Exclusive: Misfits CEO plans to stay in CDL, OWL, Valorant despite selling LEC spot & content pivot

Ben Spoont, the CEO and Founder of Florida Mutineers and Florida Mayhem parent company Misfits Gaming, has confirmed to Dexerto the organization’s intent to stay in the Call of Duty League, Overwatch League, and Valorant, despite their planned pivot to content instead of esports.

Misfits Gaming was a long-term European League of Legends mainstay, before they sold their LEC spot to Team Heretics for over $40m in July 2022.

In a recent interview with the New York Times, Spoont said that “They certainly pitched us that the growth of these leagues would be meteoric, and we all drank the Kool-Aid … What has happened is that growth has not materialized as fast as we had hoped.”

He also said that he was pivoting Misfits to focus on content creation, partly because it ‘could be another decade before competitive esports reach their potential.’

This led to some speculation that Misfits may be looking to sell up and move out of esports entirely, particularly in the other franchised leagues they own spots in: the Call of Duty League and the Overwatch League.

In a statement made to Dexerto, Spoont said: “We’re still keeping some of our other esports teams including CDL/OWL, Valorant, and Rocket League, but we wanted to diversify our organization to include a focus on creators.

“We recently announced our $20M creator fund, which aims to provide creators and influencers with the resources and infrastructure to bring their ideas to life. The first big example of this is the launch of the brand new Minecraft server TubNet, which took place over the weekend.”

While Misfits’ shift towards content will feel bitter for their fans in the League of Legends space, Spoont’s reassurance that they’ll continue to compete across their other key esports is positive news, especially for the franchise teams in Call of Duty and Overwatch, where their franchise costs are estimated to be around $20m.

The fourth season of the Call of Duty League is due to get going on Friday, December 2, with Florida Mutineers bringing in two rookies to the squad in the hopes of seeing more success in Modern Warfare II.

On the other side of the Activision Blizzard esports spectrum, Florida Mayhem came 7-8th at the OWL 2022 Playoffs, falling at the hands of Hangzhou Spark to bring their season to a close. A date has not yet been set for the launch of the 2023 season.