The Esports Advocate has learned that at least four employees have been let go from Los-Angeles-based esports organization Cloud9. It appears that all four worked in the content creation and/or video production department at the company. It is unknown—as of this writing—just how many employees have been affected by this latest round of cuts.
TEA reached out to Cloud9 early Monday morning but the company did not respond to our request for comments. TEA also reached out to Cloud9 over the weekend related to the Silicon Valley Bank collapse, but the company has not yet responded to that request, as of this writing; we also reached out directly to Cloud9 CEO Jack Etienne. We will update this story should the company or Etienne respond to any of our requests.
While Cloud9 doesn’t appear to be responding to media outlets at this time, its CEO Jack Etienne said in a Reddit thread on Saturday (as first reported by Dexerto) that the company is in a great place financially—that post was in response to a thread about the organization’s recent exits from a number of esports leagues and rumors that it has been cutting player salaries across the board.
“We’re in a great place financially and I aim to keep it that way by controlling costs in a time when sponsorships are tight,” Etienne wrote on Reddit. “I’m planning for the long term.”
These cuts follow a similar round if layoffs that occurred in January.
This is a developing story…
Editor’s note: TEA has not published the names of those affected by this latest round of layoffs out of respect for their privacy.