Granblue Fantasy: Versus launch cited as reason

Cygames, the developers behind Granblue Fantasy: Versus, has been sponsoring professional players since March 2017 by way of the "Cygames Beast" eSports team. Today, the company has announced that the team has been disbanded.

According to a press release shared this morning, Cygames has ceased its sponsorship activities as of the end of February 2020, effectively releasing its line up of competitors.

According to their statement, it appears that the launch of their fighting title was the reason for the termination of the team. Being involved as game developers and as sponsors to those who may potentially compete in said game could cause issues down the road, and Cygames aims to avoid those situations.

"Under these circumstances, continuing to sponsor players could lead to conflicts or disturbances to the players' future activities which would go against our said goal of supporting them and the fighting game community as a whole," Cygames wrote.

Cygames Beast began with the sponsoring of fighting game legend Daigo Umehara. We'd later see players such as Eduardo "PR Balrog" Perez, DC "Infexious" Coleman, Keita "Fuudo" Ai, and Bruce "GamerBee" Hsiang added to the team, but with today's news, all have been released at this point in time.

You can check out the full English translation of Cygames' announcement below, courtesy of our very own Nicholas "MajinTenshinhan" Taylor.

Cygames' press release We here at the game development company Cygames started a sponsorship team back in March of 2017 in order to support pro fighting game players under the name "Cygames Beast," and regret to inform you that as of the end of February 2020, these activities will cease. Up until now, Cygames have been sponsoring players under the name "Cygames Beast," starting with Daigo Umehara, and united several players under one banner where they've been able to improve in the world of competitive gaming. A lot of fans have shown great support to the Cygames Beast players, and the players themselves have put in very hard work and shown results which have been fantastic. On February 6, 2020, we released the fighting game version of the Action RPG Granblue Fantasy entitled "Granblue Fantasy: Versus" on the PlayStation 4 and entered the world of fighting games as game makers. Under these circumstances, continuing to sponsor players could lead to conflicts or disturbances to the players' future activities which would go against our said goal of supporting them and the fighting game community as a whole. In order to avoid such situations, we have decided to cease our sponsorship activities. Although the sponsorship contracts have ended, we wish the best in all future endeavors for each of the players that had been part of our sponsored team and supported the "Cygames Beast" name up until now, as well as all the fans who have cheered us on during this time. Thank you.

We here at EventHubs wish the best to the players and Cygames.

Source: Cygames.