Danish esports team Copenhagen Flames filed for bankruptcy and fired all its personnel. Two weeks prior, Copenhagen Flames requested 5 million DKK (USD 740,000) in order to balance their books and take other steps to ensure their viability through 2024 and beyond. Thomsen continued, despite our best efforts over the past six months, “Unfortunately, we have failed to prevent this outcome.” I’m sorry. This is my fault, and I’m ashamed of it.
After the Belgium Major, the team split up as members joined G2, Heroic, and Fnatic. The group quickly put together a brand-new Danish lineup. However, they could not earn a spot at IEM Rio or the BLAST Paris Major. It is no secret that esports teams have had and continue to have financial difficulties. In particular, the last 69 months have been terrible for us in terms of getting partnerships of any sort, both in terms of extending current ones and gaining new ones, Thomsen continued.
“Brands are reducing their marketing spending due to the global financial crisis, which has significantly lowered our primary source of revenue and made it challenging to forge even smaller partnerships. To increase revenue, brand recognition, visibility, player sales, and social media followers, we set a goal of participating in at least one Major each year. It hurt us to miss the first two. Yet again, we are aware of the dangers of this strategy because we have always aimed to build a club that is not dependent on revenue from sports. To get there, though, you need a strong foundation built on success in sports.
Esports winter takes another victim
The Copenhagen Flames are the most recent business to shut down amid the current economic unrest caused by rising inflation and excessive interest rates. After operating for over ten years, Tricked, another Danish esports group, filed for bankruptcy on April 17. It had shut down its professional esports division two months prior, citing a failure to “meet the ambitions in the current market.” Thomsen stated that Copenhagen Flames started exploring methods to maintain the organization after dropping the Fortnite roster at the beginning of this year. The way “the esports scene has developed the past year” caused negotiations with possible investors to fall through.
Three CS:GO teams are part of Copenhagen Flames. The organization fields a women’s team, as well as an academy team, in addition to a men’s roster. Asger ‘Farlig’ Jensen, a Danish AWPer who competed for the men’s team, called this a “sad day” for esports. What the future holds for his team, now rated 55th in the world, was not said by him.
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