British esports organization TENSTAR will officially close its doors and suspend operations after two years, citing issues attracting investment partners amidst “unattractive” and “unsustainable” tier-two conditions. The organization has said it “will be back” when it is able to be more sustainable.
The organization, based in the West Midlands region of England, is currently working through getting some “outstanding payments due to some players and staff” paid, and is suspending operations to “avoid generating more costs” during this process.
In its statement, TENSTAR said its “numerous and extensive conversations with various investment partners” were not able to progress due to a lack of potential returns on those investments. TENSTAR says that this is due to the tier-two scenes of games like VALORANT and Rainbow Six Siege being unsustainable without considerable third-party investment, which forced them to transfer its players to other organizations.
The organization claims that even winning a regional VALORANT Challengers League would “barely generate enough revenue to pay [one] player, for [one] month. TENSTAR competed in the VRL East last year, and this year’s Challengers East year only rewards €7,500 to the winner of split one. For context, the winner of NA Challengers split one wins $20,000.
Over the past year, TENSTAR has had to bench and transfer list two separate entire VALORANT main rosters; it transferred a roster to MAD Lions on April 28 before benching and attempting to part ways with its Polish roster at the end of 2022. The organization has also competed in the tier-two scenes for Siege and CS:GO, taking on gauntlet qualifiers with slim chances of reaching major tournaments.
