Overwatch League team Atlanta Reign has announced through Twitter that Daniel “Dafran” Francesca will be retiring from professional play.
This news comes as a shock to many fans, though Dafran’s start to his Overwatch League career was a shaky one. He had tweeted that he was going back to work at McDonalds and that his contract with the Reign had been voided.
This later proved to be something of a joke, and Dafran went ahead with entering into professional Overwatch. His play contributed to the Reign’s success across many victories and a Stage 1 playoff berth.
Dafran alerted his team to his intention to retire just one week prior to Stage 1 playoffs.
“With his focus set on ‘Popping off, one last time!’ Dafran truly wanted to give it his all during playoffs and didn’t desire to draw attention to himself while we were still playing,” the Reign said.
A fan favorite, Dafran was the top seller among all players in Overwatch League jersey sales. Even with his retirement, the Atlanta Reign announced that Dafran would remain within the organization. He will be staying under the team’s brand as a member of the Reign stream team.
Posting simultaneously with the Reign’s official announcement, Dafran offered his own explanation.
“I am leaving the OWL and going back to comfy streamer life,” Dafran said.
He thanked the Reign for the opportunity and declared that the life of a professional gamer was no longer his dream.
As for the future of Dafran’s streams, they will be longer, consistent, and greater in number. His many “Pepe the frog” emotes will be back on his channel, since the icon was banned due to his involvement with the Overwatch League, and his European streaming schedule will be returning. He will still stream Overwatch as his main game, and Dafran says that there’s going to be a lot of cool things coming from his now being under the Atlanta Reign umbrella.
As for the Atlanta Reign OWL team, Dafran says that they will “pop the fuck off with or without me.”
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