In the last 24 hours it has been reported by GosuGamers and confirmed on Twitter that André "iddqd" Dahlström has departed from Rogue, the recently crowned TaKeOver champions.

Best known for his pinpoint McCree plays, iddqd rose to prominence during his time in the Closed Beta with IMPULSE 11 when they turned heads in the One Nation of Gamers Invitational where the Swedish upstarts claimed big scalps against the IDDQD and Team Liquid rosters of the era.

That he would go on to join a Rogue roster stacked with raw talent was no surprise, but to see his exit so soon after securing the first LAN silverware and a $2500 pay day for the team definitely begs the question - what went wrong?

Rogue issued a statement to GosuGamers:

"Following our success at last weekend's TakeTV TakeOver tournament, it became apparent to the team that we could not continue playing and competing with André "IDDQD" Dahlström. The departure of IDDQD comes following the rest of the roster’s lack of trust in IDDQD to settle in, adjusting to our mindset and ideas, and his ability to perform in high pressure environments. There is no doubt IDDQD possess one of the most dangerous McCree’s in the competitive Overwatch scene, and we wish him the best of luck moving forward, and we hope to compete against him in the near future. Moving forward, we in Rogue’s Overwatch team, have a few ideas of what type of player we’re looking for, and we hope to be able to announce our new 6th player the coming days."

André "iddqd" Dahlström speaking to GosuGamers:

"It was very evident for me that the team and myself weren't sharing the same mindset going forward. That being said - I'm very happy to have been a part of such a strong roster even for such a short time. I'm grateful for the experience that I learned along the way. I cannot specifically mention a player alone, so I'll just go ahead and wish all of the players the very best in the upcoming future, so that we can cross paths again, but this time as rivals on the battlefield. And please, change the logo :)"

One can only speculate as to what the specific differences of mindset were, but reading between the lines the implication is that Rogue felt that iddqd didn't completely gel with the team and wanted to play his own game rather than submit to their collective will.

Dahlström is not the first player to fail to live up to the teams' high expectations; Lucas "Mendokusaii" Håkansson's boots were still warm when iddqd joined to fill them and he too now finds himself cast out and teamless. That in itself is perhaps testament to the level of competition and the stakes at play even in the infancy of competitive Overwatch.

With intercontinental player moves already an established phenomenon in Overwatch, both Rogue and iddqd can certainly cast a wide net in their respective searches for new team mates. Yet, whilst I can envisage a number of teams where iddqd could quickly find a home, it is harder to imagine where his replacement will come from.

The fact that GosuGamers reports that Rogue won't be playing in this weekend tournaments suggests that they don't quite know yet either… "Get me 2GD on the phone!"

The Rogue roster is now:

  • Kevyn "TviQ" Lindström
  • Jonathan "Reinforce" Larsson
  • Benjamin "uNKOE" Chevasson
  • Dylan "aKm" Bignet
  • Michael "winz" Bignet
  • Robert "roflgator" Malecki (Coach)