After missing the first half of the 2023 season, the Chengdu Hunters franchise of the Chinese Overwatch competition has decided to leave. According to a tip from GGRecon, the Chengdu Hunters have decided to leave the Overwatch League. During the 2018 season, the Overwatch League expanded into Asia and Europe, and the Chinese Overwatch League franchise was a part of that expansion. According to The Esports Advocate, the team has been on a competitive break since April, and it was claimed that the franchise lineup disbanded on May 9.
An official spokesperson for the Overwatch League confirmed to GGRecon that the Chengdu Hunters had left the competitive Overwatch League. “The organization has communicated a shift in their overall strategic objectives to the League, and we wish them well with their new direction.” Since the beginning of Season 6, this team has not competed in the Overwatch League, and since January 23, they have not updated anything on their social media accounts.
Chengdu Hunters have been kicked out of OWL
Overwatch has been taken offline in mainland China, so the Chinese team is not participating in the league this season. NetEase, the distributor for Activision Blizzard in China, decided not to renew its contract with the publisher, which resulted in the inaccessibility of all Blizzard games throughout the country.
It appears that Chengdu did not have the same good luck as the other Chinese Overwatch competition teams, such as the Shanghai Dragons and the Hangzhou Spark, who have found ways to continue practicing and competing. Many people were waiting for an official announcement to pronounce the franchise dead in the water or to give fans hope that it could return later. Thus, the news that the Hunter has been canceled does not come as much of a surprise to these people.
Although the Chinese Overwatch franchise was never victorious in any of the league’s competitions, it did come in second place in several events, including the Countdown Cup and the Summer Showdown. This news comes just a few short weeks after the Toronto Defiant revealed that it had agreed with the league to waive the remainder of its franchise fees in exchange for the team’s departure from the Overwatch League. Whether Chengdu owes franchise payments to the company for previous seasons is still being determined. HUYA Inc. owned the squad, which operates a live-streaming network in China.
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