M80 acquires Beastcoast, but leaves one pro team in the dust

M80, a global esports organization, has just bought out fellow competitor Beastcoast, but not every team is coming along for the ride.

M80 announced the purchase officially on X (formerly Twitter), where the company detailed the acquisition. The esports organization also linked to a lengthy blog post which goes in-depth about the resources M80 just acquired and why the company wanted to make such a drastic purchase. As part of the acquisition, M80 will join a lucrative esports field with a top-tier Dota 2 team. M80 also now owns Beastcoast’s influential Pokémon media team responsible for covering various events.

Beastcoast is an esports organization known for hosting grassroots events for Pokémon players that promote small and large levels of play. While it is unclear if the acquisition will affect these smaller tournaments, the CEO of Beastcoast, Grant Zinn, has joined M80 as their Chief Business Development Officer. This could mean that Zinn will still focus on hosting these adored events.

However, the acquisition did generate some bad news for Beastcoast’s Rainbow Six Siege team, as M80 decided not to acquire them. M80 already has an R6 team within the esport, leaving the Beastcoast members high and dry. This means all the Beastcoast members are without representation as they head into the game’s invitational matches.

While M80 has not posted official reasoning regarding the R6 Beastcoast team, fans on X are speculating if other organizations will pick them up. One fan shared their confusion, as they thought C9, another esports organization, had some ownership over Beastcoast’s R6 team.

Another fan replied to this message, stating that “player contracts and league seats are still on Beastcoast.” This means that M80 likely had the opportunity to acquire the R6 team, but decided against it. It’s currently unclear if other esports organizations will pick up these players, or if they’ll be forced to represent themselves during the invitational matches.

Nevertheless, the acquisition only strengthens M80 as an organization, expanding its influence in South America and across the globe.