach’ that OpTic Gaming does, which was reportedly a factor in the decision to dissolve the Envy Gaming brand.
In the aforementioned video episode of Rodriguez’s podcast, Rufail went on record as saying:
When we merged our companies together, we had this thought of taking both of our brands and doing things with them and continuing to do the same things we’ve always done and grow them. I had in the back of my mind there was a potential to sunset Envy and invest all our resources in OpTic. Basically, what we’re going to do is take the Envy brand out of esports right now.
Following the ‘sunset’ of Envy Gaming, only one remnant of its existence will remain, and that’s the Dallas Fuel squad currently playing in the Overwatch League. It’s a blanket change across the board in other areas, which includes the re-branding of Envy Gaming’s headquarters in Dallas. It’s said that everything ‘will now become a little greener’.
An Envious Position
As time has gone on, both Envy Gaming and OpTic Gaming have worked tirelessly to become market leaders. In the last decade or so, we’ve seen both organisations land countless trophies, secure massive prize pools, and evolve with the very industry they helped to build. On Twitter, Rufail expressed a little emotion at the impending changes:
While this merger makes a huge amount of sense in terms of the overall business of the thing, it is a sudden and somewhat unexpected change. From here on out, OpTic Gaming will now field top-tier teams in the Call of Duty League, the Overwatch League, Rocket League, Halo, Valorant, and Apex Legends.
With a reach like that, the only way is up for OpTic Gaming – farewell, Envy.
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