Mike Rufail Has Bought Back Envy, Dallas Fuel, and Dallas Empire

In 2021, it was announced that Envy Gaming would acquire OpTic Gaming to effectively save the latter brand amid a period of instability. One year later, the Envy Gaming brand was retired and the merged operations became fully branded as ‘OpTic Gaming’, and only Dallas Fuel, an Overwatch League team, remained undisturbed.

This merger saw the end of the CDL’s ‘Dallas Empire’ with OpTic Texas stepping into the limelight instead. Mike Rufail, who had been with Envy Gaming since 2009, stepped back from his ownership and CEO role at the firm.

Now, in a post on social media, Rufail has revealed the rebirth of these brands.

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‘I Took That Chance’

In a post on Twitter (X) that was accompanied by a celebratory montage, Mike Rufail revealed:

I was recently given the chance to re-acquire Envy along with the Dallas Fuel and Dallas Empire brands.

I took that chance…

He further explained that acquiring the Envy Gaming label meant that he would no longer be a shareholder of OpTic Gaming, nor would he be associated with the brand:

Post transaction, I will not be a shareholder or associated with OpTic. My team will gain access to the social media accounts for the brands next week.

Dallas Empire was a successful Call of Duty League organisation that won the inaugural season of the tournament in 2020, defeating Atlanta FaZe in the first COD Champs of the CDL era. In the same year, the squad won three $50,000 ‘weeks’ and finished second during two Major tournaments in the following year.

Dallas Fuel had a similar streak, winning the OWL 2022 playoffs and netting a $1 million grand prize. That followed a third-place finish the year before.

It’ll be interesting to see what happens once this transaction has been completed. Will there be a spot in the CDL for Dallas Empire to surface once again? If it does, there’s still a fanbase waiting for the organisation – I was fond of Dallas Empire before it was swallowed up by the Envy-OpTic merger.

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