Renegades’ collapse at the Overwatch Winter Premiere has been complex to many. After going on an early win streak, the team lost the rest of their matches and were knocked out of the competition after the second round-robin stage. Some light has now been shed on what happened to the team as two former players have spoken up and said the environment in the team was terrible for all those involved. Though he has now left the team, manOFsnow said that it came down to the management of the team that caused the collapse.
Before they became part of the Renegades organization, the roster was called Kingdom eSports. The team contained Rocky “manOFsnow” Felty, Alex “Ajax” Jackson, Connor “ConnorJ” Johnson, Jonathan “Sherlockey” Davis, Preston “Juv3nile” Dornon, and Christopher “J3sus” Pavloff. Under the Kingdom name, the team blazed through the first qualifier without dropping a single series. Right as the tournament was beginning, the team was picked up by the Renegades organization on Jan. 3rd. Ajax and ConnorJ did not join their teammates and instead played for another qualified team, Team Kungarna. In their place Renegades picked up Jeremy “Jer” Santacruz, who previously played for Immortals, and Liam “Mangachu” Campbell, who played for Tempo Storm NA.
The team started the first round robin stage winning their first four series. The team was incredibly dominant and Mangachu especially was looking like the best player in the tournament. After the third day of matches, the tournament went on a break for five days before resuming matches. When Renegades came back to play their fifth match against Immortals, the team got run over and lost 0-2. The team did not win their other two series in the first round-robin but qualified for the second stage due to their brilliant start.
In the second round-robin, Renegades never won a single series, but were able to take a map against each team they played. While they kept it close, their inability to win a single series put them in last place at the end of the second round-robin and eliminated them from the tournament. After such a bright start, it was extremely confusing as to why Renegades was unable to win another series despite the clear talent on the squad. Former player manOFsnow released a twitlonger on the situation.
During the tournament, Renegades chose to sub in Finley “Kyb” Adisi for manOFsnow during some of their matches. Though Kyb performed admirably, the team continued to not win games. According to manOFsnow, Renegades offered Kyb a contract, but he was hesitant to sign because of the situation the team was in. In his post, manOFsnow talked about how for the first four games, the team was boot-camping and played the games in the same room. But as the tournament started again, the team was playing individually from their own homes. This could have heavily contributed to the losing streak because being together as a team has many benefits that can cause success for a team.
Another reason manOFsnow pointed to, is the fact that the management of the team were awful and completely mismanaged the team leading to their downfall. This sentiment was supported by Ajax who was with the team when they played as Kingdom eSports. Both players talk of how the coach and manager created a bad environment for the team and could not solve issues between players.
manOFsnow also said that his teammates did not respect him and created a toxic environment to play in. Ajax did not say the same thing, but held to the idea that any problem caused could have been fixed with better management. Ajax wishes his former teammates success, while manOFsnow does not seem to want anything to do with the team or organization anymore after his leaving the team.
Despite both manOFsnow’s and Ajax’s comments, the team has stuck together and is going to be living together for the next six months. After they bowed out of the Overwatch Winter Premiere, the team go together and set up their new “office” to play together. All of the players and management seem excited to continue playing together and want to succeed. It is difficult to take manOFsnow’s comments as fact because the team has stuck together and seems nothing but happy to continue their time on Renegades. The team does not currently have a sixth player as Kyb did not sign a contract and manOFsnow left the team. The team has not announced the next tournament they will be competing in, but they seem to be sticking together.
It still remains unclear as to exactly why they ended up failing at the Overwatch Winter Premiere. Whether it be the mismanagement of the team spoke about by former players, the toxic enviroment created by teammates, or the end of the teams’ boot-camp. No matter what it may be, the team is committed to the future and still looks to be an exciting roster with many talented players. The team has not yet signed a sixth player, but if they can fix issues within the team Renegades could compete at the top tier of North American Overwatch with the talent on their squad.
Why do you think Renegades failed and do you think they can rebound? Share your thoughts below or tweet us @GAMURScom
