 On July 20, 2016, the Empire announced it had signed 2015 WTT Male Rookie of the Year Neal Skupski to replace Oliver Marach, who had been selected to represent Austria at the 2016 Summer Olympics.On July 29, 2016, the Empire announced that it had signed Noah Rubin and Daniel Nguyen as substitute players to replace Guido Pella, who was to play in the Empire's first three matches of the season before going to Rio de Janeiro to represent Argentina at the 2016 Summer Olympics.Rubin was scheduled to appear in the Empire's home match on August 3.