RIP to the Philadelphia Fusion, who are Being Taken from Us

Ending 2022 on a sour note:

Today, we announced plans to rebrand ourselves in the new year as the Seoul Infernal and relocate to South Korea.

Read more details about the announcement here: https://t.co/wgRVHGcmNI

— Philadelphia Fusion (@Fusion) December 30, 2022

Maybe eSports are not the future, contrary to what that guy used to say in the comments section.

This is actually not surprising, however, if you were paying even half attention to the team. They relocated to South Korea during the pandemic and staying there made the most sense. Originally, we were going to get the Fusion Arena in South Philly, but construction was halted due to COVID and then the arena was later rejiggered to be more of a multi-purpose kind of deal. So here were are now in 2023 with no eSports arena and no Overwatch team. We’re now a five for five town instead of six for six. Those bastards took the Fusion from us!

Jokes aside, prior to the pandemic, the Fusion had a burgeoning and impressive following among the youths. Your Buddy Ryan-loving WIP uncle likely did not give a shit, but the Fusion went to the championship game in their debut year and then Philly turned out sold-out crowds for a home stand at The Met and the 2019 Overwatch Finals at the Wells Fargo Center. There was a legit audience for this stuff, and the Fusion had this guy named “Carpe” who was a badass motherfucker. He was kind of like A.J. Brown out there, like a legitimate offensive weapon on any map. At his prime, if we included him in a Philly athlete ranking, he would have been top 10. I am not kidding, I am 100% serious.

We’ll have to check in with Comcast/T1 and see if they can give us an arena update here. It’s been an eventful few years for them, hasn’t it? Flyers stink, Sixers announce plans to leave South Philly, the Wings get back on the field post-pandemic, and now they’re moving the Fusion to South Korea. We’ll have to send John Clark out to the Seoul airport to see if he can snag a few interviews.

Just brutal for local Fusion fans, though. This is like the SuperSonics leaving Seattle. It’s like the Baltimore Colts leaving for Indy. It’s like Leonard Tose, if he was successful in moving the Eagles to Phoenix.

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