Torpedo set to disband as money dries up

torpedo gears of war 1

Promising UK esports organisation Torpedo is set to disband after their Hearthstone players announced their departure this evening.
Hearthstone player Joe “Ness” Z-F said in a Twitlonger post: “Unfortunately Torpedo is disbanding and are releasing their Hearthstone team. Therefore me, Jambre, Boar and Raven will no longer be a part of Torpedo.
“Spending a year on the team has been an amazing experience and I would like to thank all the staff for their support over the course of my time with them.
“As for the future, Boar, Jambre and I are all now free agents are searching for a new team for us to represent at upcoming events such as DreamHack Summer and DreamHack Valencia. It may be the case that we end up going our separate ways and join different teams but ideally we would like to stick together.”
The news tallies with reports Esports News UK had heard about the org over the past few months.
We’d heard that a buyer was interested in investing in Torpedo late last year, but negotiations fell through late on, leaving Torpedo in a precarious position, with money running out fast.
 

“We’d heard that a buyer was interested in investing in Torpedo late last year, but negotiations fell through late on.”

 
Their Gears of War team dissolved, and Torpedo hadn’t had a paying sponsor since around August 2016.
There are two main people behind Torpedo management: Cassius Kiani and Ian Leckey. Both have jobs outside of their esports – Ian is head of web development at a digital agency, while Cassius owns his own design, branding and UX type studio.
This has echoes of ManaLight’s departure from the UK esports scene, and is another sad case of a promising org having to fold because of a lack of money within UK esports.
Like ManaLight, they paid their players wages, done things professionally, and seen success (Torpedo players BoarControl and Jambre have won the last two ESL Hearthstone Premierships respectively), but now it seems the org will be disbanding for good.
We interviewed Torpedo’s Cassius Kiani last year

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