Exclusive: EVOS Esports Makes Major Cuts in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore
Staff quietly laid off between June and July of this year.
Multiple sources have confirmed with The Fudge Retort that Indonesia-based esports organization EVOS Esports closed offices, laid off staff, and shut down two professional esports teams between the period of June and July. Some sources we spoke to speculated that by the end of this series of austerity measures, EVOS had cut around half of its global staff, but we could not independently verify this.
EVOS is the esports arm of entertainment and media company ATTN, which was founded in 2016 and has raised a total of $16.4M USD to-date in funding over two rounds, according to Crunchbase data (investors include Indogen Capital, Korea Investment Partners, Insignia Ventures Partners, Woowa Bros, Mirae Asset Venture Investment, and Insignia Ventures Partners). In addition to operating multiple esports teams, ATTN also owns influencer marketing and content creation company WHIM, content creation platform Creatory, and mobile gaming solutions company Noctua.
In early June, EVOS quietly ceased operations in Malaysia, according to sources familiar with the situation, and effectively closed its offices there. It is unclear just how many employees worked out of these offices in person or remotely. Another source familiar with the situation tells us that the Singapore office, while is still in operation, is only being used by the “regional finance team.”
TFR reached out to multiple executives and founders working at EVOS Esports about this story over the last week–but none have responded as of this writing.
Indonesia Layoffs
In addition to ending/curtailing its operations in Singapore and Malaysia, TFR can confirm that EVOS also laid off–at the bare minimum–at least 12 employees from its home office in Indonesia across multiple departments. These layoffs occured between June and July.
One account of the situation posted online–which we could not independently verify–claimed that on or around June 30, Indonesian EVOS employees had their Slack and email accounts suddenly suspended and were told to come into the office to sign paperwork that would effectively end their employment. Even if true, it is unclear if similar methods were used at other offices.
Malaysia Layoffs
At least six employees (that we can confirm) were laid off at EVOS Malaysia and the office there has been closed, according to sources.
Singapore Layoffs
EVOS also laid off players from EVOS SG MY and what appears to be a majority of the employees working out of the Singapore offices. On July 28, EVOS SG MY (which competed in Mobile Legends: Bang Bang and PUBG Mobile) posted a message on social media to say farewell to its fans:
“With every hello, there will be a goodbye. They have crafted their stories with EVOS since the beginning and all there that's left are memories that we will cherish always. We have come to an end and here is where we bid our farewell to EVOS SG. We thank you for all the memories and the hard work in all the trophies that you have brought home. We will always be One Team, One Voice, One Family.”
Though the Singapore office may still be operational (as we mentioned earlier), team members, coaching staff, and and other executives handling administration for the EVOS SG MY team were laid off, as were employees working on the content team.
EVOS VIP Divestment
Finally, in early June, EVOS VIP posted a message on social media saying goodbye to fans, along with news that the Malaysian PUBG Mobile team had been sold to a company from Brunei called CRIT and rebranded to CRIT VIP. CRIT VIP continues to compete in PUBG Mobile Pro League.
Bonus Fun Fact: While the announcement was made public on his personal social media channels, EVOS Esports never officially announced that its longtime CEO and founder Ivan Yeo left the company in 2021.
Editor’s Note: This story has been edited to remove all names of former EVOS Esports employees; this was done mainly because some had expressed deep concerns about reprisals.