Misfits Gaming

Founding and Early League of Legends Success

Misfits Gaming was founded on 18 May 2016 by Ben Spoont, initially as a League of Legends Challenger Series team. The organization was formed after its original parent organization, Renegades, was banned from competitive League of Legends. The inaugural roster consisted of top laner Barney 'Alphari' Morris, jungler Kim 'Wisdom' Tae-wan, mid laner Marcin 'SELFIE' Wolski, AD carry Florent 'Yuuki60' Soler and support Han 'Dreams' Min-kook.

After defeating EURONICS Gaming 3–1 in the finals of the European Challenger Series Summer Qualifiers, Misfits qualified for the EU CS. The team finished first in the 2016 EU CS Summer Split, which earned them a spot in the 2017 EU LCS Spring promotion tournament. There, they defeated FC Schalke 04 3–1 to advance to the top-tier EU LCS.

Their most significant early achievement came later in 2017 when they qualified for the World Championship. The worlds roster featured top laner Alphari, jungler Nubar 'Maxlore' Sarafian, mid laner Tristan 'PowerOfEvil' Schrage, AD carry Steven 'Hans Sama' Liv, and support Lee 'IgNar' Dong-geun. They advanced to the knockout stage and took SK Telecom T1 to a full five games before losing 2–3 in the quarterfinals, a strong showing that put the organization on the map.

League of Legends in the LEC Era and Academy Success

Misfits Gaming became a permanent partner in the rebranded League of Legends European Championship (LEC) in 2019. The team, based in Berlin, has experienced fluctuating success in Europe's top league. In the 2018 Summer Split, they finished fifth with an 11–7 record. They made a strong playoff run, sweeping G2 Esports 3–0 in the quarterfinals. After losing to Fnatic in the semifinals, they fell to Team Vitality in the third-place match. This placed them as the lowest seed for the Regional Finals, where a close 2–3 loss to Splyce stopped them from qualifying for the 2018 World Championship.

The 2020 Spring Split saw Misfits finish fifth with a 10-8 record, qualifying for playoffs where they started in the lower bracket and were defeated by Rogue 1–3. The organization has also maintained a strong and successful academy presence. Their main academy team, Misfits Premier, competes in the LFL. In their first year in 2017, they won the EU CS Spring, defeating FC Schalke 04 Esports 3–1 in the final.

Misfits Premier's success peaked in 2019 when they won the EU Masters, sweeping SK Gaming Prime 3–0 with a roster featuring top laner Danny 'Dan Dan' Le Comte, jungler Patrick 'Obsess' Engelmann, mid-laner Adam 'Lider' Ilyasov, AD carry Matúš 'Neon' Jakubčík and support Aleksi 'Hiiva' Kaikkonen. They continued their success by winning the 2020 LFL Championship as the lower seed, sweeping both LDLC OL and GamersOrigin 3–0. Previously, Misfits had another academy team, simply called Misfits Academy, which qualified for the 2017 EU LCS Summer Split. That team's LCS spot was sold to Mysterious Monkeys for around US$400,000 in May 2017.

Overwatch and the Florida Mayhem

Misfits Gaming entered Overwatch in late June 2016 by acquiring the Swedish roster of Graviton Surge, which included players like Terrence 'SoOn' Tarlier and Andreas 'Nevix' Karlsson. In July 2017, the organization secured an Overwatch League franchise for the Miami-Orlando area, which was named the Florida Mayhem in November. The existing Misfits roster was transferred to this new franchise.

The Florida Mayhem's journey in the Overwatch League was challenging. Their 2019 season, the team's second under head coach Vytis 'Mineral' Lasaitis, began poorly. After only one win in Stage 1, the organization announced an intention to implement an all-Korean team and fired two coaches, including Mineral. The team failed to win a match in Stage 2. Prior to Stage 3, they made several roster changes as part of the Korean overhaul and hired Oh 'Unread' Nam-hun as the new head coach during a one-win stage.

The team's fortunes changed in Stage 4 when the league implemented a 2-2-2 role lock. The Mayhem won four of their final five matches. In 2020, the Florida Mayhem found more consistent success, finishing fourth in the OWC East Region Regular Season with a 17–7 record to qualify for playoffs. Their run ended with a loss to the Washington Justice in the lower round 3 of the tournament.

Call of Duty and the Florida Mutineers

In August 2019, Misfits Gaming purchased one of two new franchise slots for the Call of Duty League, with reports indicating a price of approximately US$25 million per team. The team was branded as the Florida Mutineers in October 2019. Their initial five-man starting roster for the 2020 season was revealed as Prestinni, Frosty, Skyz, Havok, and Maux, with coach Atura.

The Mutineers had a promising debut season. At the Atlanta FaZe Home Series, after an initial loss, they survived elimination matches against Optic Gaming Los Angeles and the London Royal Ravens. In the semifinals, they ousted the Chicago Huntsmen 3–2 before losing 3–0 to Atlanta FaZe in the finals.

Prior to the CDL Los Angeles event, Prestinni stepped away from competition, leading to the signing of Maurice 'Fero' Henriquez. This became a permanent move, with Fero remaining in the lineup even after Prestinni's return. This new lineup struggled at CDL Los Angeles but bounced back with an event win at CDL Dallas, making a loser's bracket run before defeating the Minnesota ROKKR in the finals. After an early exit from their own home series, the team replaced Maux with standout amateur player Joe 'Owakening' Conley. The new lineup of Owakening, Fero, Frosty, Havok, and Skyz saw unprecedented success, blitzing through the CDL Minnesota and CDL Paris events with a perfect 8-0 match record and a 24-9 map count.

Other Competitive Ventures and Tournament Results

Misfits Gaming briefly competed in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. In January 2017, they acquired the ex-TSM roster, composed of Sean 'seang@res' Gares, Russel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken, Skylar 'Relyks' Weaver, Shazeb 'ShahZaM' Khan and Hunter 'SicK' Mims, gaining a spot in the ESL Pro League. Twistzz departed in April 2017, and the team signed the French duo of David 'devoduvek' Dobrosavljevic and François 'AmaNEk' Delaunay. Relyks was released in July 2017.

The team qualified for the ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018 but had a poor showing, earning only a single win and being eliminated with a 1–3 record, hampered by visa issues for its Canadian players. After the tournament, the contracts of seang@res, ShahZaM, and SicK expired. On 14 February 2018, Misfits announced their departure from CS:GO, releasing the remaining players. During its run, the team's notable results included a 3rd–4th place at DreamHack Open Tours 2017, 1st at the CyberPowerPC Extreme Gaming Series, Fall 2017, 3rd–4th in ESL Pro League Season 6, and 19th–21st at the ELEAGUE Major.

The organization also fielded an Apex Legends team in 2019, acquiring Matthew 'help' Stokes, Cole 'Losido' Stewart, and Taylor 'moose' Adams. They placed 6th at the EXP Invitational and 20th at the Apex Legends Preseason Invitational. In fighting games, Misfits signed Super Smash Bros. player Ryan 'The Moon' Coker-Welch in November 2016 and later traditional fighting game competitor Armando 'Angelic' Mejia.

Content Creation and the Misfits Gaming Academy

Beyond competitive teams, Misfits Gaming has invested heavily in content creation and community development. In Fall 2022, the organization launched a US$20 million fund for original content creation. One of its first signings after this announcement was streamer QTCinderella, the founder of The Streamer Awards. In March 2023, Misfits partnered with creators Karl Jacobs and popular Roblox YouTuber KreekCraft to launch a Roblox gaming studio called Pixel Playground.

In September 2020, Misfits announced the launch of their Misfits Academy program. It started as a video submission challenge for Fortnite players, with staff like Holden and Sceptic reviewing clips. The first winners, Eomzo and Yuz, joined Misfits’ Fortnite team. The Academy returned in January 2021 with a Fortnite tournament hosted in partnership with MonsterDFace's PracticeServer.

The program expanded to include a Content Creator challenge, requiring submission videos reviewed live on Misfits’ Twitch, and a Creative challenge for graphic designers to create new designs for the organization. These challenges ran every three months until late 2021, discovering talents such as Kluzzy, Kureo, NathanSmoke, Vertric, Cplitt, Alioof, Kwungle, Sueptime and Xtina. The Academy was managed by multiple Misfits staff and affiliates including MonsterDFace and Charlie.