Competitive Overwatch player and Twitch.tv streamer Brandon "Seagull" Larned has announced his departure from esports team NRG in a Tweet this past Thursday.
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In an extended message over TwitLonger.com, Seagull goes into depth over his reasons for leaving:
"Hey everyone,
This will be a surprise to most of you, but today I'm announcing that I'm stepping down from NRG's main Overwatch roster to a sub position.
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. :D"
Seagull reached fame early during the days of the Overwatch beta, both for his humble personality and for his skills as a Genji player, for which he has become somewhat of a community icon.
More recently he's become just as well-known for his role as an extremely effective projectile-based hero player, often taking the role of Pharah or Hanzo to support his team.
His decision to step down from NRG comes as a surprise to many of his fans, who eagerly anticipated seeing the team's impressive roster in action in just 24 hours' time at the Overwatch Monthly Melee.
Swedish competitive player Lucas "Menokusaii" Håkansson will be filling the vacancy left behind by Seagull. To see him and the rest of NRG in action, be sure to check out the live broadcast of the event tomorrow.
Seagull, meanwhile, will be sticking with NRG in a substitute role and, in his own words, "...as their biggest cheerleader for their OW team." For more information, follow Seagull's official Twitter, or hop on over to his Twitch.tv stream.
