Team VGJ, the esports organisation owned by NBA athlete Jeremy Lin, has rebranded following the end of its strategic partnership with Chinese organisation Vici Gaming.
As a result of the partnership ending, Team VGJ has rebranded to J.Storm and will be competing in Dota 2, Fortnite, and other undisclosed titles while representing North America.
Alongside the fresh start, J.Storm has recruited a new Dota 2 team after VGJ.Storm’s roster departed during the brutal roster shuffle earlier this month. The organisation picked up the roster formerly known as Marchoutofarmy, which was assembled for the 18/19 DPC season. The team qualified for the Kuala Lumpur Major through the North America Qualifier.
Chandler Dent, General Manager for J.Storm commented on the organisation’s new identity and new team: “We are focused on building off of the success we had last year as a new org and welcoming in a new set of players. We have a talented stack of five quality players that are hungry to compete at the highest level. Following the team’s successful run in the Kuala Lumpur Major Qualifiers, we’re confident that we’ll only improve as we grow together and continue to build our fan base in North America.”
This move was made to comply with Valve‘s rules which state that if an organisation or person owns multiple teams in Dota 2, only one of those teams will be able to compete in The International from now on. This means that VGJ.Thunder’s roster will no longer represent the organisation.
Esports Insider says: It was evident that some organisations would be affected by Valve’s rule change, but the rebrand was unexpected. Branching out from the partnership Vici Gaming to stand on its own two feet, Jeremy Lin has a lot on his hands with J.Storm but we hope that the organisation can weather the storm.