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Posted on May 4, 2012, CJ Miozzi Entire StarCraft 2 eSports Pro-Team Saved, Acquired by Quantic

Through a deal facilitated by the support of two Google employees, pro-gaming team and media production company Quantic Gaming has acquired the majority of Team Vile’s StarCraft 2 roster, becoming one of the largest pro-gaming teams in the StarCraft 2 eSports scene.

The acquisition sees Quantic’s roster rise to 17 members, picking up the following Team Vile players and effectively saving a team that has been undergoing major management restructuring:

Illusion

State

Spanishiwa

DdoRo

HasHe

Hawk

SyNc

ChAnCe

Domorin

PsY

Ian Gulliver and Stephen Gunn, two software engineers at Google with a love for gaming and StarCraft, had been involved with Team Vile and the eSports scene for almost a year. After getting to know the Vile players and becoming emotionally invested in their success, they decided to financially support the group in order to further their eSports careers.

In an exclusive interview with Game Front, Ian Gulliver and Stephen Gunn, as well as Quantic eSports Director Garrett Yeager, shared their thoughts on the acquisition and the future of Quantic Gaming.

Gunn, who has historically taught children at a local Montessori school to play StarCraft as a team-building exercise, explained how he initially became involved with Team Vile:

“I originally got involved because I saw how eSports was growing, and given the success that we’ve had at Google, I was personally looking for a way to pay that forward in the form of opportunity for other people. Speaking about SC in particular, I wanted to create opportunity for kids to do stuff at a world-class, world competition level that they may not otherwise have had if they didn’t have someone to help back them and support them.”

We asked the duo how the deal with Quantic came about. Gulliver said:

“Vile was in the middle of a management shakeup in the last few weeks, and Stephen and I came to the point where we were worried about the players finding a solid place to land and propel them further upward in the eSports community. We have a lot of really awesome players and want to make sure they see their full potential. “Stephen had already been talking to Quantic CEO Mark Ferraz, and was very excited about this idea. After some initial skepticism, I started talking to the Quantic guys and was very impressed with the organization and how directed it is, how focused it is — things that really stick out relative to other folks I’ve met in the eSports community. So we started talking about whether this was the right place for the players we knew and decided that this would be a good fit: our strong lineup of players with Quantic’s strong management. “We started talking to our players about this idea, and they felt the same way. They’re really excited about this opportunity.”

Gunn added: