Kongdoo Panthera to become Team Griffin

Korean esports organization Team Kongdoo has renamed across its titles to Team Griffin. This means the Kongdoo Panthera name will exit Overwatch after first earning international recognition in APEX Season 1.

게임단 통합 및 리빌딩을 시작으로 그리핀은 글로벌 e스포츠 프로게임단으로 계속하여 나아가겠습니다.



감사합니다. pic.twitter.com/Leqv02A59q — Team Griffin (@TeamGriffin_) January 11, 2019

The Team Kongdoo organization rebranded into Still8 E-Sportainment prior to the start of Contenders Season 3. However, the Overwatch team's branding was left untouched at the time and continued to play under the name Kongdoo Panthera.

Following its rebrand, the organization acquired League of Legends squad Team Griffin in late November. All Still8 rosters will now align with the Team Griffin branding.

The organization has operated Overwatch teams since 2016 and qualified two teams for APEX Season 1 in late 2016 under the names Kongdoo Panthera Kongdoo Panthera Inactive Bdosin Choi Seung-tae (최승태) off tank birdring Kim Ji-hyuk (김지혁) dps Curious Lee Yeong-min dps Fissure Baek Chan-hyung (백찬형) tank Void Kang Jun-woo (강준우) tank wakawaka An Jee-ho (안지호) support and Kongdoo Uncia. Both teams remained in APEX for the entirety of the tournament's existence. This included APEX Season 2, where Kongdoo Panthera were runner-ups.

In APEX Season 4, Cloud9 purchased naming rights for the Kongdoo Panthera roster and the team became Cloud9 KongDoo. Following the end of APEX Season 4, in which Cloud9 KongDoo finished third, four players from the roster joined Cloud9's Overwatch League franchise, the London Spitfire.

As a result, the organization was left with just one remaining Overwatch team -- Kongdoo Uncia. The greater past successes and recognition of the Kongdoo Panthera name led the organization to rebrand the Uncia roster into Kongdoo Panthera Kongdoo Panthera Inactive Clestyn Cho Gun-hee off tank Agatha Lee Jung-soo flex support choisehwan Choi Se-Hwan (최세환) dps Selly An Jeong-hwan dps True Choi Yun-soo tank Costos Lim Min-taek (임민택) support . The team competed as Kongdoo Panthera in all three seasons of Contenders 2018 and finished second in Season 2.

The team will now compete as Team Griffin. After being eliminated in the quarterfinals of Contenders Korea Season 3, their status in 2019's first season of Contenders Korea is unknown. The region will shrink to eight teams in 2019.