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The Chengdu Hunters became the first team to formally leave the Overwatch League on Tuesday.

“The Chengdu Hunters have exited the Overwatch League,” an OWL spokesperson said in a statement to the website GGRecon. “The organization communicated to the League a shift in their overall strategic objectives, and we wish them well with their new direction.”

The Hunters were announced as an OWL franchise on Aug. 2, 2018, and they competed from 2019 through 2022. They had been on hiatus since April 2023, and their official Twitter account had not posted since saying in late January that “Overwatch 2 has been shut down in mainland China.”

That came after Blizzard, which publishes Overwatch 2, did not reach a contract extension with the Chinese internet tech company NetEase. The league’s other Chinese teams, however, still have continued to play.

The Hunters’ exit leaves the league with five teams in the East region: the Guangzhou Charge, Hangzhou Spark, Seoul Dynasty, Seoul Infernal and Shanghai Dragons. The Infernal were previously known as the Philadelphia Fusion before rebranding this season.

–Field Level Media