[ENG] Farewell Eternal Academy
Like many Contenders teams, in particular academies, Eternal Academy was forced to bow out of the competitive Overwatch scene.
Times are hard for the Overwatch scene, between Blizzard’s lack of care for its T2 and T3 scenes and the international pandemic impacting team budgets.
The team didn’t officially announce it but the news was confirmed through the player’s twitters. Tsuna was the first to discuss it :
It felt important to us that we said a proper goodbye to the Eternal Academy members. Despite the fact that we didn’t see them much on stream, they gave us quite a few scares with close matches.
Thanks to them for doing their best to make us proud. They can be proud that they managed to make a team with 7 different nationalities work, a team that was the first to combine the strengths of EU and Pacific Contenders in T2 !
Thank you Skwal, the general manager (whom we’d interviewed here) to have managed the team to the best of his capabilities despite the distance separating each of his members and the ping that resulted from it, in practice.
Thank you LeRenegat, who was promoted to Head Coach mid-Trials and showed brilliantly effective strategies, continuing to coach the team despite the issues they were facing.
And a big thank you to Lori. Who is Lori, might you ask. Another information that was never officially announced was the departure of coach David. His replacement was none other than Lori, a talented Korean coach who’d previously worked with Noble in NA Contenders. Lori worked day and night with LeRenegat as soon as he was signed, to help the team perform all the way to Contenders semi-finals.
Thank you Tsuna, for giving us magnificent Tracer plays to swoon over during the matches that were broadcasted. Through his previous tweet, we know that he’s joining a new team (that we’ll discuss at the end of this article). We can only hope that he’ll perform just as well !
Erki was one of the veterans of the team, with an EU championship title. He once more showed off his flex DPS experience, but sadly this is where his adventure on Overwatch ends, as he decided to retire. Thank you for giving us these last plays on the game.
Patiphan was the rookie of the team. Not even 18, but he’s been unleashing his talent on the Overwatch competitive scene since he was 15. Despite not being able to show off his skill in official games, we know how much he brought to the team and hope he’ll continue to make us dream on Overwatch — since he announced his decision to pursue the Path to Pro. Thank you Patiphan !
Thank you Ding for joining the team to replace AFoxx just before the regular Contenders season started, and putting his flex support pool to use. He’s also pursuing the competitive Overwatch scene alongside Tsuna, so don’t hesitate to go support him as well.
CQB proved why he was crowned three times champion of PAC Contenders. Thank you for giving your support to the competitive EU scene, despite the fact that we didn’t get to see it nearly enough.
Thank you Muze for tanking like never before in the team’s front lane. His shield was always there to protect his teammates, and he tossed many enemies against walls with Winston. His next team will be quite lucky to have him.
Finally, thank you Hafficool, one of the EU Contenders pillars since the start. We were lucky to count him in the Eternal Academy ranks, to play his off-tank pool at high levels. We have to admit we always had a little weakness for his D.Va… He announced he was taking a break on Overwatch, hoping it’ll allow him to enjoy the game more in the future.
Once again, to Eternal Academy : we thank you for making us dream, during these few weeks of competition. We’re proud of the journey you’ve accomplished.
We wish you all the best for the future, whether you continue on Overwatch, switch to another game or choose to take a break from esports.
Dear readers, don’t hesitate to go show them all the support you can, so they can receive a farewell to the level of their skills and performances, and continue to follow them on social networks in the future.
Skwal and LeRenegat did their best to help the players find new teams. The asian players returned to KR, PAC or CN Contenders. As for the European members, they tried as best they could to find them teams on the NA scene to help them progress towards the Overwatch League.
But in the end, what team are Tsuna and Ding joining ? It’s team Disaster, created by LeRenegat himself, and taking up Eternal Academy’s old spot in Contenders Trials. They’re joined by Henningsen, rCk, Bepis and Dolla and are already performing well, since they made their way to the finals. Sunday, they sadly lost to Raspberry Racers but qualified for next week’s Contenders, so we’re excited to see them there !
Check out our Twitter and join our Discord here !
