The fire has gone out

Life in esports exists on a tightrope. As a player, you’re one move away from having to find a day job, and simultaneously one move away from making more money than you could dream of, travelling the world playing against the very best.

As a team, you’re one roster move away from greatness, and one bad roster away from absolution.

In Copenhagen Flames’ case, it wasn’t even a bad roster. It was one roster that wasn’t worth selling for half a million, one roster that didn’t have all five players moving on to bigger and better things.

After selling all of their good players - again - and the coach that built the team, you’d be forgiven for thinking that CPH Flames would be swimming in cash. Au contraire - such is the fragility of existence as one of esports’ smaller organisations, CPH Flames were in trouble.

We’ve seen Heroic have had similar issues, and it’s not wholly surprising. CSGO isn’t that profitable, and when that’s the only game you’re in, it’s harder to monetise it. There’s no LEC money, no Dota 2 money, just CSGO.

And you’re not in either of the big leagues, either. What sponsor cares?

CPH Flames existed as a feeder team - they trusted their scouting and their recruitment to find cheap, young players and flip them for cash. But the problem is, even the most foolproof recruitment system will miss sometimes.

Players are still human, and they will clash or disagree or just simply go off-the-boil. regali was supposed to be the next cash cow, and his lack of roster move has probably been the straw that broke the camel’s back.

We suppose that makes it clear as to why he was benched.