The German Twitch streamer Rumathra bought into an e-sports team in Valorant as a co-owner in 2022, but it will be over in 2024. The e-sports winter is hitting hard. The German Valorant league simply isn’t attractive enough to reasonably pay eight people, says the streamer.
What kind of team is it?
- The team is called “Angry Titans” and was founded in 2017 as an Overwatch team by TakeTV. Behind “TaKe” is Starcraft II commentator Dennis Gehlen.
- In 2021, the Angry Titans left Blizzard’s Overwatch and turned to Valorant. Wieland “Rumathra” Emilian Welte joined the team as CEO and co-owner in April 2022.
- The Angry Titans played in the last season of the league “Valorant Challengers 2023 DACH: Evolution Split 1.” They reached 3rd place and a prize money of €3,625.
High Expenses, Low Income
Why is the team now bankrupt? The meager prize money of €3,625 already shows the problem.
Rumathra explains: An organization in Valorant needs about eight people: besides five players, three staff members are also required. At this level, everyone works full-time, so they must be fully paid; that is only fair.
For him, that means an organization costs, at the very least, about €30,000 a month.
But the viewer numbers are only about 1,000 on average, and with such a reach, no sponsor in the world will give you €30,000.
On top of that, the Valorant league in Germany had a six-month break. During that time, no income was generated, but the costs did not go away.
Therefore, the organization simply isn’t worth it anymore. They are not bankrupt, but they have been in the red for months and cannot maintain that.
What does he see as the problem? Among other things, the world economy has caught up with him: Tech companies grew significantly during COVID, but in 2023 cut advertising budgets to save costs. Therefore, it is extremely difficult to find advertising funds.
When they were still playing in the Valorant league, some major teams like Eintracht Frankfurt were not in attendance, rather teams that did not draw any reach:
“Additionally, the Valorant League DACH simply wasn’t played for seven months.”
During that time, they would have needed to raise €210,000 without any games taking place. For him, it’s also not fair to just fire the players, let them work at McDonald’s for seven months, and then hire them back.
“They simply have no viewers”
What’s next? Most of the Angry Titans players have found places in other teams. One has retired from his career. Officially, the e-sports team is now “retired,” meaning put on hold.
Rumathra says he can imagine doing something like this again, but it doesn’t sound like he wants to start again in Valorant:
“In any case, we roasted Valorant DACH well. […] They simply have no viewers. It’s just not exciting enough for viewers to watch. It’s not well distributed, Riot is doing everything wrong that can be done wrong. It’s not played for six months; what should I say about that? It’s just poorly done.”
However, Rumathra admits that they didn’t do everything right and perhaps should have made more effort to find sponsors.
Investing in e-sports now is like burning money
This is what it’s about: If you can believe Trymacs, Rumathra is a thrifty person who sleeps on grandma’s couch instead of in a hotel. Therefore, it’s hardly conceivable that he truly made a loss of €30,000 per month; he would certainly have dropped out much earlier. Probably, they expected more of him in terms of attention and advertising boost.
What Rumathra describes is also found in many stories from influencers in the USA: Young men with millions of dollars of disposable income who “on the side” build e-sports teams: Whether it’s Ludwig or Disguised Toast, they all tell the same story. Those who invest in e-sports might as well burn their money. At least then the room will be nice and warm.
It is unclear how to cover normal salaries, especially in lower tier levels. The money is concentrated on the absolute top teams like G2. And even there, things look bleak right now as advertising funds are, as Rumathra correctly points out, apparently scarce.
The idea that e-sports could become the next poker and trigger a massive boom has not come true. Experiments like the expensive Overwatch League have failed.
Even large organizations that have been champions multiple times and played in the top leagues of the USA have turned away from e-sports in recent years. That the team has to withdraw from Valorant because they paid fair salaries is nothing for which Rumathra should be ashamed.
Valorant: Team becomes champion, but instead of celebrating, the players receive a terrible message
