Apocalypse Now: Mass layoffs at The Guard, Chris Overholt Leaving OverActive Media
People on the Move for Feb. 26, 2023.
Layoffs Hit The Guard and Immortals
This week The Esports Advocate reported that The Guard, Kroenke Sports & Entertainment’s esports division, laid off almost all of its staff. While its Valorant, Apex Legends, OWL, and CDL rosters are continuing to compete, the company that owns the Denver Nuggets may very well exit esports altogether. From what we understand, more than 30 employees were let go this week and only a handful remain. We will have more on this story Monday or Tuesday so watch The Esport’s Advocate’s social channels on LinkedIn and Twitter for that.
Also this week, Immortals made a handful of cuts, but while we do not know the scope and scale of these layoffs—we do know that they seem to be isolated to Immortals and not related parent company Immortals Gaming Club (MIBR, Gamers Club, etc).
Chris Overholt Leaving OverActive Media
OverActive Media, owners of Toronto Defiant, Toronto Ultra, and MAD Lions, announced that longtime CEO Chris Overholt would be leaving his role, but would stick around for an additional 30 days as an advisor. We’re not sure what this means for the company, but Overholt is likely to return to roots in professional sports, having worked for Toronto-area professional sports teams, the Olympics, and the Miami Dolphins...
People on the Move
Here is this week’s list of promotions, hires, and departures in the gaming/esports industry:
Esports:
Angela Roseboro leaves her role as Riot Games chief diversity officer.
Tyler “Ninja” Blevins joins Complexity Gaming as chief innovation officer.
Christian Slot joins BLAST as managing editor.
Andy Hall has been laid off from PUBG Studios.
Joey Sousa has been laid off from PUBG Studios.
Cory Doggett was laid off from OpTic Gaming a few weeks ago. He worked with Envy and Dallas Fuel.
Steffen Noll joins STARK Esports as associate director of consulting.
Marco Niemann leaves Freaks 4U Gaming to join G2 Esports as head of global partnerships.
Théophile Monnier joins Toornament as its new senior sales manager.
Arun Rajappa joins Riot Games as the new country manager for India & South Asia.
Derek Watford joins LeagueSpot as director of product design.
Clare Jarvis joins Guild Esports as chief financial officer and company secretary.
Matthew 'Charlie' Charles is named director of operations at Guild Esports.
Alun Vaughan has been appointed to the role of senior communications manager at Guild Esports.
Abigail Sanchez leaves her role as a video editor at 100 Thieves.
Tommaso "joYnt" Gavioli leaves Guild Esports to join EXCEL as its new Valorant head coach.
Gaming:
Tobias Osterhaug leaves his role as studio operations and communications PM at Halo maker 343 Industries.
Don Sechler leaves PlayStation after nine and a half years to launch Blumhouse Games.
Garth DeAngelis leaves Firaxis to joins Blizzard's World of Warcraft team.
Other:
Vic Hood joins Dot Esports as the new gaming editor.
Joe Craven leaves Dexerto to join Twinfinite in March.
Justin Taylor joins WWE as senior VP of growth.
Lewis Bamber leaves Sky Bet to join Midnite as a senior product designer.
Kshitiz Girotra leaves Rooter to join NFT company Colexion Pvt.Limited as a community manager.
Andy Gill leaves META UK to join Sky Sports as head of social media and audience development.
Harkiran Chima joins Professional Fighters League as director of international.
Britt Ashley joins Warner Bros. Discovery as its new multicultural communications & PR director.
VICE CEO Nancy Dubuc is leaving the company.
Alexandra Semenova leaves Yahoo! Finance to join Bloomberg.
Oliver Maroney leaves Cameo to join Opensea as the new lead on gaming partnerships.
Thanks for reading People on the Move! For the latest esports business news, be sure to visit The Esports Advocate, and follow us on Twitter at @TEAdvocate and find us on LinkedIn.