📝 Extinction player Evan "nvm" Johnson banned, Stevie "sniper" Rivera joins as replacement player

One of North America’s teams has made a surprise announcement ahead of the Week 4 matches on Sept. 26, 2025.

Extinction confirmed DPS player Evan "nvm" Johnson has been released from the roster following a ban on his official Overwatch account. nvm had been with the team since Stage 2, but had not seen any playtime since the signings of Rene "k1ng" Rangel and Landon "Vision" Monteferrante to the starting lineup.

Under OWCS rules, any player who receives an official account ban from Blizzard is deemed ineligible for competition and thus must be removed from the team. Section 4.1 of the OWCS 2025 Rules for North America and EMEA (v.1.3) states:

“To be able to compete in the Tournaments as a Player, a participant must: (a) Be in good standing with respect to any Battle.net accounts registered in such participant’s name, with no undisclosed violations of the Blizzard End User License Agreement.” (Page 11)

With nvm’s ban and removal from Extinction, they now drop below the minimum roster requirements.

Extinction Coach Raelyni commented on the situation, saying:

"He received a permanent ban on his main account for saying not very nice things in ranked, which made him ineligible for OWCS. We were given the opportunity to pick up a 6th player as long as they met roster requirements (not on another OWCS team, a domestic player as we have 2 imports, etc). We thought this would be a good opportunity to fill any gaps on our roster. As the player could be an NA Face It League player from a masters roster, we approached a couple of people. We ended up picking up sniper as off tanks have a strong presence in the current meta, and that's something we lack in the current lineup." - Coach Raelyni in response to nvm’s ban and removal

Per official OWCS rules, if a team is forced to make an emergency roster move during the active stage that drops the team below the eligible six-player minimum requirement, an emergency signing is permitted. This replacement must come from a non-participating OWCS team.

To fill this new gap, Extinction have signed Calling All Heroes tank player Stevie "sniper" Rivera. Sniper joins fresh off a first-place win with the DhillKucks in the CAH Summer Season 2025. While it’s currently unclear if sniper will split time with current tank Coraline "Hitori" Engler or take her starting spot, their hero pool offers much-needed off-tank options.

Extinction will return to competition on Saturday, Sept. 27, against Geekay Esports.