NRG joins growing list of popular orgs to leave Apex Legends

One of Apex Legends‘ biggest orgs is officially out of the scene. NRG announced today the departure of its competitive team—sweetdreams, nafen, and Gild—as well as its lone remaining Apex content creator, babynikki.

It’s a swift fall from the top for what was one of the orgs at the very top of the scene. While they never managed to win an ALGS LAN, NRG’s competitive squad were perennially successful, placing second at the Split One Playoffs earlier this year in addition to top-20 finishes at the Split Two Playoffs and the ALGS Championship. They also used to boast some of the most popular content creators in the title in aceu and Lululuvely.

Now, it appears the org will have no presence in the game at all.

In a statement posted to Twitter, Sweet noted that NRG leaving the scene was directly tied to reasons other similar orgs previously left Apex as well, such as Team Liquid, Cloud9, and G2 Esports. Several orgs have called out Apex esports and the ALGS for not providing much return on investment for orgs in the scene, and that concern combined with the ongoing “esports winter” most likely sealed the fate of NRG Apex.

In his statement, Sweet also noted that all of the players and coaches with the team will be looking for a new home going into year four of the ALGS—but not all of them together.

In addition to finding a new org, the now-former NRG roster will be making some changes for the next year of competition.

While the team was a LAN favorite heading into the year, finishing outside the top 10 at the last two LAN tournaments of the year fell well below the team’s lofty expectations. Sweet, nafen, and Gild are all considered top-tier players in North America and the prospect that one of them may leave the team, or that all three players might split up, will only add fuel to the rostermania fire as several teams are rumored to be making changes before the next year of competition.

NRG’s departure should be a major inflection point for ALGS organizers, however. The support and visibility that legacy orgs give to the competition only help the popularity of the competition, and if the competition can’t retain at least some of these organizations, it may handicap its own growth and popularity.

The ALGS is due to return for its fourth full year of competition this fall. What orgs will still be around for it remains a mystery.