The Esports Advocate has learned that a fresh round of layoffs have hit Philadelphia-based esports facilities and events company Nerd Street Gamers this week. The company has further reduced its staff by 25%, according to sources. Nerd Street informed all employees Wednesday that the layoffs would happen and shortly thereafter affected employees were told that they had been let go.
It is unclear if these layoffs extended beyond the company’s core tournament operations and into its Localhost LAN center business as well, as of this writing.
LinkedIn puts Nerd Street’s headcount at around 100 employees, but that number is not accurate because former employees don’t always change their profiles to reflect current employment status.
TEA reached out to Nerd Street multiple times this week but the company did not respond to our requests for comment.
Earlier this month, TEA reported that Nerd Street was struggling to pay participants who took part in Riot Games-sanctioned Nerd Street competitions in the second half of 2022 that were part of the North American Valorant Champions Tour. At the time Nerd Street CEO John Fazio told us:
“We’re doing our best to get through the backlog of payments as fast as possible and are releasing payments weekly. As of next week, all VAL Summer Champs payments will be completed for both prizes and staff. We’re hoping to have Frag’s payments all caught up by next month and we’re working with Riot on a resolution for VCT.”
Nerd Street has raised approximately $25.3M USD in disclosed investments across four funding rounds since 2017, according to Crunchbase data. Those investors include U.S. retailer Five Below, telecommunications company Comcast/Comcast Spectacor, angel investor George Miller, and VC investment firms Founders Fund, Elevate Ventures, and SeventySix Capital.