UPDATE 17/04/23: CLG was acquired by North American esports organisation NRG on April 7th 2023.
North American esports organisation Counter Logic Gaming (CLG) will soon lay off all its staff, including CEO Greg Kim, according to a report by League of Legends interviewer Travis Gafford.
The report suggests that employees were told that CLG will release all support staff on Thursday this week while retaining its LCS team. The lead candidate for a sale may be North American esports organisation NRG, but Gafford was unable to confirm the exact nature of the deal.
Gafford appeared to suggest in a video on YouTube that CLG parent organisation Madison Square Garden Sports would discontinue the team as a esports brand, but he could not confirm the exact outcome from chats with staff.
The news follows a report last week by Sports Business Journal that fellow LCS team TSM would pull out of ‘several titles’ and was considering selling its LCS spot too. The report was not denied by TSM CEO Andy ‘Reginald’ Dinh in a later statement.
CLG, alongside TSM, is one of the oldest and most well-known organizations in the LCS. It was founded in 2010 by George ‘HotshotGG’ Georgallidis, a former professional player. The organisation has helped drive the careers of well-known LCS players like Aphromoo, Doublelift and Pobelter.
In the early years of the LCS, CLG consistently made it to the playoffs and even won the championship in 2015 Summer Split. In recent years, however, CLG has struggled: its highest result since 2020 has been a fifth/sixth finish in the 2022 Spring split.
Employees from CLG will seemingly join a gloomy job market for esports employees, following mass layoffs from other North American esports companies including The Guard, Beyond the Summit, and Dot Esports’ parent GAMURS Group.
Esports Insider has reached out to NRG and CLG for a comment.
