Apex Legends mainstays ImperialHal and Snip3down have shared their thoughts on why Cloud9, Team Liquid, and G2 Esports have all dropped their pro rosters and pulled out of the ALGS scene.
December has been a worrying time for the Apex Legends community, especially when it comes to the professional scene. Upon missing qualification for the Apex Legends Global Series Year 3 event in London, Cloud9, G2, and Team Liquid have all dropped their rosters and announced their departure from Apex.
If this trend continues it could be a massive blow to the title’s esports scene and while a lack of support from EA has been a cited reason for their departure, ImperialHal and Snip3down both think there’s more to it than that.
They gave their opinions on the situation during some on-stream discussions, with both players having unique insights on what could be causing these organizations to head for greener pastures.
ImperialHal and Snip3down give their Apex Legends insight
While ImperialHal and Snip3down both thought there was more to these big orgs leaving than meets the eye, their opinion on why was slightly different.
It’d be one thing to drop a roster that’s performing poorly and try to find another, but it’s a different thing entirely to leave the esports scene entirely after failing to qualify for an event.
And, while both arguments differ a bit, they get to the same endpoint: These organizations don’t see a big enough return on investment within the Apex Legends scene, even if they have the money to spend on keeping a roster.
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Why are tier 1 orgs leaving Apex? @ImperialHal puts it mostly on team performance but @Snip3down says orgs need a return on their investment that ALGS just doesn't offer pic.twitter.com/qCZLB0w9y6
— Cutnoid (@Cutnoid) December 27, 2022
“These orgs are funding so much money into other games that it makes Apex just look like nothing.”, was a big part of Hal’s take on why these orgs are leaving, and that the poor performance of these rosters showed that it’s hard to guarantee a good ROI in the scene when compared to other, bigger esports.
“I don’t buy any of that bulls***,” is what Hal had to say about organizations claiming that they left because EA didn’t support them. He also claimed that these big companies may have stuck around if their teams were consistently qualifying for big events.
Snip3down’s take was rooted more in business, where he argued that these teams are having a hard time justifying their stay in Apex Legends for a multitude of reasons, chief among them being that Apex Legends could be seen as an “unsustainable product”.
“When tier 1 orgs are leaving, that means that they are seeing something non-tier 1 orgs aren’t. But most non-tier 1 orgs are not looking to make an ROI right away,” he explained. “They’re mostly just trying to be seen with the big guns like the TSMs and the FaZes and all these other ones. They’re just looking to be in the picture.”
Snip3down argues that smaller organizations can justify losing money on Apex by having exposure at significant events in an esport that is very unpredictable in many ways.
Getting a top spot with bigger, more esteemed orgs can do a lot to put an organization on the map. But, for names like G2 that don’t have to worry about growing their brand through Apex Legends, it’s hard to ignore the risk of losing money when money is what you’re there for.