Several Counter-Strike 2 organizations have spoken out against CSGOEmpire following the chaos caused by their stunt at CS2’s Copenhagen Major, with teams, casters, and even the tournament organizer itself abandoning the event.
The feud between CSGOEmpire and CSGORoll, two gambling sites oriented around Counter-Strike 2 skins, has been very long and very public at this point. CSGOEmpire’s owner and founder, Monarch, has been vocal about his distaste for their competitor.
He took things a step further by paying people at Counter-Strike 2’s PGL Major Copenhagen to rush the stage at G2 (an organization sponsored by CSGORoll), claiming that his employees at the event would be fired if they didn’t cause chaos at the event. This resulted in the CS2 Copenhagen Major’s trophy getting smashed.
Following this event and CSGOEmpire’s involvement, most of the major organizations that initially signed up to participate have pulled out entirely. ENCE, GamerLegion, and many more teams have publicly announced that they won’t participate in the tournament.
ENCE’s CEO had this to say of the situation: “We refuse to work with idiots.”
Additionally, several casters who were invited to work the event have distanced themselves from it, and even the event organizer has cut all ties with CSGOEmpire.
After tonight’s shocking events at the PGL Major we are cutting all ties with CSGOEmpire effective immediately.We will not provide our services in connection with their tournament and we deeply apologize to all of the players, teams, casters and everyone else we contacted with…
— Fortuna Esports #EBL2024 (@FortunaEsports) March 29, 2024
Even if there were still enough teams willing to play in the tournament, organizer Fortuna isn’t willing to help put the show on.
Additionally, CSGOEmpire owner Monarch has been banned from Kick following the events of that evening and his goading his employees on to rush the stage.
💪The trophy is here! @paszaBiceps 👏#PGLMAJOR pic.twitter.com/ZVgAEfOoKQ
— PGL (@pglesports) March 30, 2024
That said, the trophy has since been fixed, and the PGL Copenhagen Major show will go on. CS legend paszaBiceps brought the new trophy on stage after biking across the Baltic Sea for 10 hours straight to get to the Major.
The PGL has also made some changes to the PGL Major stage to provide more security to the players.