Starting today, Overwatch is one major brand richer. Fnatic has entered the scene with their pickup of nubris.
It has only been 2 months (in a few days) since Overwatch was officially released. Of course the game was playable to some for much longer, but the game really skyrocketed in popularity after the official launch. In eSports, popularity leads to opportunities, which can lead to even more exposure.
Today's news is a good example of that cycle: major European organization Fnatic has announced their acquisition of the nubris roster (#5 in NA). The team, with a mixture of veteran EU and NA players, has really been making waves over the past weeks, and we ourselves have been waiting for any news of potential sponsors. It seems that Fnatic provided the best offer in the end, including moving the Europeans (iddqd and Vonethil) to the US. This marks Fnatic's first time officially having an NA team.
The roster as it currently stands, as it has for weeks now, is:
- André “iddqd” Dahlström
- Scott “custa” Kennedy
- Oliver “Vonethil” Lager
- Casey “buds” McIlwaine
- Warsi Faraaz “Stoop” Waris
- Matthew “coolmatt69” Iorio
- Robert “Roflgator” Malecki (Coach)
Florian “DRUNKKZ3” Le Bihan, Fnatic's Team Operations Manager, had the following to say about this opportunity:
”Today I’m extremely delighted to welcome our new American Overwatch team to Fnatic. We have kept an eye on Overwatch since the very early closed beta days and our desire to support a team in the game only kept growing with time. We went through a very long and careful scouting process during the past few months and had long discussions with the former core players from nubris (coolmatt69, custa, buds and stoop) and two Swedish up and coming talents (iddqd and Vonethil). This allowed us to put together a very strong and promising Overwatch squad able of competing at the top level in the US, with Roflgator there to back up the guys’ performances as a coach.”
To get to know the the team a bit more, Fnatic has prepared the following video but will also be doing a special Q&A stream at Twitch.tv/team/fnatic in 2 hours (9 CEST).
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