CLG reportedly to sell esports brand; mass layoffs to soon follow
CLG will reportedly be shutting down all operations as an esports organization as company-wide layoffs are set to begin very soon, according to Travis Gafford.
According to the video, Gafford highlighted that the mass layoffs will hit the company later this week as CLG looks to sell off all of their existing esports team, most notably their League of Legends roster.
CLG will maintain their 2023 LCS team throughout the Summer while that sale gets finalized throughout the year, similar to Echo Fox, OpTic Gaming, and Clutch Gaming in 2019. In the video, Gafford revealed that NRG is the frontrunner to purchase CLG, as well as their LCS slot. NRG previously held a spot in the LCS back in 2016 after they purchased Team Coast’s LCS slot following the LCS 2015 Summer Split before facing relegation ahead of 2017. If this transaction solidifies, It will be interesting to see what happens to NRG’s partnership with GAM Esports in the Vietnam Championship Series.
However, NRG already has a base developed with Riot Games as they currently compete in the VCT 2023: Americas League in Los Angeles, California.
The news closely follows that of their longtime rivals, TSM, who have also been reported to be moving out of esports and selling their LCS franchise slot, according to Sports Business Journal's Kevin Hitt.
If both these transactions are true, that would only leave Team Liquid as the only LCS organization to have a perfect LCS split attendance, with Cloud9 trailing with their LCS 2013 Summer debut.
While the details of where this decision stems from, it is likely that this move is being made by Madison Square Garden, CLG’s parent company since the start of the LCS franchising system.
We will continue to update this article as more news about the report comes out. For now, CLG will still hold a spot in the LCS as their 2023 lineup looks to improve upon their 5th-6th place finish in the Spring Split.
Sage got his start in esports as a volunteer writer in 2016 for esports organization, Dignitas. Since then, he has continued to work on his craft as a journalist and reporter for a number of established esports publications, such as esports.gg, Unikrn, Akshon Esports, Howla, The Player’s Lobby, Nerd Street Gamers, and most recently Dot Esports. Now, as a member of Esports Illustrated’s content team, Sage’s primary duties are centered around creating groundbreaking written and video content about the esports industry that impacts the community in a meaningful way. Sage graduated from Rutgers University with a Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology and Informatics. There, he was a member of the Rutgers Esports Executive Board, both as the head of the fighting game community and a videographer/photographer for the Content team.