UK esports organisation Vexed Gaming are due to close, with senior management stepping away from them this afternoon.
The news comes just days after their Vexed.dev Valorant team made it through the Valorant Challengers Northern Europe Polaris 2024 Split 1 Closed Qualifier, from the Open Qualifier, along with Yari Esports, Ruddy and ianto & co (aka iantos dogs).
Vexed were acquired by Cooldown Ventures back in 2019, and their Companies House page lists Pei-Zhi Liou and Sinan Waheed as the company’s officers.
Players have also been informed the org is shutting down, though it’s not fully clear when this will happen. Esports.gg’s Tom Bull reports that players will continue to represent Vexed ‘in the short term,’ with Apex Legends player Unlucky saying they were told their positions were secured for “something like three months.”
Vexed Apex Legends player MaTaFe tweeted out saying he ‘just got emailed that Vexed is shutting down, so we are going into ALGS [the Apex Legends Global Series] without an org’.
Vexed’s outgoing Marketing Director (and minority shareholder) Steve ‘JTB’ James and Chief Gaming Officer Dan ‘Skiin’ O’Hare also posted a joint statement and open letter to Vexed about leaving.
“We want to express our sincere apologies for the failures of the broader company leadership that have contributed to this unfortunate outcome. In hindsight, it is evident that mistakes were made long before the recession that have left us scrambling to keep the lights on for the past year, at much cost to our own health, personal lives and mental wellbeing.
“Critical decisions were not handled with the necessary foresight, prudence and urgency, leading to promises made to myself and Dan not being kept and in some instances flat out lied to, which in turn had a knock-on effect to the wider team and members of Vexed.”
Steve James
“We’re not 100% sure what lies in the future for Vexed, we just want to assure you that we will be working dilligently to try to help minimise the impact on everyone involved. Our focus remains on addressing outstanding obligations with the majority owners.”
It might not spell the complete end for Vexed, as Dan and Steve said they want to try and gain control of the esports organisation and start a new chapter in Vexed’s history.
“Is this the end of Vexed for us? We hope not. Myself, Dan and those who love and believe in this org are doing everything we can to take back true control (in some shape or form) and start a new chapter in this amazing org’s history. We gave everything to keep it alive and we don’t intend on giving up that fight just yet.”
Dan added: “End of an era, I feel the joint statement sums it up better than I could ever write in a tweet. Nothing but love for every individual I’ve had the pleasure of working with on the Vexed journey.”
Vexed have competed in various games over the years, from Counter-Strike to Apex Legends, Valorant and more.
Vexed are the latest in a growing list of esports entities affected by a downturn in the market, with dwindling investment, as well as layoffs and closures. Late last year, Scottish Esports League 6 was delayed with staff and players being left unpaid, the MNM Gaming Rainbow Six Siege roster left the organisation over a lack of payments and Promod Esports shut down, just to name a few specifically in the UK.
Esports News UK has reached out to Vexed’s owners for comment and will update this article if we receive a response.
From the archives: Interview with Vexed’s former CGO Mark Weller on the org’s history
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
