Ali “Alicus” Saba, the former Misfits general manager whose League of Legends team went from the UK Prem to the LCS, is back in esports.
He has started up his own organisation – Laser Kittenz – who will be aiming to take part in the Overwatch League. They will also participate in the Overwatch PUT Championship this month.
Alicus has brought on board the following Overwatch roster, including UK player Finley ‘Kyb’ Adisi, who left Reunited after the org ceased operations.
- Carl “crems” Apehult
- Herman “Nesh” Kobrin
- Luis “Greyy” Perestrelo
- Finley “Kyb” Adisi
- Sergi “Winghaven” Torras
- Nikolaj “Zaprey” Moyes
We are ecstatic to announce our new Overwatch team:@NeshhOW@CremsOW@GreyyOW@Zaprey_OW@MrWinghaven@Kyb_b@Spazzo
#?WIN
— Laser Kittenz (@LaserKittenz) March 19, 2017
Alicus is back after leaving Misfits last month, citing burnout.
Laser Kittenz are currently seeking investment and are in discussions with a number of parties.
“We have been in talks with some entities that are interested in buying into the league, but we are all waiting on more clarity from Blizzard before we commit anywhere,” Alicus told ESPN‘s Jacob Wolf.
“We’re in no rush to take a deal, our focus is entirely on how to best utilize the talent that we have at hand and we fully intend to give the viewers something worth watching.”
Alicus won each Overwatch major with a different line-up, other than Gamescom, and admits there’s ‘a lot of pressure’ on him for this Overwatch PIT Championship.
League ambitions
Alicus also told Esports News UK he is considering bringing Laser Kittenz into other esports games in the future, including League of Legends.
“We’re evaluating the best plan for LoL summer split – nothing else is on the horizon right this moment,” he said.
Alicus’ greatest success so far is arguably taking the Renegades Banditos League of Legends team from the ESL UK & Ireland Premiership through to the Challenger Series and the LCS in a matter of months.
While the roster changed a lot in that time, and the org transitioned to Misfits, a lot of this progress was Alicus’ doing, and he’ll no doubt be looking for similar success in League in the future.
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.
