North American organisation 100 Thieves has announced the hire of Jacob “Maelk” Toft-Andersen as its VP of Esports.
Maelk left his post as SVP of Operations at Infinite Esports & Entertainment, the parent company of OpTic Gaming and Houston Outlaws, on June 14th.
Before joining Infinite Esports & Entertainment as its VP of Esports and later SVP of Operations, Maelk had been in charge of esports operations at North and FC Schalke 04 following his retirement as a professional Dota 2 player in 2013.
Maelk commented on his new venture on Twitter: “I have been watching from a distance, respecting and admiring the work Matt, John and the rest of the team have been doing, and the tremendous amount of results they have achieved in such a short amount of time. I am so incredibly excited to get to work.”
“A heartfelt thank you to all of the staff and players that I have had the honor and privilege of working with,” he said of his time at Infinite Esports & Entertainment. “You have all made the hardships more then worth it and I cannot stress enough how appreciative I am of you, in both victory and defeat.”
With this hire, 100 Thieves appears to have cemented the leadership team for its esports operations. In addition to Maelk taking responsibility for the organisation’s teams, Eric “Muddawg” Sanders, Head of Esports Operations will oversee its Call of Duty and battle royale players, whereas Jackson Dahl, Director of Business Development will work with its LCS franchise for the remainder of the Summer Split.
100 Thieves will host an ‘Ask Me Anything’ question & answer session on Reddit on June 20th, allowing fans to interact with the aforementioned team members who are in charge of esports at the organisation.
While this is the first high-profile exit from Infinite Esports & Entertainment to be announced following the company’s official acquisition by Immortals Gaming Club, more changes are expected to come in the following weeks.
Esports Insider says: While some people have critiqued Maelk over the years, it’s good to see him land on his feet after the Immortals buyout of Infinite. 100 Thieves prides itself on more than esports but that doesn’t mean it’s not important to those who run the organisation, and a hire such as this proves that.