North American esports organisation Envy Gaming will retire its branding from esports and its name will be absorbed into OpTic Gaming, OpTic’s President Hector ‘Hecz’ Rodrigues and Chief Gaming Officer Mike ‘Hastr0’ Rufail announced on a podcast episode.
As a result, all existing Envy teams will compete under the OpTic name going forward, apart from its Overwatch team, which will stay as Dallas Fuel. Envy Gaming and OpTic merged in November 2021.
Some players, like Envy’s Smash pro Wizzrobe, will no longer be part of the organisation after the change. Envy’s Rocket League roster was the first team to be officially rebranded as OpTic Gaming.
Envy is one of the longest-running brands in esports. The organisation was founded in 2007 as Team EnVyUs and has fielded teams in dozens of games in its history. It has competed in CS:GO, FIFA, Fortnite, PUBG, StarCraft, Street Fighter, Halo, League of Legends and more recently VALORANT, Overwatch and Rocket League.
OpTic Gaming is an even older brand than Envy Gaming, having been founded in 2006. The two companies first made headlines last year with their high-profile merger, and were secretive about their future plans.
The news also means that Envy’s holding company Envy Gaming LLC will also rebrand to OpTic Gaming, ending a protracted stretch in which the organisational structure of the Envy-OpTic entity and its franchise assets were surrounded by confusion.
Explaining the reasons behind the move, Rufail said on the podcast that the decision to “sunset” the Envy brand was his decision, and that it is wise to “put Envy to the side” in order to focus on OpTic.
He did note, however, that there is a possibility for Envy to come back in the future. On Twitter, Rufail described Envy as “legendary and solidified in the esports history books.”
The move surprised many fans of the iconic Envy name and brand. However, the two companies will now focus all of their resources into growing OpTic, itself a highlighy-recognisable name in North American esports.