Mentioned in this article
- Longtime Major League Gaming employee and Activision Blizzard VP of league and event operations Adam Apicella is leaving the company.
- Apicella’s departure comes ahead of next year’s new franchised, geolocated Call of Duty Global League.
- Other MLG veterans may also be departing alongside Apicella.
Adam Apicella, Activision Blizzard’s vice president of league and event operations and a longtime employee of Major League Gaming (MLG), has announced his departure from the company.
Apicella shared the news on Twitter this afternoon, tweeting, “After working on close to 60 games and hundreds of live event programs, I have decided to leave Activision Blizzard. More importantly, after 16 years, my time as a member of the MLG family has come to an end.”
His departure comes following the final event of the Call of Duty World League, and ahead of next year’s launch of the franchised, geolocated Call of Duty Global League (CDL). The new league has a format similar to that of Activision Blizzard’s Overwatch League, and so far nine franchise owners have been announced.
Apicella was the first employee hired by Major League Gaming following its founding in 2003, and he rose from VP of league operations and production at the company to executive VP of MLG Properties. He stayed on with Activision Blizzard after it acquired MLG in December 2015, and has continued to oversee Call of Duty esports operations since. Apicella tweeted that he will share details of his next opportunity soon, and that he will be “running more events and building more programs with my team.”
More longtime MLG employees could be on the way out, as well. Chris Puckett, a former MLG employee and current host of the Overwatch League, tweeted that “many of the legends that were still at the MLG HQ are working their final day today.”
The Esports Observer has reached out to Activision Blizzard about Apicella’s departure and other potential staffing changes, and will update if we hear back.
