Dante “Danteh” Cruz, one of the last remaining veterans from Season 1 in 2018, has lashed out at the state of the Overwatch League in his scathing retirement post after leaving the LA Gladiators.
On June 29, Los Angeles Gladiators announced that their Tank player, Danteh, was being released. After the news, Danteh would go on to eventually stream and reveal he was dropped due to the team wanting to recruit another Tank player, Hwan “Marve1” Min-seo.
A day after the announcement, Danteh put out a statement on his retirement from OWL and his future. And with the lengthy statement, he lashed out at the current state of the League.
The longtime DPS player turned Tank admitted that it was hard to keep up with other world-class Tank players and that he felt responsible for LA Gladiator’s losses this season.
Retirement / My future pic.twitter.com/mDUsY6QAlb
— danteh (@danteh) June 29, 2023
However, after talking about his role swap and his general loss of passion to compete, he cited the state of the League as one of the contributing factors to his retirement.
“As someone who has been in the League since Season 1, the state of the League was really demotivating for me this season,” Danteh wrote. “Only one LAN event where only four teams from an extremely stacked NA region can qualify is actually absurd.
“LAN events are by far the most enjoyable part of competing, and it felt like we were completely robbed this season.”
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He went on to criticize this season’s new structure of OWL, saying: “I really miss the Season 1 and 2 days where even the worst losses could be lightened up by meeting some fans and feeling the support in person.”
Before the start of the 2023 season, OWL announced that the schedule would have a drastic overhaul, with only two stages for the entire season, and two LAN events all up, the Midseason Madness tournament and Playoffs, with the qualifiers being played online.
Today, we are releasing Danteh.We are grateful we had a professional like himself represent the Gladiators, even though his time with us was short. We know he will continue to be a massive part of the Overwatch community, and we wish him all the best.Thank you, @Danteh. 💜 pic.twitter.com/BmHeZ0YTx6
— Los Angeles Gladiators (@LAGladiators) June 28, 2023
Danteh further added that coming into Season 6 this year, there wasn’t much hype around the professional scene. “It made everything feel less satisfying. With that, declining player salaries, and lack of job security, I realized that there isn’t much to look forward to if I continue my pro career.”
As for what may come next, Danteh says after figuring out his living situation, he is going to pursue streaming and collegiate Overwatch, which he feels will give him room to do other things in life.
With Danteh’s retirement, the League loses the last North American player who had been active since Season 1.
