XSET, the esports and gaming culture organization, has told The Esports Observer that it will enter competitive World of Warcraft after signing the former Method Gaming squad. The reigning World of Warcraft Arena world champions left Method and formed their own squad, Echo, before finally arriving on the XSET roster. The roster now consists of René “Swapxy” Pinkera, Josef “Chas” Stoianov, Oscar “Whaazz” Wulff, and Andreas “Raiku” Meaney.
“We could not be more excited for this opportunity to work with these guys,” Marco Mereu, the co-founder and COO of XSET told TEO. “We want to be in front of all the biggest games–competitively. We also want to be in front of those audiences bringing our brand and what we stand for as an organization socially to those audiences. These guys are exactly that.”
The former Method squad had more than a few offers come their way and sorting through those was a process according to Pinkera. However, it was XSET’s willingness to allow the group to not be tied contractually to hundreds of hours of streaming to go along with the rigors of practice and competing.
“We managed to win the world championship because we value our practice sessions every day,” Pinkera said. “So one of the big reasons we signed with XSET and love that we are a part of XSET is that they gave us the opportunity to make our own decisions and manage our time. We can stream when we want. Other teams, they are really restricted in what they can do with their time. XSET allows us freedom.”
Stoianov says he was impressed by XSET’s presentation, offer and what it stood for as an organization.
“A couple of months ago when we left our last org we were looking for a good solid organization to represent,” Stoianov said. “We had been in talks with the majority of big companies and when XSET came to us, we didn’t know who they were at first, But we looked into it and were really impressed with who they were, what they stood for and what they wanted to start. So we talked, contacted Marco and signed.”
Mereu, who counts World of Warcraft as one of his favorite games, agrees that allowing the world champions to continue on the path they created training-wise is essential to their success.
“For competitive players, we need them to be focused,” Mereu said. “We want what’s going to help them compete the most. Our whole focus is putting these guys in a position to win.”
Another perk for XSET, according to Mereu, is that the organization will get to work with Blizzard esports more closely.
“In addition to working with these guys, we’re actually excited to work with Blizzard,” Mereu said. “They have been very supportive of this process, I’m excited to be working with my favorite Blizzard sport. I think Blizzard’s excited about that as well and we’re looking forward to working with those guys.”
