CSGO player GooseBreeder on CLG\u2019s shutdown: \u201cEveryone was heartbroken\u201d Fredrik Nilsson\/DreamHackFormer CLG Red player Mounira \u2018GooseBreeder\u2019 Dobie spoke to Dexerto about the end of the organization and what the future might hold for her CS:GO team. As someone who spent the last five years \u2014 an eternity in esports terms \u2014 playing under CLG, GooseBreeder has a better perspective than most to talk about the impact of the organization\u2019s shutdown. The 27-year-old Canadian was by far the longest-standing member of CLG Red, the organization\u2019s women\u2019s division, which included a team in CS:GO and one in Valorant. Recruited from Dignitas in 2018, she became the cornerstone of the CS:GO project as it went through multiple rebuilds over the years and her initial teammates, one by one, either left the team or retired from the game. CLG\u2019s players and staff were informed on Tuesday, April 4, in a company-wide meeting that they were being let go, with the acquisition by NRG being confirmed two days later. The only ones who kept their jobs were those working in the League of Legends department, who will transition to NRG. The news came as a shock to many, both within the company and outside of it. Unlike other esports organizations, CLG had not been reducing focus, streamlining their operations or downsizing their esports section. \u201cI think everyone was heartbroken, on our team and in the rest of CLG\u201d she says. \u201cI wasn\u2019t necessarily suspecting this, but with the current economy in esports, I wasn\u2019t too surprised, either. \u201cIn terms of CLG, I thought we were on the up and creating something really powerful. I think [Head of CLG] Greg was doing a great job alongside all the staff and players. It\u2019s a bit of a surprise from that perspective.\u201d When it became clear that CLG would eventually cease to exist after the acquisition (Riot Games still has to formally approve the rebranding to NRG in the LCS), many took to Twitter and Reddit to lament the loss of an iconic organization that had been a staple of North American esports for over a decade. But CLG\u2019s shutdown is about much more than a historical competitive brand vanishing into thin air. Tournament success was not, after all, the only metric by which CLG wanted to be judged. In recent years, the organization had taken significant steps towards building a community that connected fans across multiple esports titles. CLG FGC, the organization\u2019s Fighting Game Community division, ran a unique weekly tournament series called \u2018CLG Run It Thursdays\u2019 with East and West Coast brackets. CLG was also committed to empowering women in the gaming and esports industry through its CLG Red division and initiatives like the CLG Red Carpet Mixer. \u201cI always liked CLG and felt that we understood each other,\u201d GooseBreeder says. \u201cCLG was always an org that stood for something and wanted to be more than just an esports org. \u201cThey were always trying to do things for the greater good, help the community, be there for the players, etc. CLG wasn\u2019t just taking care of its own but cared about others outside of the org as well. Being in the esports industry, I think having what we had can be rare so I definitely cherished it. The org had its highs and lows in terms of performance but I think we were definitely on the up.\u201d The future of CLG Red\u2019s CS:GO team CLG\u2019s shutdown leaves GooseBreeder\u2019s team, of the best women\u2019s sides in the world, on the market. The Valorant squad, meanwhile, has been picked up by Moist Esports to represent the Moist Moguls brand in the VCT Game Changers North America Series 1. GooseBreeder is confident that her team will be able to find a new home. \u201cI think it\u2019s very realistic,\u201d she says, adding that there have been talks with a number of organizations already. But that appears to be far from a sure thing. Shortly after CLG\u2019s fate became clear, Vivienne \u2018BiBiAhn\u2019 Quach, who, like GooseBreeder and Coline \u2018Kaoday\u2019 Le Floc\u2019h, is in the United States on a visa, said that she\u2019s open to playing in Europe and is prioritizing co-ed offers. \u201cOf course, everyone is a free agent and open to doing what they like, but that [sticking together] is our main goal,\u201d GooseBreeder notes. Interest in women\u2019s CS:GO esports has never been higher, with organizations like Guild Esports, G2 Esports and Team Spirit having all recently signed teams. Part of that is because of ESL\u2019s Impact circuit, which offers regular online competition to teams from Europe, North America and South America, in addition to LAN events with big prizes. At the same time, many organizations see all-female teams as a way to attract brands and connect with a significant segment of the gaming community. GooseBreeder\u2019s team, which has started playing under the name \u2018Red Ded Redemption\u2019, is in line to attend the ESL Impact League Season 3 event in Dallas, in June. CLG may be gone, but the spirit of CLG Red lives on in those who helped the brand to become a success \u2014 and the community that the organization spent so many years building is rallying behind GooseBreeder and her team in every match. \u201cI think we accomplished a lot throughout the history of CLG,\u201d GooseBreeder says. \u201cThe only times CLG were not at the top were during different rebuild phases. Now we\u2019re in a rebuilding phase but we\u2019re on the up. \u201cAs someone who has been a champion many times, I know what it takes and what it looks like to be the best. I think we can look back and be happy about our accomplishments. We would all like to go to Dallas together and make our stand.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
CSGO player GooseBreeder on CLG\u2019s shutdown: \u201cEveryone was heartbroken\u201d Fredrik Nilsson\/DreamHackFormer CLG Red player Mounira \u2018GooseBreeder\u2019 Dobie spoke to Dexerto about the end of the organization and what the future might hold for her CS:GO team. As someone who spent the last five years \u2014 an eternity in esports terms \u2014 playing under CLG, GooseBreeder […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37790\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}