rare apex posting but NRG leaving apex wholesale is kinda nuts. like ferrari leaving formula 1 or something. one of their org members posted saying something to the effect of "EA/Respawn has not done enough to support us/orgs" and provided no further context so I'm not exactly sure what they mean by that. I know Respawn decently enough to know they want nothing but the comp scene to flourish and I don't doubt EA is being excessively stingy for a company that earns billions through FUT.
either way, esports orgs in general are in a real shit place and i think we're more than past the threshold of these companies realizing no matter how big the game or audience there's simply no money in paying a handful of players tens of thousands per year for relatively meager prize pools and a cut of increasingly useless twitch stipends. it's no wonder the most successful orgs make all their money from merch and shit. something's gotta give.
but also i wonder if this is just the slow heat death of FPS esports because The People are tired of BRs and fortnite's continued success can single-handedly be attributed to its skins and store. the comp scene for that long-stopped being relevant. CS2 on the horizon I'm sure will provide new ground for that scene to revitalize and grow in tandem with Valorant but beyond that like... I don't know. Evac Shooters are definitely not the answer because that's a niche of a niche (and is also not competitive). Whatever the problem is I think the solution both doesn't exist yet and also el problema es el capitalismo
missed that as of two weeks ago-ish 100 Thieves is also no longer in competitive Apex meaning that's now two T1 orgs gone. that leaves TSM and ... ????
like there's plenty of other teams still that are sticking around but the pool is shrinking, higher-profile pros are gonna take spots with smaller teams to eke out a living pushing newer talent out while some just inevitably move on to other stuff
it continues to be a thing where like... on paper the numbers still seem healthy? i guess? it doesn't sound like the game's playerbase is shrinking all that much even if Twitch viewership absolutely is with pro players. fortunately Apex is still pretty dominantly the "vtuber collab" game in a way basically no other shooter is.
feels like i'm waiting for the sky to fall despite the weather saying it's gonna be real nice for the next week-type shit
