Before the pandemic began, no one knew who Chaos EC even was; they were a T2/3 team that stomped around in lower brackets while having a good time.
Then they upset MIBR, and a staggering story of drama and sportsmanship began unfolding live, week after week, as they began upsetting monumental teams and began taking home wins with increasing consistency.
They’re currently ranked as # 18 in the world, up from #54 from May when they were new to the scene. They’ve survived the turmoil of facing the old core MIBR, they clapped Evil Geniuses and 100 Thieves with surprising ease, and then rumors began circling that the team may not survive through the end of the year due to organizational issues.
One of the most promising new Counter-Strike teams to come out of North America has been rumored as disbanding, and Chaos EC’s Twitter account just made it official.
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Due to the ongoing impacts of COVID-19, our ability to support our rosters and incredible players behind them has reached its limit.
Today we sadly confirm the release of our CS:GO roster at the end of the year, while we find a new home for our R6 team.https://t.co/QUUHYQbkZF pic.twitter.com/VQWgRXejU5
— Chaos EC (@ChaosEC) December 2, 2020
It’s almost like the statements of NA CS:GO being dead has, once again, become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Alternatively, perhaps they were all simply saying what they’ve found to be the truth: Counter-Strike never cemented itself with the same ferocity that other titles have within North America.
This becomes its own problem, much as the Valorant scene is struggling in Europe: TOs understand that the scene is struggling due to a lack of tournaments, and they don’t bring tournaments to the region due to the lack of strength.
No one wants to throw good money towards an iffy cause.
Chaos EC has stated that they’re looking for a new home for the Rainbow 6: Siege team, while they’re releasing the Counter-Strike team; this public statement does directly conflict with some who have claimed to have inside knowledge of the Chaos EC organization, who has stated that they have been working tirelessly to rehome the suddenly popular Counter-Strike team.
It’s arguably difficult to consider the team being released and separated after their monumental rise due to what some are positing as poor organizational structure and planning. This is the team that just won IEM Beijing, and they’re being upended due to ‘COVID’ concerns.
A segment within the statement seems to imply that Chaos EC may be moving away from esports as a whole, as they mention supporting content creators both inside and outside of gaming.
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