Esports teams Evil Geniuses and Alliance will become independent, player-owned organizations as they depart parent company GoodGame, a subsidiary of Amazon-owned streaming platform Twitch, the company announced in a press release today.
Twitch claims that the departure comes due to the potential conflict of interests in the partnership between Twitch and both teams. The move will not dissolve business partnerships between the two teams and Twitch, but the brands and player contracts will now be managed by player-selected management.
"We also had an obligation to ensure the teams operated independently and received no preferential treatment on Twitch," Twitch chief operating officer Kevin Lin said in the press release.
While details about Alliance's player-appointed management have not been released, Evil Geniuses have appointed former Dota 2 player and The International 5 champion Peter "ppd" Dager as its new CEO. Dager will oversee Evil Geniuses' operations across multiple esports games.
In August, GoodGame founder and former CEO Alex Garfield left Twitch, the company that he sold GoodGame to in 2014. Shortly after his departure, the GoodGame website went offline with many former GoodGame employees taking roles at Twitch.
Over the past six years, Evil Geniuses and Alliance have become two of the most popular brands in esports. Both teams have titles at The International, the largest Dota 2 tournament in the world.