The growing list of Overwatch Contenders academy teams dropping out grows as the Montreal Rebellion steps down from Contenders. The Rebellion are the academy team of the Toronto Defiant and their withdraw from the tier two Overwatch scene leaves two academy teams left in North America - Dallas Fuel's Team Envy and Boston Uprising's Uprising Academy.
There hasn't been official word from the Montreal Rebellion themselves but the players are allowed to discuss the team dropping out of Contenders as well as what they plan on doing with their careers moving forward. Some of the players cite the economic hardships brought on by the COVID-19 outbreak as the reason for the drop from Contenders, and while that may be true, the tier-two scene has seen a significant drop over the past couple of seasons (especially in North America) anyways, a possible harrowing sign for the development of professional Overwatch overall.
Overwatch Contenders is in a precarious position as the pandemic continues to affect just about everything. That, and there have been underlying problems with the scene since the beginning. It's unclear how Blizzard can fix the tier-two scene, and make it financially viable for Overwatch League teams to invest in it, but something needs to change. That much is obvious.