Chaos leaves CS:GO after IEM Global Challenge 2020

Chaos has announced that it is leaving the professional CS:GO scene due to the unfavorable financial situation caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The last tournament for the current roster will be IEM Global Challenge 2020, which will take place from December 15 to 20.

At the start of the year we saw the beginning of a pandemic that would have lasting effects far greater than any of us realized. As the year continued it became clear that in-person entertainment was not going to be viable and esports events and tournaments were going to experience massive change. This would have far reaching impacts throughout the ecosystem, particularly on sponsor value, removing a large portion of revenue that esports teams need to stay competitive and effectively support their players. Sadly, despite a great deal of effort, the impacts of this have now hit home with us and put pressure on our organization's ability to support our rosters and the incredible players behind them. As a result, we are releasing our CS:GO team at the end of the year and searching for a new home for our Rainbow Six team. 

Building these teams and rosters has been some of our proudest work at Chaos. Our Counter Strike team has exceeded our highest expectations again and again, which have always been lofty. Both our Rainbow Six Team and CS:GO teams have been a pleasure to work with since their inception and have been willing to work with us on making new creative content outside of the norm.

As an organization we will be accelerating our shift to focus on supporting more content creators both in and outside of gaming. We are excited to share what we have in store with you all soon. This will not be a shift that happens overnight, but I believe it will be a shift that allows our staff to excel in areas they have proven themselves as best in class.

To the fans, some of you who have been with us since the very beginning of Digital Chaos, there is more to look forward to in the future. More video content, social interaction, content creators, and influencers. To the players that have represented us proudly, thank you for all of your hard work and contributions to our team. The progression of the brand would not have been possible without all of your time and energy.

Recall that Chaos came to CS:GO in 2018. Initially, the team consisted of Swedish players, but in 2019 the team was joined by American eSports, whose best achievement was winning the recent IEM Beijing 2020 tournament for North America.

As part of the IEM Global Challenge 2020, Anthony "vanity" Malaspina's team will play in Group A, where Chaos rivals will be Astralis, Vitality and Complexity.