UK eSports organisation ManaLight have released their Hearthstone players and have left the virtual card game’s competitive scene.
Three months ago, ManaLight signed UK pro Alexander “Raven” Baguley, with the hopes of becoming the UK’s strongest Hearthstone team.
Today they have released all their remaining players, saying the lack of structured leagues forced them away from the scene.
In a post on the ManaLight website, the org said in a statement: “We have reluctantly decided to withdraw from the Hearthstone scene for the foreseeable future. We are releasing all of our current players from their contracts.
“We feel that the lack of structured leagues with open qualification (like the leagues run by ESL and Riot) has forced us to move to games with more developed and stable scenes.
“We want to focus on our League of Legends team in the coming months and invest into another one of the UK’s most popular games, with planned expansion within the next couple of months.
“We will look to establish ourselves as the top UK organization starting with League of Legends and branching out into multiple platforms and games within the UK this year.”
ManaLight also thanked their players, saying they are extremely grateful to them, and wished them well as they pursue other options.
At one stage in late 2015, ManaLight had five Hearthstone players: Impact, Stacey of Gotham, Modernleper, Raven and Powder.
ManaLight recently set up their League of Legends team and are hoping to qualify for the ESL UK Premiership. They hope to win and move into the Challenger Series qualifiers.
@TheButteryGamer Our current line up is very strong and will be looking to push for the challenger series this year. #SeeTheLight
— ManaLight (@ManaLightGG) February 9, 2016
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
