Selfless - Here to Stay
/I'm struggling to find the words to describe how excited I am to announce this news today, especially in light of recent events and happenings in the NA CS:GO scene.
During our CS:GO team's transitional period from one org to a place of being "sponsorless", to now, I had the opportunity to discuss bringing the team to a variety of other organizations and brands. In this process, I spent time doing my due diligence (as I encourage everyone to do when it comes to making important decisions), and found that many of the brands in the scene were not a fit for us, our personalities, and, sometimes more importantly, my experience in the world outside of esports/CS:GO.
Many organizations are founded by former players with a passion for the scene (and this is a great characteristic, an entrepreneurial spirit), but it quickly becomes evident that these owners have little to no actual business experience, no real vision, no mind for strategy. They struggle to accomplish the things they had once planned, they make wild and unreasonable promises, they set expectations too high, fail to meet them, and with little to no experience to fall back on, things rapidly go south. I wasn't comfortable signing with an organization like that.
Some of the organizations I had spoken to weren't run this way, and initially appeared to be a potential fit for us. But some of those same orgs disappeared at the FIRST sign of possible adversity for our team (when Koosta left, specifically). Why would we want to sign with a fair-weather org like that?
The more I thought about it, the less I liked the idea of someone else controlling our destiny, our path to success. For a while I had toyed with the idea of going out on my own, building a brand, and signing a team that way-- the only real way that would afford me the control to "do things the right way" (or more appropriately, I suppose, "do things the way I believe is right, that I preach is right"). Now felt like the timing couldn't be better... so combine all that and we arrive at this announcement.
Selfless has secured funding and brought on board an investor to help build the organization. We will remain focused on North American esports, selfless play, and running things the right way. And I couldn't be more excited for this opportunity.
To help address questions that will undoubtedly come up:
- We will be signing the current CS:GO team.
- Yes, we consulted lawyers given previous contracts to clear way for this. All good.
- Yes, we will be signing teams in other games.
- We expect the best of ourselves and our players.
- We believe we can continue to have a positive impact on the NA scene.
- Ownership is shared between myself and our investor.
Over the next few weeks you'll see us roll out some announcements, as we have an impressive list of things planned. So to help manage your expectations, I'll simply remind you that we haven't done things the same way as everyone else, and we'll continue this pattern visibly soon.
We ARE actively looking for early partners who want to join the Selfless Pride, and if you believe your company would fit in nicely with ours, please contact us at .
THANK YOU to everyone who has supported our team, whether you're a fan from seasons ago, or a new fan made today, your support is invaluable, and we will continue to earn it as we move forward together.
-Ryu