Update: Echo Fox cuts entire Tekken team along with Punk, Theo, Scar as their fighting game roster shrinks
A shake up in the eSports landscape
10/11 Update: Top Tekken players JDCR and Saint announced today that they are also no longer with team Echo Fox. Both players are considered among the best Tekken 7 players in the world with Saint currently sitting at fourth place on the Tekken World Tour standings while JDCR is ranked fifth — they also came in placing first and second at EVO 2017. You can see their full statements on their release in the gallery below.
Update: Echo Fox has released a statement from President Jared Jeffries regarding their cuts made to their fighting game roster as well as the release of their Gears of War and Call of Duty teams stating the move was a strategic reorganization and refocusing of their current resources. You can check out their full statement in the gallery below.
Earlier: Team Echo Fox quickly broke onto the fighting game scene in the past couple of years snatching up a large part of the global talent with top players like FOX|Justin Wong, FOX|Tokido, FOX|SonicFox, FOX|Momochi and FOX|MkLeo joining their seemingly ever growing roster which is now seeing cuts being made to their fighting game team.
Punk, Theo and Scar all announced today that they and Echo Fox have parted ways meaning that some of the United States' strongest Street Fighter and Injustice competitors are once again free agents after Punk only joined the team less than seven months ago.
Victor "Punk" Woodley quickly rose to the top of the Street Fighter world for his exceptional Karin play in 2017 going from an online warrior to runner up at EVO that year though his sophomore year as a pro player has not been as smooth of a journey.
The Karin main gained everyone's attention after being picked up by Panda Global in 2017 and taking ELEAGUE that year for Street Fighter 5 over some of the stiffest competition the game had to offer. Punk seemed near unbeatable for a time, and after a bit of a slump to start off 2018, he appears to have corrected course having just won Thunderstruck this past weekend bringing him up to 25th on the Capcom Pro Tour standings.
Theo and Scar are no slouches in their games either with Theo making it to third place for Injustice 2 at EVO 2017 and Scar taking third in Mortal Kombat X at EVO 2016. Both players also made it to the final stage of the Injustice 2 Pro Series finals in 2017.
These changes will no undoubtedly shake up the professional side of the fighting game community and perhaps eSports as a whole since they have also reportedly released their entire Gears of War team and their League of Legends head coach.
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Photo credit: Stephanie Lindgren.
