Team Liquid is the latest esports organization to lay people off in the month of January, though the scale and scope of these cuts and what departments were impacted is unknown, at this time. The Esports Advocate has confirmed three people–so far–that were let go from Team Liquid on Friday (or were at least made public).
News that layoffs were occurring was first reported by esports journalist Jacob Wolf on social media Friday afternoon.
In a response to Wolf’s tweet, former Team Liquid employee Sarah Enders said that there had been a smaller round in September, but added that this week’s layoffs “seems MUCH bigger.” Enders worked for Team Liquid for more than four years as its esports coordinator, as a japanese translator, and as a research coordinator. Enders also responded to a tweet by Washington Wizards and Capitals owner and aXiomatic co-founder Ted Leonsis about Team Liquid, noting that “As they do a second round of layoffs, seemingly of mostly medium-length tenured employees.”
TEA reached out to Sender for further comment but she has not responded as of this writing. TEA also reached out to Team Liquid and several executives at the company, who declined to comment through a company representative.
Team Liquid’s global headcount is somewhere in between 51 – 100 employees, according to recent job postings on LinkedIn, and the company actually has 13 active job listings for positions in Brazil, the Netherlands, Los Angeles, and Berlin.
Team Liquid is owned by Axiomatic Gaming, who valued the company at $450M USD in May of 2022 during a funding round that raised $35M. aXiomatic also has investments in Fortnite and Rocket League owner Epic Games and San Francisco-based Niantic Labs, who you might know better as the developer behind Pokémon GO.
Team Liquid is the latest in a series of layoffs that have hit the esports, gaming, and tech industries. Just this week layoffs hit Microsoft (and its various game studios), Google, Nerd Street Gamers, Riot Games, Vox Media publications, GameSpot, GiantBomb, Unity, and 100 Thieves, among others.
This is a developing story that will be updated as more information becomes available.
Editor’s note: We decided not to publish the names of the three individuals who were laid off to protect their identities and privacy.