Team Envy, Dallas Fuel and Dallas CoD franchise owner Mike “Hastr0” Rufail has responded to a supposed leak giving away the name of their new Call of Duty franchise.
Envy is a brand that was born from Call of Duty esports, the two becoming synonymous with one another in much the same way as OpTic Gaming and FaZe Clan.
That’s why it’s so important the Dallas CoD franchise gets a suitable name – so when a potential name was leaked, Hastr0 took to Twitter to respond to the claims.
According to infamous leaker CDLIntel, the Dallas CoD franchise is going to be named “Dallas Empire”, with information received from an anonymous source linking to domain names owned by Envy Gaming Inc.
:rotating_light::rotating_light:@COD_Dallas to be named “Dallas Empire”?
A burner account sent me the name, so I checked if the domain “https://t.co/98zfZttjuu” was taken..
Envy Gaming Inc. owns it :eyes: pic.twitter.com/uckAgG2hkO
— CDL Intel (@INTELCallofDuty) September 30, 2019
The tweet also mentions that the company owns the domain name www.dallasrepublic.com, a suggestion that the team could end up being named Dallas Republic.
However, Hastr0 has come out with a definitive statement responding to the leaks, saying: “We registered multiple team names, domains and branding assets for our Call of Duty esports team.
He concluded, “You guys can keep speculating. Just know that our launch will be pretty epic.”
We registered multiple team names, domains and branding assets for our Call of Duty esports team. You guys can keep speculating. Just know that our launch will be pretty epic.
— Mike Rufail (@hastr0) September 30, 2019
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While Hastr0 doesn’t outright deny the claims, he definitely suggests that while Dallas Empire (and Dallas Republic) are names that have been thought about, there is a multitude of brands, names, domains and assets that could end up being the final product.
This isn’t the first time Hastr0 has denied something to be true, but it seems it’s often just to keep fans on their toes.
On February 10, 2018, journalist and esports consultant Rod “Slasher” Breslau tweeted that his sources had shared with him that Woo-yeon “sowhat” Bong would be signing with the Dallas Fuel.
Hastr0 immediately refuted the claims, saying that Slasher should “get rid of that source”. Not a week later, on February 16, 2018, Hastr0 confirmed that Fuel had been in discussions over the signing of sowhat, although the acquisition didn’t end up occurring.
Regarding the tweet by @Slasher which falsely confirmed the signing of "sowhat" to the @DallasFuel roster made on February 10: pic.twitter.com/H7vn9eEj2g
— Mike Rufail (@hastr0) February 16, 2018
CDLIntel definitely has a habit of being right, and usually won’t report on something unless he’s confident in it, so we may have just found out who CoD fans in Dallas will be supporting come 2020.
For now though, it’s still unconfirmed, with no franchises in the new league having officially unveiled their brands yet.