British top-laner Barney “Alphari” Morris is joining Origen, according to the League of Legends global contract database and various reports.
He has signed a two-year deal with Origen, according to the database, ending November 17th 2020, and joins Origen’s other new signings Erlend “Nukeduck” Holm and Patrik “Sherrif” Jiru.
Alphari previously played for Misfits Gaming and has been with their League of Legends team since day one. He first played for the team in the UK scene back in 2016, when they played under the Renegades Banditos branding, before they found new owners and rebranded to Misfits.
After winning the ESL UK & Ireland Premiership, they then progressed to the EU Challenger Series and qualified for the EU LCS straight after. They also put in a solid performance in Worlds 2017, so very nearly causing an upset against then-reigning-champions SKT.
The news comes as fellow British teammate, jungler Nubar “Maxlore” Sarafian, signs a new three-year deal with Misfits.
He posted on Instagram: “Extremely happy to have re-signed with Misfits! Misfits is a fantastic organisation and has great values. Very excited to work with this organisation and roster for 2019. The future is looking bright.”
Misfits have also signed support player Kang “GorillA” Beom-hyeon, top-laner Paul “sOAZ” Boyer and mid-laner Fabian “Febiven” Diepstraten.
Maxlore and Alphari played together in the UK scene back in 2015 with Team Infused and reunited when Maxlore joined Misfits back in May 2017.
Alphari’s new team, Origen, has been acquired by Astralis’ parent company RFRSH Entertainment and has landed a spot in the new League of Legends European Championship (LEC), which was announced yesterday. This replaces the current EU LCS.
Origen will keep their founder and former pro player Enrique “xPeke” Cedeño Martínez on board, who will focus on fan engagement and content.
Image source: LoL Esports Flickr
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.
