The Philadelphia Fusion has formally rebranded forward of the 2023 Overwatch League season, taking up the identify Seoul Infernal and making the transfer to South Korea official, the workforce introduced at this time.
In a press launch from at this time, the house owners in Comcast Spectacor stated that the franchise will transfer its operations to Seoul instantly, bringing the previous Fusion workforce nearer to its “sister group” in T1, which Comcast Spectator additionally operates in a three way partnership with SK Telecom.
In the present day, we introduced plans to rebrand ourselves within the new yr because the Seoul Infernal and relocate to South Korea.
Learn extra particulars concerning the announcement right here: https://t.co/wgRVHGcmNI
— Philadelphia Fusion (@Fusion) December 30, 2022
The Infernal will retain all of the “possession, administration, and roster of at present signed gamers” from Fusion, whereas additionally promising to herald new participant additions to fill out the workforce earlier than the beginning of the 2023 season, based on the press launch. The workforce additionally plans to “unveil recent logos, new jerseys and extra” quickly.
Because the Fusion, the workforce has already been working out of South Korea since early 2020 following the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The workforce in earlier years has competed with a mixture of worldwide expertise, however in the course of the 2022 season, they competed solely with Korean gamers for the primary time. One of many workforce’s star gamers from final yr, Lee “Carpe” Jae-hyeok, not too long ago retired from professional play to pursue a professional VALORANT alternative with T1.
The newly rebranded Seoul Infernal will be part of the Seoul Dynasty in South Korea’s capital, becoming a member of the likes of Los Angeles with regards to two groups “competing” in the identical metropolis. However because the begin of the 2021 season, the L.A. Valiant has primarily based its operations within the East as effectively, working with primarily Chinese language/Korean rosters over the previous two seasons.
The Seoul Infernal would be the second OWL workforce to relocate previous to the 2023 season after the Paris Everlasting introduced its plans to maneuver to Las Vegas earlier than the league’s sixth season begins.