OpTic retire Envy from Esports and hints possible CS:GO return
The North American Organization announced the changes on a podcast.
After their 2021 merger, OpTic Gaming and Envy Gaming today announced, that going forward the Organization will only focus on OpTic Gaming. As a result, the legendary Envy brand is now retired in Esports.
In CS:GO, Team Envy won the DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca 2015 Major to forever set their mark in the history books with legendary players such as Kenny "kennyS" Schrub, Dan "apEX" Madesclaire, Vincent "Happy" Cervoni Schopenhauer, and Nathan "NBK-" Schmitt on the roster. The team also managed to reach the Grand Final of the other Major in 2015, ESL One Cologne.
The retirement of the brand is explained in the video below, where Founder and Chief Gaming Officer at Envy Gaming, Mike Rufail talks with Hector 'HECZ' Rodriguez, CEO of OpTic Gaming about the upcoming changes. In the video Mike Rufail also spoke about the future, and that the Organization could be willing to get involved into CS:GO once again.
- Taking the OpTic brand into new territory in the future is something that we are looking at. Maybe potentially taking a game like Counter-Strike, we both miss it. We have to manage resources, so right now it is something, that we keep our eyes on. We are not saying, that we are going to pick up a Counter-Strike team right now. Or are we? Hector 'HECZ' Rodriguez asks the last question in this quote, before the two underlines, that they are looking at the landscape of esports right now.
OpTic has also had a history in Counter-Strike. The Organization had its biggest success winning the ELEAGUE Season 2 in 2016 ahead of Astralis. In 2019 OpTic disbanded its roster, and has not since been involved in CS:GO.
