Envy Retires Its Name to Become Optic Gaming

Envy esports teams and creators will shift to represent the OpTic brand.

Envy Gaming, the well-known and established esports organization founded in 2007, will retire its name and become OpTic Gaming. The news dropped in the most recent episode of The Eavesdrop podcast, where OpTic founder Hector “H3CZ” Rodriguez and Envy founder Mike “hastr0” Rufail sat down to discuss the future of their organization.

Hastr0 details the initial merger between Envy and OpTic in November 2021, saying it was always in the back of his mind to “sunset” the Envy name. At that time, Envy Gaming acquired the OpTic Gaming brand as part of the merger, and Hector “H3CZ” Rodriguez joined the board as an owner, where he would serve as President of OpTic Gaming.

“We’re going to take Envy out of esports right now–kind of take the brand and put it to the side”

Mike “hastr0” Rufail

The decision to put Envy to the side allows the company to dedicate all of its resources to the OpTic Gaming brand rather than continue supporting and growing two separate brands that ultimately live under the same roof.

Undoubtedly a difficult decision, retiring Envy and putting all resources into the thing that will grow the organization the fastest makes perfect sense. According to Hastr0, Envy has spent somewhere in the ballpark of $20 million on player salaries since 2012. It’s a sizeable amount of money for any company. 

The Dallas Fuel brand will continue to exist as it’s heavily ingrained in the competitive Overwatch scene. All other esports teams and creators will shift toward the OpTic brand. According to hastr0, the colors and name will change to the OpTic brand, but the Envy spirit lives on. Envy is not dead, and everything they’ve accomplished as an org is still in the history books.

Envy has enjoyed incredible success in several competitive esports titles through the years, including Call of Duty, Halo, Rocket League, and Overwatch. It’s safe to say Envy has been a pillar of esports. Despite its success and fruitful history, the OpTic brand reigns supreme in terms of popularity with the fans. For some fans, the shift may be hard to swallow, but Hastr0 is as attached to the brand as anyone.

The bottom line for Hastr0 is that this decision will allow the org to laser focus on one brand instead of two. We’ll have to wait and see what else the future has in store for OpTic Gaming.

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