Team Envy has become the latest esports organization to expand its reach to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
The French Counter-Strike team that most recently played under the LDLC banner and has established itself as the best in the world today is joining the Envy organization.
The team, headlined by such players as Richard “Shox” Papillon and Vincent “Happy” Cervoni, has been on fire of late. They captured the final major title of 2014 at DreamHack Winter, defeating Ninjas in Pyjamas in the final. They repeated that feat with another finals victory over Ninjas in Pyjamas at Major League Gaming’s X Games Invitational in Aspen at the end of January.
It’s an appropriate coincidence that the team coming off of an MLG championship run would join an organization that has made its name predominantly through Call of Duty play in MLG leagues and events.
The newest Envy captain, Nathan “NBK” Schmitt, expressed nothing but optimism in an official statement, inferring that the team already sitting atop the Counter-Strike world could go further still.
“What Envy offers us is immense while providing us the liberty to develop as freely as possible. Our team is more than ready to dedicate our time 100% to provide this new home all the titles it deserves,” Schmitt said.
The move comes on the heels of similar acquisitions made by Counter Logic Gaming and Team SoloMid, the latter of whom are reportedly to have made their new team the richest in Counter-Strike.
Those acquisitions were expected by many fans to remain local to North America when they were first rumored, but have worked out to span the globe. Counter Logic Gaming is the only organization to acquire an American team, the former MouseSpaz. Team SoloMid picked up the Danes who had been playing for Dignitas, while Envy have now put down roots in France.
Team Envy will debut at Inferno Online Stockholm’s upcoming Pantamera event, where they’ll be joined by such squads as Virtus Pro, Titan, and rivals Ninjas in Pyjamas.
Published: Feb 2, 2015 01:38 pm