The Chinese Overwatch League franchise Chengdu Hunters, owned and operated by gaming livestreaming platform HUYA, has reportedly disbanded as its players move on to other teams or free agency.
As reported by The Esports Advocate, sources that spoke to the publication said “a majority of the organization’s core players have moved” to the Hangzhou Spark or free agency. This past March, both Huang “leave” Xin and Zhou “Mmonk” Xiang left the Hunters to join the Spark prior to the start of the 2023 OWL season.
The Chengdu Hunters’ Twitter account has been dormant since Jan. 23 when the team tweeted that “Overwatch 2 has been shut down in mainland China” following the failed company contract extension between Blizzard and internet tech business NetEase. And when the schedule for the 2023 OWL season was released this past April, Chengdu was the only team not included, with the league saying the franchise was “contemplating the future direction of their team.”
In addition to months of radio silence on Twitter, the head moderator of the official Chengdu Hunters Discord server posted in the announcements channel that “the Chengdu Hunters are dead until further notice” back when the OWL schedule was revealed in April. According to the TEA report, an illustrator who worked with the team posted a farewell poster on Weibo in March, claiming the Hunters would not post it on its official Weibo account.
At time of writing, there are four players currently under contract with the team according to their Liquipedia entry, as well as members of staff. So far, there has been no official statement from the league or the team, and OWL officials have not yet responded to a request for comment from Dot Esports.
