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
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.
