Team Coast Hearthstone division empties following Azubu sponsorship

With the disbandment of Coast's HS division, Chakki becomes one of the hottest free agents in Hearthstone. Photo: ESL

All of team Coast's Hearthstone players have decided to say goodbye to the team just a day after the North American organization found a new sponsor, Twitch.tv competitor Azubu.tv.

Team Coast's Hearthstone division was founded this July, starting as an all-Canadian roster of Josh "Impact" Graham, Justin "Luffy" Dizazzo and James "Twisted" Neumann. A month and a half later, the organizatione expanded their roster, signing ex-Managrind, ex-Clarity Gaming Keaton "Chakki" Gill, painting one of Hearthstone's most consistent rosters, especially in open tournaments.

A few days ago, however, a Twitter post by Chakki indicated he has left the team and is now a free agent. A follow up post by Hearthstone player Sebastian "EggY" Swierad, an former member of Team Coast himself, stated that it is in fact all other Coast players have parted ways with the team as well. The reason, Swierad says, is team Coast's recent partnership with Azubu.tv.

While the gaining of a new sponsor would usually be a good thing for a player on a team, it often is the other way around with Azubu. Hearthstone being a very stream-centric and with Twitch.tv boasting unparallelled numbers among the streaming platforms, a forced move away from it and towards a less popular competitor like Azubu can be, as Swierad puts it, a career killer. Followers of competitive Hearthstone will remember a similar situation, where the members of Curse's division also left the team, pointing towards the Azubu partnership and the low viewership numbers as one of the reasons.

While the Azubu deal does seem like a heavy influencer for division's disbandment, GosuGamers sources within the team state that it wasn't the primary reason and rather the convenient chance for the players to look for a fresh start elsewhere.
 

There were internal conflicts between some of the players, which created an unhealthy atmosphere and the team always felt "alone". When the Azubu deal happened and Coast requested all players to be on it, it was a chance to leave and start a new as they all didn't like the alternative.”

According to Team Coast representatives, the team will not abandon the idea of a Hearthstone division, even though the organization aknowledges that signing a fresh, strong roster will be hard.