Philadelphia Fusion rebrands as Seoul Infernal; moves to South Korea

03 January 2023

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(ESI Illustration) Image credit: Seoul Infernal / Comcast Spectacor

Overwatch League team Philadelphia Fusion, owned by American sports and entertainment company Comcast Spectacor, has rebranded to Seoul Infernal and officially moved all operations to South Korea.

As Philadelphia Fusion, the franchise has been operating from South Korea since early 2020, when it moved there because of the pandemic. Going forward, all players, management and employees of Philadelphia Fusion will remain employed by Seoul Infernal.

As one of the founding members of the Overwatch League, Philadelphia Fusion was established in 2017. The team is owned by Comcast Spectacor, the owners of the NHL franchise Philadelphia Flyers. The team never won a major Overwatch tournament, but has been a consistent performer in almost all events it took part in. The team currently has a predominantly Korean roster.

Seoul Infernal’s owners, Comcast Spectacor, are also involved in T1, one of South Korea’s premier esports brands. Comcast is the co-owner of T1, along with SK Square. The new move for the Overwatch team reflects the goal of Comcast to centralise its esports teams in one place, with Korea being the chosen location.

Dave Scott, President and CEO of Comcast Spectacor, commented: “We’ve been evaluating how we can best compete at a consistent, championship level, and we’ve realised that our franchise will be best positioned to succeed in Seoul. We are excited to begin this next chapter as the Seoul Infernal, and our team is proud to represent our current and future fans.

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The team’s branding will change from the black and orange scheme of Philadelphia Fusion to the black and red scheme familiar to the fans of T1. According to Seoul Infernal, this is on purpose and will further reflect the new location for the team as well as the “esports pedigree of its sister team T1”.

Apart from the brand, everything else, including ownership, management and current roster will stay the same.

Ivan Šimić
Ivan comes from Croatia, loves weird simulator games, and is terrible at playing anything else. Spent 5 years writing about tech and esports in Croatia, and is now doing it here.