Envy (esports)
Envy, formerly Team Envy, is an American esports franchise based in Dallas, Texas. Founded in 2007 as a professional Call of Duty team under the moniker Team EnVyUs, they fielded rosters in Counter-Strike, FIFA, Fortnite, Gears of War, Halo, League of Legends, Chess, Magic: the Gathering, Overwatch, Paladins, PUBG, Rocket League, SMITE, StarCraft, Super Smash Bros., Street Fighter and Valorant in their original form. Following the merger between Envy Gaming and OpTic Gaming, Envy Gaming retired the Team Envy brand in June 2022, shifting all of them to the OpTic Gaming moniker.
On January 17, 2025, Mike "Hastr0" Rufail announced that he re-acquired the Team Envy name, as well as associated trademarks, from OpTic, reviving the franchise as ENVY. Envy has since entered Apex Legends, Marvel Rivals, The Finals and Rainbow Six Siege X, as well as re-entering Halo, Super Smash Bros. and Valorant.
History
''Call of Duty''
Team EnVyUs was founded on November 19, 2007, as a Call of Duty 4 esports team by Skyler "FoRePlayy" Johnson and Tosh "Stainville" McGruder. The team finished runners-up in both the 2008 and 2009 MLG National Championships, with the 2009 roster fielding future owner Mike "Hastr0" Rufail.At the 2011 National Championship, the final event of the Call of Duty: Black Ops season, Envy once again finished runners-up following a 5-match loser's bracket run; the event also marked the beginning of the classic rivalry with OpTic Gaming, dubbed the eClasico, after defeating them in the loser's bracket final.
In April 2013, as part of the Call of Duty: Black Ops II season, Envy competed in the inaugural US$1 million Call of Duty Championship; their roster for the tournament notably included Stainville, Raymond "Rambo" Lussier and Jordan "JKap" Kaplan. Non-favorites entering the event, the team showed they belonged after beating the undefeated Fariko Impact 3–2 in the winner's bracket finals to book a place in the grand finals. The grand finals consisted of a best-of-11 continuation series re-match with Fariko, where Envy would fall just short after losing 5–6 following a game 11 Search and Destroy, winner-takes-all, showdown. The final round earned the title of "the most famous round of Search and Destroy in Call of Duty history", as well as the match being widely considered one of the "greatest series ever played" in Call of Duty history. The following month, on May 5, Team Envy won their first ever prized LAN championship and only Black Ops II title at UGC Niagara.
In March 2014, as part of the Call of Duty: Ghosts season, Envy competed in the 2014 Call of Duty Championship. The team would once again finish 2nd after producing a miracle run starting from round 1 of the loser's bracket, including a 3–1 victory over OpTic in the loser's bracket final. On June 25, 2014, they announced the return of JKap and the acquisition of Matthew "Formal" Piper. The new roster won Gfinity 3, Envy's first major LAN championship, and Season 3 of MLG's Ghosts Pro League. However, the roster was short-lived as after ESWC 2014, the last event of Ghosts, star AR player Formal and Envy mutually agreed to part ways.
Moving into Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Envy made multiple roster changes throughout a disappointing season. The team managed a top-12 finish at the 2015 Call of Duty Championship, before reaching their only final at UGC Niagara 2015. They ended the season with a 4th-place finish at the 2015 MLG World Finals.
In April 2016, Envy acquired Bryan "Apathy" Zhelyazkov and Johnathon "John" Perez to join JKap and Austin "SlasheR" Liddicoat for the latter half of the Call of Duty: Black Ops III season. Together they won Stage 2 of the NA Call of Duty World League, Envy's first major championship since Ghosts. The team then participated at the 2016 MLG Orlando Open, where following a loser's bracket run they met OpTic in the grand finals. In the finals they took the first best-of-5 series 3–2, before being swept in the deciding series. In the last event of the season, in September 2016, Envy competed in the 2016 Call of Duty World League Championship. The team went undefeated in the group stages and drew a winner's bracket round 1 match-up with heavy favorites OpTic, who they had not defeated on LAN in over two years. A 3–1 victory over OpTic, followed by a 3–0 over FaZe Clan opened the path to the grand finals where they met Splyce in the first ever North American vs. European final. Team Envy took down Splyce 3–1 to finally break their 2nd place curse and win the Call of Duty Championship; securing $800,000 as part of the largest Call of Duty prize pool.
Maintaining their championship winning roster, they headed into the Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare season. The first three-quarters of the season proved disappointing as the team failed to live up to their Black Ops III success, with their only notable result being a 3rd-place finish at the 2017 MLG Atlanta Open in February 2017. It was not until the last two events that Envy bounced back. In July 2017, the team finished runners-up at Stage 2 of the 2017 CWL Global Pro League. In August 2017, they competed in the 2017 Call of Duty World League Championship where they attempted to become the first back-to-back champions. In the winner's bracket semi-finals they defeated 3–1, which included their famous second half 0–10 to 12–10 Uplink comeback. In the winner's bracket final they defeated OpTic to book their place in a record 4th Call of Duty Championship grand finals, however this time around the roster would be heartbroken as they lost both best-of-5 series to OpTic in a rematch to finish in 2nd place.
Heading into Call of Duty: WWII, Envy released JKap, Apathy, and John. In November 2017, they revealed their new roster which included Cuyler "Huke" Garland who had been competing in Team Envy's Halo division as he was too young to compete in the Call of Duty World League.
On September 22, 2018, Envy acquired the roster of Evil Geniuses consisting of ACHES, Apathy, Assault and SiLLy. They will join the organization and pair with Huke to complete the roster.
Team Envy's parent company Envy Gaming purchased a Call of Duty League slot in late 2019, ending Team Envy's Call of Duty division. The team, Dallas Empire, competes in the league in the 2020 season.
''Counter-Strike''
Team Envy officially entered the Counter-Strike scene, their first venture into PC Esports, on February 2, 2015, after acquiring the French Counter-Strike: Global Offensive squad of Team LDLC led by captain Vincent "Happy" Schopenhauer.In March 2015, Envy finished 3rd–4th in their first major appearance, ESL One Katowice 2015, after losing to Ninjas in Pyjamas 0–2 in the semi-finals. Shortly afterwards, in March, the team won their first ever championship at the Gfinity Spring Masters. On June 21, 2015, they traded Richard "shox" Papillon and Edouard "SmithZz" Dubourdeaux to Titan in exchange for Kenny "kennyS" Schrub and Dan "apEX" Madesclaire. With the new roster they finished runners-up at the ESL One Cologne 2015 major, before finally winning their first major championship at DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca 2015 after defeating Natus Vincere 2–0 in the grand finals. Following the November 2015 Paris terrorist attacks, Envy withdrew from IEM San Jose due to travel safety concerns. The team ended the 2015 season securing 7 championships and 11 grand final appearances.
In March 2016, following an 11–12th-place finish at IEM Katowice 2016, Envy benched Fabien "kioShiMa" Fiey due to communication problems and LDLC White's Timothée "DEVIL" Démolon replaced him in the starting line-up. However, the change would prove unsuccessful and in October 2016, DEVIL was released with Christophe "SIXER" Xia replacing him. On January 15, 2017, the team won WESG 2016, securing US$800,000 as part of the largest CS:GO prize pool.
In February 2017, kennyS, apEX, and Nathan "NBK" Schmitt departed to G2 Esports, with Adil "ScreaM" Benrlitom, Cédric "RpK" Guipouy, and Alexandre "xms" Forté joining in their stead. In late April, Envy officially revealed their academy project.
On June 20, 2018, Team Envy announced they had departed from the Counter-Strike esports scene following the release of their entire CS:GO roster. On September 27, 2018, they announced a new North American team, signing the core of ex-Splyce. Team Envy disbanded their CS:GO division on January 11, 2021.
''Gears of War''
The Team Envy Gears of War division was founded on January 4, 2012, when the organization formed the professional GoW team "EnVyUs MbN". The team competed in Gears of War 3, where they placed 4th in the LAN tournament Hypefestation 2.In October 2015, Envy announced they were re-entering the GoW competitive scene for Gears of War: Ultimate Edition and were revealed as one of eight teams in ESL's GoW Pro League. In Season 1 of the league, Envy finished runners-up to Denial Esports. In Season 2, they became champions after defeating Denial in a rematch of the finals following a 12–2 regular season record; the tournament win marked their first ever Gears of War title. In July 2016, without dropping a single map, Envy won their second title at the Gears eSports European Open in London.
Heading into Gears of War 4, Envy competed in the Coalition's $1 million Gears Pro Circuit. Their campaign included multiple second-place finishes, as well as the team's third championship in January 2017, when the team dethroned OpTic Gaming at the Mexico City Open, the first ever GoW event in Latin America.
On June 13, 2017, shortly after the end of the Gears Pro Circuit, Team Envy announced they had departed from the Gears of War esports scene following the transfer of their roster to Echo Fox.