Splyce (SPY) was a professional

esports Esports, short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, individually or as teams. Although orga ...

organization and media company based in

Rochester, New York Rochester () is a City (New York), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, the county seat, seat of Monroe County, New York, Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffalo, ...

. Their ''

League of Legends ''League of Legends'' (''LoL''), commonly referred to as ''League'', is a 2009 multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published by Riot Games. Inspired by ''Defense of the Ancients'', a Mod (video games), custom map for War ...

'' team was a franchise member of the LEC, Europe's top professional league for ''League of Legends''. Splyce announced its rebranding from Follow eSports in November 2015. On November 29, 2019, Splyce's parent company,

OverActive Media OverActive Media (OAM), previously known as The Ledger Group, is a esports and entertainment company that fields teams across multiple esports titles through its subsidiaries, including the Overwatch League and Call of Duty League. They also own e ...

, announced it had merged Splyce with its other esports subsidiary,

MAD Lions MAD Lions is a Spanish esports organisation owned by OverActive Media. Its main ''League of Legends'' team, which was rebranded from Splyce, competes in Europe's top-level league for the game, the LEC. Its secondary ''League of Legends'' team co ...

, and that all of Splyce's teams would henceforth compete under that name.

''League of Legends''

Follow eSports acquired the ''League of Legends'' team Dignitas EU after they qualified for the

EU LCS The ''League of Legends'' EMEA Championship (LEC) is the professional ''League of Legends'' esports league run by Riot Games in the EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) region, in which ten teams compete. Each annual season of play is divid ...

(now LEC) on October 29, 2015, for nearly £625,000 ($1 million). At the time of the acquisition the team's roster consisted of Martin "Wunderwear" Hansen,

Chres "Sencux" Laursen Chres Laursen, better known mononymously as Chres and by his previous in-game name Sencux, is a Danish professional ''League of Legends'' player. He is the mid laner for AGO Rogue of the Ultraliga, the top-level league for professional ''League ...

, Kasper "Kobbe" Kobberup, and Jonas "Nisbeth" Anderson with Daniel Vorborg as Team Manager.

Tournament results

* 7th/10th – 2016 Spring EU LCS * 2nd – 2016 Summer EU LCS regular season * Runner-up – 2016 Summer EU LCS playoffs * 5th/6th – 2017 Spring EU LCS playoffs * 5th/6th – 2017 Summer EU LCS playoffs

''Call of Duty''

On January 2, the day that the organization renamed itself, they picked up a ''

Call of Duty ''Call of Duty'' is a first-person shooter video game Media franchise, franchise published by Activision. Starting out in 2003, it first focused on games set in World War II. Over time, the series has seen games set in the midst of the Cold W ...

'' roster consisting of JoshuaLee "Joshh" Sheppard, Jordan "Reedy" Reed, James "Dominate" Batz, and Benjamin "Bance" Bance. On May 8, 2 Place at

ESWC Zénith 2016 The Electronic Sports World Convention (ESWC) (formerly known as Electronic Sports World Cup) is an international professional gaming championship. Every year, winners of national qualifier events around the world earn the right to represent thei ...

. They are participating in the

Call of Duty World League The Call of Duty World League was a series of ''Call of Duty'' esports tournaments that began in January 2016. At its most recent form, tournaments were played on '' Call of Duty: Black Ops 4'' for PlayStation 4. A total of US$6 million of pr ...

. Over the past three years, Splyce has been one of the most competitively successful ''Call of Duty'' teams in the world. In 2016, they finished second in the Call of Duty World League Championship. In 2017, Splyce won the Call of Duty World League Stage 1 Playoffs, defeating FaZe Clan and Luminosity gaming, among others, on their way to capturing the title and over $200,000 in prize winnings. In 2018, Splyce were the runners-up in the 2018 CWL Birmingham Open, the fourth Major International offline event for '' Call of Duty: World War II''.

''Counter-Strike''

On August 19, 2015, Follow eSports announced it had acquired the roster of SapphireKelownaDotCom. Follow eSports dropped SapphireKelownaDotCom and picked up the roster of ex-eLevate on October 25, 2015. Following shortly after the organisation's rebranding from Follow eSports to Splyce, the roster disbanded on December 27, 2015. On December 30, 2015, Splyce picked up four players from the team formerly known as Dogmen and picked up David "DAVEY" Stafford as their fifth player on January 14, 2016. Splyce was invited to the

MLG Columbus 2016 MLG ''Counter-Strike: Global Offensive'' Major Championship: Columbus, also referred to as MLG Columbus 2016 was the eighth '' Counter-Strike: Global Offensive'' (''CS:GO'') Major Championship held by Major League Gaming (MLG) throughout March 2 ...

qualifiers due to The Mongolz being unable to get visas. They qualified for MLG Columbus 2016 after beating

Counter Logic Gaming Counter Logic Gaming (CLG) is an American esports organization headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in April 2010 by George "HotshotGG" Georgallidis and Alexander "Vodoo" Beutel as a ''League of Legends'' team, and has sin ...

and Vexed Gaming. Shortly after on June 17, 2016, Abraham "abE" Fazli and Andrew "Professor_Chaos" Heintz departed from the team, though Professor_Chaos was announced as Splyce's new coach on June 21, 2016. Jason "jasonR" Ruchelski additionally departed from the roster on July 7, 2016. On July 12, 2016, Splyce officially announced the signing of Joey "CRUC1AL" Steusel, Asger "AcilioN" Larsen and Enkhtaivan "Machinegun" Lkhagva. In the following 2 years, Splyce made some minor roster adjustments. On April 29, 2018, Splyce announced that they would pull out CS:GO, stating ''"It is something that is the best for all of us"''.

Tournament results

* 13th–16th —

''Halo''

On October 11, 2018, Splyce announced that their ''Halo'' roster consisting of Renegade, Shotzzy, StelluR and Eco would be competing in the

as well.

Tournament results

* 1st — 2018 Halo World Championships *4th — 2017 Halo World Championships *2nd — HCS London 2018 *1st — MLG New Orleans 2018 *1st — Halo World Championship 2018 North America Regional Finals *1st — MLG Orlando 2018 *3rd — HCS Pro League Fall 2017 Finals

''Rocket League''

On May 10, 2017, Splyce announced that they had signed Jaime "Karma" Bickford, a former Hearthstone turned Rocket League player, to their stream team. Three months later, Chandler "HotWheelsSid" Higdon and Braden "Pluto" Schenetzki were brought into the squad to compete in RLCS Season 4. However, this team failed to qualify through the open qualifiers and eventually disbanded. On March 6, 2018, Splyce announced the new roster which retained Karma and brought in Trevor "DudeWithTheNose" Hannah and Jake "JWismont" Wismont. Jimmy "Jimmer" Jordan was also brought in as a coach for the squad. Season 5 saw Splyce make it through the open qualifiers and into the RLRS, but a disappointing sixth-place finish meant they would not be staying in the Rival Series. The team stuck together for Season 6 and again qualified for the RLRS. A first-place finish in the regular season booked Splyce a trip to the Promotional Tournament, where they defeated both Bread and Rogue to gain promotion into the RLCS for Season 7.

Tournament results

* 1st — RLCS Season 6 NA Promotion Tournament

Fighting games

On August 24, 2015, FolloweSports started a Super Smash Bros. division first signing two players. They would later expand into the FGC with the signing of Ryan "Filipino Champ" Ramirez.

''Starcraft II''

On December 1, 2016, Splyce announced the creation of a Starcraft II division first signing Kang "Solar" Min Soo. On December 25, Kim "Stats" Dae Yeob was added to the roster. Jun "TY" Tae Yang, the last player to become part of the team joined on May 11, 2017. Kang "Solar" Min Soo left Splyce on August 1, 2018.

''Overwatch''

In 2018, it was announced that an ownership including Splyce had purchased the Toronto

Overwatch League The Overwatch League (OWL) is a professional esports league for the video game ''Overwatch'', produced by its developer, Blizzard Entertainment. The Overwatch League follows the model of other traditional North American professional sporting lea ...

franchise, later named

Toronto Defiant Toronto Defiant is a Canadian professional ''Overwatch'' esports team based in Toronto, Ontario. The Defiant compete in the Overwatch League (OWL) and are a member of the league's West region. Founded in 2018, Toronto began play as one of eigh ...

. In addition to its ownership percentage, Splyce also operates the team.

Investors

In 2017,

Delaware North Delaware North is a global food service and hospitality company headquartered in Buffalo, New York. The company also operates in the lodging, sporting, airport, gambling, and entertainment industries. The company employs over 55,000 people worl ...

, owners of the

Boston Bruins The Boston Bruins are a professional ice hockey team based in Boston. The Bruins compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference. The team has been in existence since 1924, making t ...

, invested in Splyce. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. In 2018, Splyce raised a $2.6 million funding round from The Ledger Group/OverActive Media, an eSports investment group based in Canada, and First Serve Partners, a venture capital firm made up of business leaders, pop-culture influencers, and current/former professional athletes.

References

External links