B/R Weekly Rushdown: FC Copenhagen Esports Team the NORTH, Evil Geniuses Shakeup

Welcome to esports in 2017! All of those calendars are now officially useless and, similarly, a great many contracts expired when the ball dropped on New Year's Eve. As one might expect, that packed this installment of the Weekly Rushdown with news on roster changes.

Evil Geniuses Announces Major Changes

Evil Geniuses is one of the biggest, most successful esports organizations in the industry and, last month, it made the surprising announcement that it had parted ways with Twitch.TV to become a player-owned organization. Three weeks removed from that announcement, EG has announced some major changes.

Speaking on Twitter, EG CEO Peter "ppd" Dager broke the news that the team was parting ways with a number of its players.

First and foremost, it announced it was releasing a handful of its fighting game players, in particular Justin Wong, Yusuke Momochi, Yuko "Chocoblanka" Momochi and Eduardo "PR Balrog" Perez. Ricki Ortiz and Kenneth "K-Brad" Bradley remain with the team, while 2016 Evo Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 champion Chris "NYChrisG" Gonzalez would join, leaving behind Tempo Storm.

To some degree, these moves aren't surprising. Despite being tenured with EG for a long while, Momochi and PR Balrog have struggled to establish themselves as elite-level players in modern titles, particularly Street Fighter V. NYChrisG, meanwhile, is a strong addition to the roster as the release of Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite approaches.

The departure of Wong, however, raised eyebrows as he remains among the best North American fighting game players, and is accomplished in both Street Fighter V and Marvel vs. Capcom. He discussed the move on Twitter:

Alongside the fighting gamers, EG also announced it was disbanding its StarCraft division, sending  Geoff "iNcontroL" Robinson and Chris "HuK" Loranger into free agency. iNcontroL's departure, unfortunately, didn't seem to be quite as amicable as the departed fighting gamers:

It's unknown what other moves may be coming down the pipeline, but 2017 will be a huge year for EG with its new ownership structure. They will need these moves to pay dividends.

Forbes' Game-Focused (and esports-Filled) 30 Under 30

Video games are big business. That's common knowledge at this point. But who are the movers and shakers that help drive the industry, and esports in particular? Forbes created a handy list of 30 of the most influential figures in the industry today (who just so happen to be under 30 years of age). 

While there are a few questionable choices and one morally repugnant one, this is a good way to get introduced to names like Andy "Reginald" Dinh and Andrey "Reynad" Yanyuk. Make sure to check it out.

FC Copenhagen Reveals the NORTH

Heads were turned a few weeks back when DotEsports.com broke the news that Danish soccer club FC Copenhagen had scooped up the freshly released Team Dignitas Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team. On Tuesday, the signing was officially announced with the unveiling of a new esports organization: the NORTH.

"We are two leading companies within entertainment and sports venturing into esport at the very highest level. We see great potential and have high ambitions with NORTH that will be among the worlds strongest from day one," said Anders Horsholt, CEO of FC Copenhagen in a statement attached to the debut YouTube video.

VI-Images/Getty Images

Allan Mathson Hansen, CEO of Nordisk Film added, "the esport business is characterized by high growth, digitization and a young audience. It is a natural extension of Nordisk Film's existing business areas of film, cinemas, games and gift services. We want to create a strong fan based Nordic esport organization."

While long-term plans are not known at this time, it is worth noting NORTH has hired respected DotA and Dota 2 veteran Jacob "Maelk" Toft-Andersen as sports director, in charge of "scouting and recruiting of new players." Naturally, that makes it easy to speculate that NORTH could field a Dota 2 team before long (with a close look being given to the five Danish players that used to compete under the Imperial banner). 

NORTH will debut its CS:GO team later this month at the ELEAGUE Major, which kicks off on Jan. 22.

Dota 2 Roster Locks Incoming!

The grind to the Kiev Major is set to begin soon, but first comes the Valve-imposed roster locks. Come Jan. 9, teams will have to submit a finalized roster in order to be eligible for direct invitations to the tournament or passes into the regional qualifiers.

With five days remaining, there is already plenty to talk about new squads Team Onyx, WanteD and B)ears, a reformed Natus Vincere and a heavily altered Vici Gaming J. The rosters are still settling, and the moves can be tracked live on the Dota 2 Majors Registration page. Check Bleacher Report next week for a full breakdown of the changes.