The enterprising streamer Ludwig Ahgren has decided to own a team in Riot’s shooter Valorant . For $500,000 (€470,000), the 27-year-old assembled a team called: “MoistMogul”. But when the team played, it didn’t go as well as a Twitch clip shows.
Who did they buy? Ludwig, along with his new business partner Charles “MoistCr1TiKal” White , purchased the team “BreakThru” and renamed it to “Moist Moguls”. “Mogul” is a brand name that Ludwig likes to use on YouTube. “Moist Esports” is the company he has now joined as a co-owner.
The team consists of 5 players:
- Brady “thief” Dever
- Alex “aproto” Protopapas
- Xavier “Fyuh” Carlson
- Brock “Brawk” Somerhalder
- Tyler “sym” Porter
The team has been assessed as “having potential”; it consists of former players from Ghost Gaming and FaZe Clan. Ludwig joked that he spent €500,000 of his partner’s money for the team. But no one should tell him that (via twitter).
$500,000 investment during the “e-sports winter”
Why is it so absurd? This investment in an e-sports team comes at a time when e-sports are in crisis. People are talking about the “e-sports winter.”
Teams and companies are declaring bankruptcy in 2023, scenes are falling apart, many employees in e-sports are being laid off overnight, and money is lacking everywhere.
Just last week, the end of “Beyond the Summit” and “The Guard” was announced; actually established organizations that were no longer viable in the difficult climate of 2023 (via venturebeat).
Some see the failure of Blizzard’s “Overwatch League” as a reason why a lot of money is being pulled out of e-sports. The fact that Overwatch can no longer be played in China dealt another blow to the league.
Esports are dying, teams are too expensive – But Ludwig enjoys burning money
How does Ludwig see it? Ludwig also mentions that he looks forward to losing money in e-sports. He is already aware that he is taking a high risk with the team, as he could be eliminated from the league early, which is not so unlikely and would have to wait a year.
Valorant is indeed hard (via win.gg).
In a Twitter clip, he explains that e-sports teams are overpriced because they are cross-funded, but he has enough money to burn – it’s enjoyable and somewhat addictive.
Ludwig watches his team for 2 hours – suffers in agony
So how was the first game? Ludwig watched the first match of his team against the weakest team in a tournament, “Turtle Troop” in a live stream (via youtube).
For over 2 hours, the streamer suffers along and sees how his team loses one by one. The viewers repeatedly comment by writing “500k” in the chat – a reference to how much money the team costs and how badly they currently look.
This annoyed the speakers in the chat after a while. It’s like stepping on someone who is already down.
A Twitch clip is currently circulating from this longer YouTube video showing Valorant crack Tarik watching the owner Ludwig suffer during the game.
Ludwig appears disheveled in the video, shouting “It’s about faith!”, nibbling on his fingers. Tarik and his viewers are enjoying themselves over it.
In other scenes, Ludwig calls on higher powers, rejoices over a won round, only to suffer agony seconds later when something goes wrong again.
It doesn’t look like he is having much fun burning his money in e-sports.
Overall, it seems that a crisis is emerging in gaming, affecting many companies:
Rocket Beans TV sends most of the team temporarily into short-time work – Economic problems
