Israeli organization Finest has shut down all of its professional esports divisions, which included teams in CS:GO and VALORANT, after nearly two years of operations.
“This was not something we foresaw happening a couple of weeks back but rather one that was forced on us after key investors backed out of making further investments into the company,” Finest said. “This was all due to macro-economic situations the world is presently facing and the fact that owning an esports team is still a very speculative investment.”
This doesn’t mean that the Finest brand is over, though. The organization said it is looking to continue operations within “the gaming and esports industries” and will pivot into technologies, products, and services in the future.
Finest had a notable international team in CS:GO esports composed of former Fnatic and Ninjas in Pyjamas AWPer Simon “twist” Eliasson, Niclas Plessen, Kristjan “shokz” Jakobson, Rasmus “kreaz” Johansson, and the former ENCE AWPer Aleksander “hades” Miskiewicz. These players are all likely to become free agents even though the timing is not the best since many teams have their rosters locked for 2022 due to the IEM Rio Major roster lock.
Finest peaked at 19th in the world in HLTV’s rankings earlier this year in June when it still had the Israeli AWPer Guy “anarkez” Trachtman in the lineup alongside twist, PlesseN, shokz, and kreaz. This quintet most notably won Pinnacle Cup IV in May over Eternal Fire.
Published: Oct 6, 2022 11:42 am