Twitch has spun off Evil Geniuses and Alliance, and the two teams are now independent, player-owned organizations, Twitch announced Monday.

Twitch acquired EG and Alliance in 2014, when Twitch bought the GoodGame talent agency, which owned the two teams. In August, Alex Garfield, the founder of GGA, left Twitch, just a few days before Twitch shut down the agency. Most GGA employees stuck with Twitch, and the organization maintained ownership of both EG and Alliance.

At the time, rumours circulated regarding what would happen to both teams, given that they both suddenly dropped their entire Dota 2 rosters. The fears that the organizations were dissolving proved unfounded as both teams slowly re-built their Dota teams and began signing new players. EG recently returned to Call of Duty with a new roster, while Alliance has been signing Hearthstone and Smash players over the past few months.

"I’m very pleased to see Twitch share our vision and helping us by giving us the tools to expand and evolve as an organisation." Alliance player and now co-owner Jonathan "Loda" Berg said in Alliance's press release. "With this divestment they have given majority control to us players from the old squad and a few others. With ongoing support and partnership with Twitch we are well equipped for the future."

Loda also stated that now that they are an independent org, Alliance hopes to expand into more esports, beginning with their recent expansion into Hearthstone by signing Sebastian "Ostkaka" Engwall and Jon "Orange" Westberg.

According to a statement from Twitch COO Kevin Lin, Twitch will continue to work with and sponsor both teams. However, Lin says that Twitch did not want to fuel any theories that the teams received "preferential treatment" from Twitch.

"While they'll still be streaming on Twitch and we'll continue providing support services, both teams’ brands, player contracts, and futures are now in the hands of the players and player-selected management," Twitch COO Kevin Lin stated in a press release. "They will have complete independence and we will work with them as we would any other esports team."

Twitch recently announced that they had become the exclusive sponsorship sales partner for both Cloud9 and Team SoloMid, representing both organizations to potential sponsors in negotiations. It is unclear if Twitch will maintain a similar relationship with EG and Alliance.

EG and Alliance join a growing list of player-owned organizations. Recently formed player-owned orgs include OG, Team NP and Astralis.

Daniel Rosen is a news editor for theScore esports. You can follow him on Twitter.