Beyond the Summit closes doors as esports winter continues

Esports tournament organizer Beyond The Summit (BTS) has closed its doors and let go of all of its staff, according to co-founder David ‘LD’ Gorman.

An era is over as Beyond the Summit, a tournament organizer for games like Super Smash Bros. and Dota 2, has announced that it will cease operations.

In a statement posted to Twitter, BTS co-founder LD announced that the company had let go of its staff and would be closing its doors.

The co-founder said that BTS will keep its full-time staff on its payroll for two weeks, everyone will be offered two weeks’ severance, and the company will continue to pay for healthcare coverage for its United States-based workers through April.

BTS shuts down tournament operations after 11 years

In the statement, LD wrote, “based on our current financial outlook, and how challenging the next year looks, we’ve decided that it would be irresponsible to keep BTS going in its current structure. So, after nearly 11 years in business, we’ve made the extremely difficult decision to let all our people go.”

BTS will also complete its current obligations for the events it is already set to organize, including Smash Ultimate Summit 6. LD also said in the statement that the company is still “exploring other paths forward, especially ones that allow us to do right by our staff.”

The statement said that BTS would rather take these measures now instead of running the company into the ground and potentially not being able to pay any of their staff.

“We don’t want to leave our people out in the cold. We don’t want to leave them with uncertainty, constantly wondering and worrying when the money will run out,” LD said.

BTS was one of the few tournament organizers in esports that was not backed by venture capital funds, remaining independent throughout its 11-year history. It adds to the list of esports companies that are either letting go of staff or are ceasing operations altogether during this difficult economic climate.