Eternal Academy, the Overwatch Contenders team for Paris Eternal, has announced they are releasing their roster. Eternal Academy finished with unsatisfactory results during the first season of Contenders Europe, which saw them relegated down to Overwatch Contender Trials. Rather than try and compete back into the Contenders league, it appears they have instead chosen to leave entirely.
Eternal Academy
— Eternal Academy (@EternalAcademy) May 20, 2019
The Eternal Academy team finished season one of 2019 Contenders Europe with a 2 win and 5 loss placing. This saw them sent to Contenders Trials alongside other Overwatch Contenders team Young and Beautiful. Like most other esports leagues, teams that do not perform well receive relegation. In the Overwatch Contenders league, that means demoting the team to the qualifiers league.
Contenders Trials
Contenders Trials serves as the qualifiers league for the main Contenders league. Bottom teams in Contenders drop down into Trials, while top Trials teams can compete for a promotion spot. For example, the London Spitfire Overwatch Contenders team, British Hurricane, has faced a similar disappointing finish before. This saw them demoted, but that organization later regained their Contenders spot after performing well in Trials.
However, Eternal Academy did not repeat British Hurricane’s comeback. They instead failed to do well in season 2 of the 2019 Overwatch Europe Contenders Trials, ending in 4th place with 2 wins and 3 losses. Because of this setback, the main organization decided to let go of the roster.
It appears that there may be a future Academy team though. The statement says to “stay tuned for more news regarding Eternal Academy in the future.”
Disbanding of Contenders teams
Recently, we’ve seen the releasing of several Overwatch Contenders teams. This list includes San Francisco Shock’s NRG Esports, Florida Mayhem’s Mayhem Academy, and now Paris Eternal’s Eternal Academy. One has to wonder if more teams will follow this trend. Only time will tell.
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