The reason why NRG sold the CSGO team to EG: ‘The CS market is too unstable’

NRG Esports co-CEO Andy Miller surprised the esports community by deciding to sell his CSGO team to Evil Geniuses this past week. He revealed to Dexerto the reason the organization made this decision.

The decision to sell the team shocked many people because the CSGO lineup, with Peter “stanislaw” Jarguz as the leader, is in the top 5 of HLTV’s CSGO world rankings.

When asked about the reason on September 27, Miller replied that it was mainly due to the unstable economy in the CSGO environment, along with other investment decisions that the organization has made, namely the Call of Duty Chicago.

“Our problem is not with the lineup, but with the Counter-Strike market,” Miller said. “It’s a bit unsystematic and extremely expensive at the moment. And as you have seen in the last few transfers, as well as due to word of mouth from some organizations that they will join the sport, but do not own a CSGO team, the salaries of the players are increasing day by day. To be honest, I think CSGO is currently a risky investment for organizations, which is a pity.”

NRG is also quite busy. In addition to selling their CSGO team, their Overwatch League team – the San Francisco Shock – also just won the 2019 Overwatch League, defeating heavyweight contenders Vancouver Titans.

Along with that, NRG also specifically aims to recruit a new Call of Duty team, making it increasingly difficult to compete with new organizations in CS. New organizations like 100 Thieves are looking to build from the ground up, along with existing teams like CompLexity that are also adding to their roster.

The CSGO market is becoming bustling as BLAST Pro Series and ESL are launching their own tournament systems, setting strict rules, restricting teams from attending other events.

Valve said it will not accept licenses for these organizations if they prevent teams from participating in other organizers’ tournaments.

“The organization made the decision to sell right before Valve announced the exclusivity issue,” the NRG owner said. But we can see there are several tournament systems coming up, some forcing you to pay, ESL trying to do something, BLAST as well.”

“Players want to participate in as many tournaments as possible because it is their main source of income, but for organizations it is quite difficult.”

In retrospect, NRG may have parted ways with the game, but they hope Evil Geniuses will continue its legacy.

According to Dexerto