Photo: Blizzard
The captain and founding member of the NRG Overwatch roster plans to focus on streaming until Overwatch League begins.
It has been a busy few days for DPS player Lucas “Mendokusaii” Håkansson. On Tuesday, the Swede was benched by Cloud9 together with countryman Ruben “Ryb” Ljungdahl as the team imported a trio of Koreans to refresh their roster to fix the lack of competitive success so far in 2017. Today, report by Over.gg stated, that Mendokusaii is to join NRG Esports to compete alongside another Swedish DPS player, André “iddqd” Dahlström.
Mendokusaii is to replace star marksman Brandon “Seagull” Larned. Overwatch’s most popular streamer became a founding member and captain of NRG as the organization ventured into the game in August last year and led the team to a top four finish in the APAC Championship. After their attendance and top six spot at MLG Vegas, however, NRG has not made a competitive appearance and has spent the time rebuilding the roster after the departures of several of its players, including seasoned flex Carl “Enigma” Yangsheng. Seagull’s Twitter confirmed him stepping down from competitive Overwatch for the time being, planning a return for the inaugural Overwatch league.
For the past year, it's become obvious that I struggle with maintaining a balance between professional play and streaming. When I originally blew up on twitch, I decided that I was still dedicated to being a pro player. This hasn't changed.
However, in the current Overwatch pro scene, we're in limbo while we wait for the Overwatch League to start up later in the year. I've been struggling to justify giving up streaming hours to play in the competitive scene during this downtime. As any competitive FPS player knows, it's tough maintaining motivation for small online tournaments - particularly when I knew I was letting down my fanbase by not having a regular stream.
So for now, I'll be stepping back from the competitive scene. In the meantime, I'll be streaming under NRG as their biggest cheerleader for their OW team.
Expect to see me back in pro play for Overwatch League's first season.”
Mendokusaii and the new NRG are to be finally battle-tested in the upcoming Overwatch Monthly Melee, whose group pairing will see them opposite of Immortals and Selfless in Group A. According to reports, NRG Esports could also be playing in the new season of APEX, starting April 28.
