In gaming, there is currently worldwide talk of an E-Sports winter: E-Sports seemed like the next big thing in 2016. Analysts compared it to the hype around poker. Investors pumped millions of US dollars into teams, leagues, and stadiums. Now, however, the crisis has broken out, and the professionals from Valorant are also noticing it.
This is currently the bitter news at Valorant:
- The team “Evil Geniuses” won the championship in the tactical shooter from Riot Games in 2023: Valorant is currently considered a hot E-Sports title.
- However, the team around Americans Boostio and ScrewFace experienced a harsh awakening just weeks after the championship celebration: The organization put the players in a tough position.
- The players of the champions have a choice: Either they find a new team right away, or they can stay with Evil Geniuses, but will be paid significantly less. An insider reported this on September 11.
This is the report: Two weeks ago, the CEO of Evil Geniuses announced her resignation after a year full of controversies. Things weren’t going well for the team in CS:GO and LoL, but they became champions in Valorant.
However, the problems had been evident since September 6: The team released 4 substitute players.
On September 11, Dotesports then reported: The core players were told they could leave the team now and find a new team or continue playing for less money at Evil Geniuses.
Regarding this news, the portal referred to Max Katz, a Valorant reporter with good contacts. Nobody doubts the authenticity of this report. Especially since the players have also expressed themselves on social media in a way that has given the report additional significance and credibility.
Update September 14, 9:29 AM: As is now known, the team allegedly proposed to players to forgo about 50% of their salaries (via dexerto).
The players posted: In the past, it was still worth striving for something. The victory still meant something.
Another player simply wrote, “Nothing makes sense anymore. “
Are they really that expensive? No, apparently not. As Dotesports reports, the players of the champions are relatively inexpensive: According to reports, the “core players” supposedly earned about $25,000 a month, while the substitutes earned $4,500.
With coaches, the annual budget would be around $1.5 million. While that’s still money, it’s relatively cheap compared to the budgets of comparable teams, reports Dotesports.
Why is that? The E-Sports industry is currently in a crisis worldwide, especially in the USA. There is talk of an E-Sports winter: E-Sports has not developed as hoped in recent years, revenue opportunities are shrinking, and teams are either going bankrupt or cutting their budgets:
- This is evident in Fortnite, which has not done anything comparable since the large World Championship in 2019. Many professionals switched to Valorant when the prize money dried up there, where it now also looks bleak.
- The expensive Overwatch League appears to be becoming a huge problem for Blizzard.
- Even LoL is facing problems in some regions, particularly in the USA, especially in the second division.
- The trend shift is particularly evident in the plummeting stock of the notably cool E-Sports organization FaZe: The IPO is increasingly proving to be a tragedy.
There has been little negative feedback regarding the two Valve E-Sports titles, CS:GO and DOTA 2.
E-Sports investor and YouTuber Ludwig says: When you play in the best team in the world and that doesn’t even guarantee job security, what hope is there left in E-Sports?
There has already been news regarding Valorant that sounded like the future of E-Sports was at risk. It revolved around the players of “The Guard”: The players had achieved promotion in sports, but the team apparently did not want to be promoted:
