The Kosovar CS:GO project known as Bad News Eagles is not going to sign up with any professional organizations despite all offers received after they qualified for PGL Antwerp Major earlier this year and advanced to the Legends Stage, becoming the first team from Kosovo to do so. The players will, instead, create their own organization and start taking sponsorships.
Sener “SENER1” Mahmuti, Genc “gxx-” Kolgeci, Flatron “juanflatroo” Halimi, Dionis “sinnopsyy” Budeci, Rigon Gashi, and head coach Klesti “stikle-” Kola played the PGL Antwerp Major without official support and got all the sticker money for themselves. The Kosovar team considered signing with two orgs during the summer player break, but the offers didn’t cover what they wanted, BNE said in an official statement today.
“For us as a team, salary is not the most important factor in this decision but the staff that an organization has and how they can help us develop ourselves in and out of the game,” BNE said. “Another really important factor is the opportunity to boot camp regularly without issue, this for us is where visas are also very important.”
The players will continue playing under the BNE tag moving forward and will have full control of their own organization. BNE is currently on its way to signing the first sponsorships deals and is willing to look for more potential sponsors. Any companies interested in working with BNE should reach out to James Banks, the esports host, interviewer, and caster, who is also the manager of the Kosovar team.
“While all of this is going on, we will be fully focused on practicing and preparing for the [IEM Rio] Major, ready to showcase ourselves as one of the best teams in the world and go further than we did before,” BNE said.
BNE’s placing at PGL Antwerp Major guaranteed them a slot in the IEM Rio Major Europe Regional Major Ranking (RMR) tournament. The Kosovar team are in the Europe RMR A tournament alongside FaZe Clan, Cloud9, Ninjas in Pyjamas, G2 Esports, and Team Spirit at the moment, and will be joined by 10 teams from open qualifiers. Both European RMR tournaments offer eight slots at the IEM Rio Major.
