Guild Esports didn’t support women in the industry; it contributed to erasure
Analysing the damage caused by Guild Esports’ dramatic collapse
When Guild Esports announced its closure on August 21st, 2025, it released an uncontrollable torrent of information, including questionable business decisions, accusations of toxic workplace culture, and high-profile celebrity endorsement from a celebrity who barely endorsed it.
Since then, an understanding of what went wrong with Guild Esports has deepened.
Core to the dramatic nature of the company’s implosion is the chronic undermining of Guild’s branding centrepiece: advocacy for women in gaming and esports.
Where did the message to “support and elevate women across all levels of gaming” betray itself, and how were hardworking women caught in the corporate collapse crossfire?
For more background information on the primary financial and business issues that contributed to Guild’s collapse, please read ENUK’s first investigation into the company: Toxicity, Financial Irresponsibility, Total Esports Illiteracy: What Went Wrong With Guild Esports?
Guild Esports: previously positioned as one of the UK’s most significant advocates for women in gaming
Over several years, Guild Esports ran a vigorous campaign to improve conditions for women in the gaming and esports industries.
The campaign spanned media, events, and esports team signings, suggesting a determined, multifaceted approach to addressing the all-too-familiar issues faced by women. Before the brand’s eventual collapse, it would have appeared to any outsider that the brand had successfully centred itself around a core mission.
Guild Esports ran a regular series of events, The Lobby, focused solely on advising and supporting women in gaming and esports.
The Lobby would provide a curated space for women in the industry to interact, network, and gain advice or guidance from panel discussions. Attending these events often gave an impression of hope and progress.
Alongside this, Guild was known for routinely fielding women’s esports teams. This included participation in both Valorant and Counter-Strike’s competitive women’s circuits.
However, the higher you appear to climb, the longer people watch you fall.
Since Guild Esports closed operations, it has become apparent that many women hired for its campaign to uplift and empower were left unpaid, some for months before the company ceased to exist.
Moreover, the well-intentioned efforts of some community figures were used to extract additional work that was not contracted.
Even after the company technically ceased to exist, women in the gaming and esports industries have suffered as a result of Guild’s actions.
Understanding how such a strong brand message turned toxic requires a more in-depth look at the conditions, contradictions, and communications women received from Guild Esports.
From contracts to competition, here is how Guild’s brand identity unravelled:
Promoting women in the industry, or putting the goodwill of women in the industry under pressure?
Following public outcry as women contracted by Guild Esports revealed an extensive history of non-payment, Frankie Ward publicly discussed several areas where the company had placed her under financial stress.
ENUK interviewed Frankie Ward in the weeks that followed, leading to a discussion that further clarified how Guild Esports had treated women behind closed doors.
One of the areas where Guild caused undue strain was through contractual non-competes.
Non-competes are not uncommon in contractual agreements, and do not usually cause stress.
“The non-compete was about competitors to Sky Broadband. So it didn’t mean I couldn’t work on anything full stop. I did have someone approach about a social media campaign for a different broadband provider when I was working. When I was at an event, I spoke to another representative from a broadband provider, and they mentioned I was on their list. And then I was like, oh, I literally just signed this contract. So I can’t work with you for six months. When the trail goes cold like that, it’s just like, OK, great. So I missed out on a couple of opportunities.”
“It didn’t stop me from working on, say, Fortnite, for example, because Fortnite doesn’t have a rival or a competitive brand that’s representing being represented on the broadcast, I should say. But it would have stopped me from, say, hosting the league powered by EE or Virgin Media – the contract would stop me from being able to do that. In the current economy, when you’re working in esports, you do have to be a content creator and try to find other ways to make money as well as broadcast.
“I think a lot of people underestimate how diversification of income has become so important for so many people at this point, because you just can’t rest on one thing anymore. It’s actually just not possible.”
Guild Esports’ cost-cutting merged with alleged compensation-dodging
ENUK also learned of incidents in which Guild Esports implemented cost-cutting measures that negatively affected some of the women involved in their campaigns.
For example, Frankie described how she was led to fulfil roles more closely associated with those of an ambassador, while not being paid the same amount as those in an official ambassador capacity.
“They decided they didn’t have the budget for me to be an ambassador. So sometimes they would refer to me as that, but I actually wasn’t. I had to do a content day shoot where they did shots of me in the jersey and stuff. I probably should have said no to that because that wasn’t my job. But my content shoot was to be like me, you know, talking about what the lobby was. But then I ended up doing a jersey photo shoot.”
Summarised by Frankie, “It’s like they twisted one contract to be the same as a higher-paid one, but without paying the higher pay”
Undermining the history of women in the games and esports industries
Despite forcefully presenting an image of support for women facing adversity in navigating the games and esports industries, there were multiple instances in which Guild Esports significantly undermined the efforts of women outside its brand and organisation.
The most significant example is their UK women’s esports LAN, which they marketed as “the first of its kind.” This led to substantial erasure of women’s LAN history.
The Women’s Esports Final – the “first of its kind” that forgets all that came before
In April 2024, one particular phrase began dominating headlines across esports publications. Guild Esports, in partnership with Sky, were launching a women’s esports LAN opportunity that Guild had enthusiastically dubbed “the first of its kind.”
This “first” status was spread far and wide, even entering regional and national mainstream news outlets, thanks to the brand’s use of its partnerships and attachment to David Beckham.
One outlet even claimed in their headline, “UK launches first women’s only esports tournaments,” interpreting “first of its kind” as it being the first women’s tournament ever in the country.
Technically speaking, it was the first of its kind, in some way.
Very few tournament organisers had attempted centring a LAN event around EA FC and Sim Racing alone, marketed as an esports tournament. Both EA FC and Sim Racing tend to sit on the periphery of the industry compared to traditionally esports-associated titles such as Counter-Strike or League of Legends.
It was also the first to offer a contract with the organisation as a prize.
However, it was far from the first women’s esports LAN in the UK.
Recognising the full history of UK women’s esports that Guild neglected
Whether intentionally or not, Guild Esports’ excitement in declaring itself the “first of its kind” led to publicity that completely neglected to acknowledge the decades of female-led effort that had made mainstream women’s esports LANs possible.
Women’s esports LANs were held by EXCEL ESPORTS at the Insomnia Gaming Festival in the form of the Valorant Women’s Cup. The British Esports Federation has long held women’s esports tournaments and events. National University Esports Circuits have provided opportunities across the country for female competition, both online and offline.
In fact, when examining the history of women’s esports in the UK, there have been many tournaments, competitive circuits, and grassroots initiatives that built the women’s scene.
However, none received credit or recognition from Guild Esports.
The core focus of their campaign was to place themselves at the front. They had to be “the first.”
Adding “…of its kind” at the end of proclaiming Guild to be “the first” did nothing to clarify where they sat amongst decades of effort from women in the space. Instead, the brand benefited from the work of others while receiving praise for its “landmark” event.
Perhaps, if they had not left so many women unpaid after the collapse, their blind enthusiasm would be viewed as forgivable.
However, the decimated initiative left over after the brand disappeared leaves little space for forgiveness to flourish.
From Guild Esports supporting women in the industry, to jeopardising a woman-led business
In the midst of their closure, Guild Esports allegedly also caused significant disruption to an event booked for their venue pre-collapse, harming a woman-owned, female-led business.
Despite Guild Esports having contracts to hire their venue in the weeks following the company’s collapse, events planned for the venue were allegedly given abysmal support and communication.
Contrasting the core “supporting women” message that Guild Esports pushed for so long, these actions caused significant detriment to a woman-owned events business in the gaming space.
Ellen Ruth, founder of One Shot events, explained her experience fighting to protect the time, effort, and money she had invested in her Summer Gaming Creator Party.
Despite the odds being stacked against her, she was able to run the event. Nevertheless, Guild Esports made decisions that were actively sabotaging her efforts.
A blatant disregard for communication and agreements that left other women in the dust
Multiple services that Guild had promised in the venue-hire contract were allegedly withdrawn at the very last minute.
Staffing was originally included in venue hire. The staff were necessary for granting venue access and setting up what remained of the venue’s technology.
However, Ellen eventually found out that the staff were no longer actively being paid by Guild Esports.
“The staff had told me that they would not be getting paid anymore, so I told them that I didn’t mind paying out of pocket for them to be there. I needed the staff to turn on all the systems, cover the doors, and everything like that.”
The original staffing costs (from the venue hire) were also intended to cover security staff. Ellen was also informed in the days leading up to the event that Guild Esports would no longer be providing that either, forcing her to hire security services out of pocket.
Guild Esports also announced on the Saturday before the event that they had gutted the building’s WiFi system, resulting in further out-of-pocket expenses for a temporary WiFi network.
Furthermore, the contractually promised bar and bar staff were not provided, and had to be hired at an additional cost.
On entering the venue the day of the event, Ellen also faced gaming rooms with no PCs, areas of the venue originally agreed to be provided being blocked with no access, and gaming booths with no consoles.
Before even rectifying their position with contractually booked events, Guild had stripped half of their venue bare.
Ironically, one of the few items remaining in-venue was their Esports World Cup 2024 Apex Legends trophy – a tournament where their signed Apex Legends players won prize money reaching the Grand Final, but never saw a penny of their winnings from Guild.
“ONE SHOT IS COMPLETELY SEPARATE FROM GUILD”: Damage by association
Beyond the practical hurdles thrown post-collapse, women like Ellen have suffered from being purely associated with Guild Esports.
Guild’s reputational hit post-collapse was catastrophic. Many women spoke out about unpaid invoices and feelings of betrayal. This had a domino effect on people like Ellen, who were not involved in the organisation at all but were associated with the brand through contracts such as venue hire.
In the days before her event, Ellen had to publicly post that “One Shot is completely separate from Guild – we are just using the venue.”
Ellen explained to ENUK why this was necessary:
“People were coming online saying they were not coming to the event because Guild doesn’t pay its creators. I had to explain that I had nothing to do with them. Guild never came out with anything clarifying whatever was going on, they never actually confirmed anything at all about who was involved, and never recognised who was getting impacted. They could have seen all this and clarified that we were a separate company.”
“I had creators saying they were not coming anymore, messaging me to pull down announcement posts that they would be there. Then, obviously, their creator friends would also try to refund their tickets.”
The combination of unfulfilled contractual agreements, a gutted venue, and the knock-on effect of Guild’s actions (or lack thereof) resulted in a do-or-die event for Ellen and her business.
“We all know Guild isn’t refunding anyone. If I refunded everyone’s ticket, I would lose the deposit myself… Everything I made from that event went back into it. I didn’t make any money from that. I realised I would have screwed everybody over who had already bought trains and hotels if I cancelled.”
When it came down to it, Guild Esports’ collapse, lax communication, and reputational suicide forced women in the industry to make incredibly difficult choices:
“So, I was like, I cannot cancel this. If I cancel this, I’m personally f*cked, and I’m f*cking everyone else over too. That’s like full-on final nail in the coffin kind of sh*t.”
How Guild’s actions amount to a betrayal of the brand’s core message
Given the actions and consequences that unceremoniously crashed into the public sphere after Guild Esports’ collapse, it is unsurprising that many women in the UK gaming and esports industries feel an overwhelming sense of betrayal.
With the company’s actions leaving women wrestling with missed payments, a communication blackout, missed opportunities, and association-based reputational fallout, it is clear that once their “charitable” brand message was no longer going to earn favours, it no longer mattered.
Women being paid what they are worth is a core struggle in esports and gaming.
Guild betrayed their claims of supporting women by undermining their value, pushing individuals under one contract to perform duties from higher-paying positions without the appropriate financial compensation.
Championing, supporting, and elevating women also does not align with not paying women for their work.
Innumerable content creators, influencers, and other members of the UK gaming and esports community have been left unpaid, with some missing several months of invoices.
Furthermore, women with pending payments were not even given the respect of direct and honest communication. Most women who await payment only discovered the depths of the company’s collapse when its closure was announced online.
No warning was given that payment may need to be sought through different means.
Email addresses were deactivated without warning, leaving women with few options for seeking payment. Little to no guidance was provided on how to find an alternative contact to resolve the situation, and even after contact was made, many emails and pleas for engagement have gone unanswered or unacknowledged.
As the collapse unfolded, Guild Esports’ decision-making affected even those completely separate from the company, including a woman-led business that had signed a contract for venue hire.
Once the brand was gone, what remained of the company had no issue making decisions that actively sabotaged the very same women they had previously vowed to protect.
By withholding due compensation for women according to their work, positioning their brand to obscure a history of women’s esports efforts, and allowing their actions to sabotage a female-owned business, the company undermined, took advantage of, and disrespected women.
In the end, Guild Esports had not supported or empowered the women left in its wake. Instead, its actions contributed to erasure.
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