Epsilon eSports has long been a name inspiring reverence and fear within the TF2 competitive scene. The respect is warranted, given their near-perfect run of dominance in Europe capped off with a resounding win at Insomnia49. However, they would not remain champions forever, fading into the shadows shortly after i49. A revamped roster reappeared for a defense of the title at Insomnia52, but ultimately lost to the NA heavyweight froyotech and disappeared once again.

This season, after over a year of inactivity, the famous team reformed with familiar names from the dominance of old, including numlocked, a top demoman who had departed to find success as a top laner in the ever-popular League of Legends. However, this roster was not focused on reclaiming their throne on TF2 but forging a new one in Blizzard's upcoming shooter Overwatch. In fact, the Epsilon organization was sponsoring them for Overwatch and not TF2, though the team opted to keep playing TF2 while waiting for Overwatch under the same name.

Unfortunately, Epsilon has not found as much success as they once did. While they still are a top team by any measure, they have recently found themselves challenged by Reason Gaming and The Last Resort. These struggles and frustrations resulted in their veteran medic KnOxXx quitting the TF2 team.

This departure, which has still not been fully resolved, along with already having no sponsorship, left them uncertain on whether they would be able to attend the DreamHack Winter Invitational. However, the team decided to honor their commitment, and reached out the community for some funds to be used to help get them to the event.

Their call was met by community competitive lobby site TF2Center, which provided the amount required to get to the event. As a result, the team will now compete as #tf2center for all TF2 events they are part of. In addition, communication issues with Epsilon have led them to leave the organization, thus making them otherwise unaffiliated.

the legendary roster is no longer under the Epsilon banner

numlocked had the following words to offer:

TF2Center are providing us with the rest of the money we needed from our fundraiser to get to DreamHack. We're still going to be paying the rest of the costs through prize money, but it means we don't rely on a fundraiser which makes me (and I'm sure the rest of the community) happy.

Also, the deal with Epsilon was they would provide us with Overwatch beta keys when the beta began and we would play under their name. There was no affiliation with them for TF2 - we were just using the name for nostalgia's sake. Due to us still not having Overwatch access and having lost contact with Epsilon's management, we have decided to leave them and join a new organization that we will announce once we have gotten access to the beta.

TF2Center's MasterNoob said the following about the sponsorship:

I knew the players from i52 and was disappointed to hear that they had financial issues, especially since a TF2 tournament at DreamHack has never happened before, so I decided to help them out.

I didn't have any preference for the team name since many people already know about TF2Center, but numlocked suggested it be #tf2center, and I was fine with that.

The roster of #tf2center at DreamHack Winter will include:

• Scout: Flippy
• Scout: schocky
• Roamer: Mike
• Pocket: Tek
• Demoman: numlocked