📝 Illinois State Redbirds disband ahead of Spring 2026 collegiate season

After four semesters of record-breaking Overwatch, the main roster at Illinois State University has disbanded ahead of the Spring 2026 semester, ending the roster’s historic run.

This comes after it was determined that two players would not be returning to the school following winter break for different reasons.

According to ISU’s substitute player, Matthew “Goose” Gisi, support player Luke “Lukemino” Fish is not returning to ISU due to commitments for an Overwatch Championship Series team ahead of the 2026 season. While Flex DPS William “WMaimone” Maimone elected not to enroll in classes for the Spring semester, with his future for OWCS this year currently unknown.

Without the two players, the Redbirds would only have four eligible players from last semester’s championship-winning roster: Riley “cuFFa” Brown, Denis “Lethal” Tari, Oliver “Admiral” Vahar, and Goose.

Many were surprised to see the roster return under the Redbirds banner for the Fall 2025 semester, after it was announced that the school’s varsity esports program was shutting down after the Spring 2025 semester due to budget cuts at the university.

​However, according to Goose, the school agreed to honor the scholarships for all players through the 2025-26 school year, but the team would operate as a club team for as long as they remained at the university.

On Tuesday, Jan. 10, during his first stream since returning to Illinois State ahead of the spring semester, cuFFa broke the news on the state of the Redbirds, “We’re not even playing in collegiate bro, like it’s literally so over.” He continued, “Our team is dead. Two people left ISU and (in) the most prize money season as well.”

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CuFFa jokingly added later on, “Winthrop are the happiest people alive right now.”

The news creates a new race at the top of Collegiate Overwatch, with star-studded Winthrop University and Northwood University in prime position to battle for a championship this spring in the OWC Open tournament.

For OWC Varsity, it's a little more complicated. St. Clair College and Bellevue University appeared to be the new favorites, as St. Clair eliminated Bellevue 3-0 in the semifinals this fall, before falling to ISU 2-4 in the Grand Final.

But it could change as Winthrop has since signed up to play in OWC Varsity this spring on the NACE platform.

Winthrop has historically played in NACE Varsity Premier, including a runner-up finish to ISU at last spring’s NACE Grand Finals, but was unable to compete in Varsity last fall since Xavier “Zeruhh” Zambrano and Boston “Infekted” Fine were not on campus due to playing at the Team Liquid house. But according to a source close to the team, both players will be playing on campus this spring.

Since the core of cuFFa, Lethal, WMaimone, and Admiral joined the roster ahead of the Spring 2024 semester, the Redbirds went 174-7 across all competitions with a staggering 480-55 map record. Once Lukemino replaced Simon “Scyle” Broström, entering the Fall 2024 semester, ISU finished at 95-3, only losing one series across three semesters:

• Fall 2024: 2-3 vs. Winthrop in OWC Homecoming Upper Bracket Finals (11/17/2024)
• Spring 2025: 2-3 vs. Winthrop in NACE Varsity Regular Season (3/4/2025)
• Fall 2025: 0-2 vs. Northwood in OWC Homecoming Open Swiss Stage (10/19)

With this roster, Illinois State won 12 consecutive championships across every league and tournament it entered, including the Fall 2025 OW Collegiate Homecoming Open and Varsity tournaments.

Admiral, cuFFa, Lethal, and WMaimone all played together with Geekay Esports in Stages 2 and 3 of the 2025 OWCS season, but were all released by the organization in late December. Lukemino was the sole exception, who ended the season with NTMR.

Some of the roster have already found homes for OWCS this year, with Spacestation Gaming announcing this week the signings of Admiral and Lethal for 2026. It is yet to be announced if cuFFa has also found a team, and which team Lukemino has joined.

It has not been determined if the ISU Academy roster – which competes in the third-party league NECC – will remain as the academy team or will be promoted to the Redbirds’ main roster.

It may not have been the storybook ending that the Illinois State players, staff, and fans were looking for, but this Redbirds roster will go down not only as one of the best in OWC history, but in collegiate esports as a whole. A sentiment reflected by Redbird substitute support player, Goose:

“It was an incredible experience working with this specific group of people. Over twelve championships, there were many points where, if one small thing had gone differently, the streak would have been over. All of our players and staff had moments where they had to step up and become the sole difference between a championship and losing the streak, and they never let us down,” said Goose. “It is a truly remarkable group of people, and I have been blessed to work with them for so long in one of the longest-running and most dominant dynasties in all of esports.”

But now the question is: which team will be the one to step up and create the next dynasty in collegiate Overwatch?