Shea “StorM” Metcalfe announced in a TwitLonger on Wednesday that Legates have closed down. The organisation was active for three years and qualified for the most recent season of ESL Premiership, but due to a “plethora of reasons” it has been shut down for the foreseeable future.
Closing our doors
Read: https://t.co/9Ld88B9i7r
— Legates Esports 🇺🇦 (@LegatesEsports) March 8, 2023
Legates competed in CS:GO, VALORANT and Rainbow Six: Siege. In CSGO they were prolific enough to send multiple teams to UK LANs, including sending five Legates line-ups to EPIC.LAN 35 in 2021. They signed the former Evolved Gaming line-up, Scambit, in August 2022, and maintained the core of Alfie “Rayman” Bench, Connor “Bigun007” Suddons and Kerran “K6y” Bartlett until the organisation’s dissolution. Notably, the team was coached for a time by caster and former Coalesce coach Jack “Zerpherr” Kelly.
Their biggest success under Legates came when they qualified for ESL Premiership Autumn 2022, beating NeverBrokeAgain in the lower bracket of the Promotion play-off. While they did not make the play-offs, victories over 7AM and eMasters meant they finished in 7th-8th place and retained their spot for the next season. In the most recent season of ESEA Main the team finished on an 8-6 record, meaning they missed out on play-offs. The team has yet to achieve any meaningful placements on LAN, with their best finish being a 9th-12th placing at EPIC38 last month.
Rayman has indicated the team intends to continue and that the players will play under the name WOODZ while they seek a new organisation to represent. They are also searching for two new players as Tom “praisy” Panting and Connor “Finui” Fincane have chosen to leave the team. WOODZ will next be seen in action in the upcoming Closed Qualifier for the UKIC CeX Spring Invitational, where they will use Michael “ZAL” Chapman and Sebastiaan “Acorn” Wehnes as stand-ins.
WOODZ are currently:
Alfie “Rayman” Bench
Connor “Bigun007” Suddons
Kerran “K6y” Bartlett
Michael “ZAL” Chapman (stand-in)
Sebastiaan “Acorn” Wehnes (stand-in)
