The Detroit Renegades have picked up the former Kingdom Esports Overwatch roster—but they still haven’t made an official announcement.
Casters for Next Generation Esports’ Overwatch Winter Premiere, of which group play began Jan. 3, announced on the tournament stream that the Kingdom roster would be playing as the Renegades. During the tournament, the official Renegades Twitter account expressed support for its new pickup, congratulating the players for closing out the series with a 2-0 win against FaZe Clan.
The new North American Renegades lineup includes DPS player Liam “Mangachu” Campbell, tank Preston “Juv3nile” Dornon, support Jeremy “Jer” Santacruz, flex Jonathan “Sherlockey” Davis, DPS player Christopher “J3sus” Pavloff, and flex Ricky “manOFsnow” Felty.
Celtics NBA player Jonas Jerebko bought Renegades in August of last year, signing the organization’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team. Renegades later expanded into Super Smash Bros. and Call of Duty. In late August, Jerebko discussed with Dot Esports picking up an Overwatch team. Well, it looks like they found that team in the former Kingdom Esports roster.
As developer Blizzard Entertainment’s Overwatch League draws nearer, Renegades’ acquisition of a new Overwatch lineup sparks speculation regarding League involvement. This pickup—and Counter Logic Gaming’s recent entrance into Overwatch—point toward Blizzard dropping the potential Overwatch League draft, which would muddy these already involved investments, at least for the first truncated season beginning around July this year. Jerebko’s Detroit-based organization is likely looking to secure the city in Blizzard’s location-tied Overwatch League.
Renegades did not return a request for comment on the signing of the team by publication time.
The new Renegades squad showed promise against compLexity Gaming during day one of the Overwatch Winter Premiere’s group play. They’ll play again tonight when group play resumes at 6.30pm ET (3:30pm PT) on Twitch.
