Photo credit Adobe Stock
Welcome to Esports You May Have Missed, where we highlight some of the smaller stories that you may not have heard about through the grapevine. Week 2 may have a few “bigger” stories, but we’re going to try and break them down a little more for context.
HALO MOVES AND SHAKE UPS
This past week, two major squads made some changes to their rosters. Native Gaming announced on Monday they would be parting ways with Kuhlect. That same day, just a few hours later, Sentinels standout Spartan announced that he had been dropped by the organization.
The two announcements on the same day had many speculating that Spartan would be going to Native, but those rumors were put to bed on Thursday, when Native announced they would be bringing Gilkey back to the squad.
Spartan has yet to announce a new team, but as Halo Creator and Caster LaSinity pointed out on her X (formerly Twitter) yesterday, Spartan was taking part in scrim matches with Complexity on Friday.
Sentinels haven’t announced their changes either, however former Complexity player Preecisionn was playing with Sentinels during their Friday scrims.
Both Native and Sentinels were anticipated to be some of the top teams at the HCS in Arlington, but Native finished 1-2 in pool play, losing in the Quarterfinals to Complexity, and Sentinels were 0-3 in pool play.
The HCS open series has started today, and at the time of this posting, Spartan is playing for the Complexity squad again, but no announcements have been made.
WATCH YOUR TONGUE
Collegiate Overwatch 2 player Mason “durpee” Kuehne took to his X on April 12th, asking Blizzard support for human help over a ticket he created involving a suspension of his Blizzard account. After a few days of back and forth with Blizzard support, durpee found that he was permanently suspended for inappropriate in game chat.
This had Overwatch fans stumped. While Overwatch 2 does have a teen rating, and even has their characters cursing in-game in different languages, online interactions are never rated. Online games are normally played at your own risk.
While Blizzard’s support does point out that their community guidelines have never allowed in game profanities, some have pointed out that their use of a profanity filter in game with multiple levels of filtering makes it seem as though it’s the user’s responsibility to control if they want to see profanity in chat.
Others pointed out Blizzard’s own hypocrisy, considering that Cassidy wears a belt with a buckle that says BAMF.
Due to the suspension, durpee will be unable to play in Blizzard’s collegiate tournament next month.
Popular content creator xQc sums up the thoughts of the Overwatch community regarding these bans.
NOT A JOKE, THEY’RE ON CLOUD 9
Back on April Fools Day, Cloud 9 announced to their X that they may be returning to Rocket League. Given the date, everyone believed it was a joke.
Turns out, they were serious.
After almost 4 years since their last appearance, Cloud 9 has returned to car ball with a brand-new squad. On April 18th, the organization announced that players LionBlaze, kzineel, and Percyy would be joining the team as an acquisition from Omelette.
Cloud 9’s last appearance in the Rocket League Championship Series (RLCS) was June 2019, where they fell to Vitality, placing 3rd-4th in the championships. They previously won the RLCS in Season 6 in 2018.
LionBlaze and kzineel are both coming off of a NECC championship win with Northwood University. Also joining Cloud 9 as a creator for Rocket League is fan favorite Herculyse. She has been a staple in the Rocket League community as a commentator and tournament organizer. She was previously part of Evil Geniuses, which we reported on back in November when she was let go from the organization.
FISHER FIGHTS FOR THEIR RIGHT TO PLAY
And in a follow up to last week’s news about Fisher College having their NACE membership removed, Fisher announced on Friday that they have officially appealed NACE’s decision. They hope that the appeal will allow for transparency into the decision while defending their reputation in the collegiate esports scene.
Coming next week – graphics! And a video! Next week will also be the last weekly recap till mid-May. Don’t worry, there will be esports content, as The Spawn Room will be at both the CECC Collegiate Championships in Arlington and Low Tide City in Austin for some fighting game action!
The Spawn Room 