Vegas Eternal finished the 2023 Overwatch League (OWL) season without a single win on Aug. 28, and players have been harassing a staff member who they blame for the team’s abysmal results.
“Time to pick ourselves up, regroup and come back fighting,” the team wrote in a tweet following an 0-3 loss to SF Shock in the last Summer Stage Qualifiers series. It’s unclear what the future entails for the team since plans for 2024 Overwatch League season have yet to be revealed by Blizzard Entertainment.
For Vegas fans, it marked a disappointing end for a disastrous 2023 season. The team had 16 consecutive losses and only won five maps out of 53.
So what went wrong with Vegas Eternal? Although the player’s performance is the most visible factor of the team’s multiple defeats, players have been collectively blaming management for their poor results.
First, after a disappointing start to the 2023 season, the roster made controversial changes. Between the Midseason Madness and Summer Stage, right in the middle of the season, three American players Vulcan, Malthel, and Lukemino, were replaced by South Korean talents Toyou, irony, and KNIFE.
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Malthel added fuel to the fire by throwing shade at General Manager Avalla. When quoting the announcement on June 27, he said he was “genuinely happy to be out of a negative environment,” referring to Vegas Eternal. He accused Avalla of creating a “toxic wasteland” and putting herself first rather than the players.
Overwatch fans later established the link between this tweet and accusations of former Paris Eternal player BenBest, who also pointed at someone in the team’s staff who “ruin[ed] careers” and the person’s mismanagement now showed in Vegas’ performance.
Some decisions made during the series by the staff also stirred controversy. The roster is comprised of six players, with one Flex player to facilitate replacements for emergency situations or strategic moves. But those replacements didn’t always yield the expected result.
The team’s series against LA Valiant proved to be the closest one Vegas Eternal got to a victory, although it ended in a 3-2 loss on July 29. Damage player KNIFE, in particular, did wonders with his Tracer despite playing with a higher ping than the opponents. But he was eventually subbed out and the team subsequently lost momentum and the series.
Overall, the team looked worse over time, as if it lost life which each more defeat, despite keeping the same roster since June. Now, after the season ended without a miracle, players are specifically blaming Avalla for the team’s mismanagement, who ended up deactivating her social media since the team’s final loss on Aug. 28.
Vegas Eternal’s results have gone downhill since 2021. In 2022, the team only had one victory over the whole regular OWL season and ended up at the bottom of the rankings. It looks like the organization needs a complete change of direction to get back on its feet ahead of the 2024 season —if there is one for the struggling competitive league since the owners can vote to end the OWL’s operating agreement in a few months.
