It seems as if the Swedish eSports team, Ninjas in Pyjamas will have to start looking for a new CEO. The team has fired its CEO Per Likkiefelth after a report surfaced that he has yet to pay his Counter-Strike: Global Offensive players. Now, we’re not talking about a few dollars, we are talking about thousands of dollars earned through prize money and in-game sales.
Of course the company denied that this was actually happening, but this past weekend – NIP made a statement saying “time to bring in new people with more suitable properties, skills and experience to lead Ninjas in Pyjamas in the future.”
Although the company will not come out and say that this is the reason he’s gone, they did say “there are thing that we could have done or handled better.” Ninjas in Pyjamas are not the only eSports team facing situations like this, as eSports continues to grow – we are starting to see more case of illegal gambling, throwing matches, and now this.
We have to remember that some of these CEO’s are young, and eSports as a business – is still fresh from some. You will have members of the team not being able to handle so much money coming in, and in a fast pace. As the prize pool becomes bigger, and the audience becomes bigger – I’m sure more incidents like this will start to come to light. As for now, companies will have to set-up some strict rules and regulations for employees.
NIP did announce a temporary CEO, Patric Jönsson, he was the former CEO of subsidiary Xtrfy Gaming. Hopefully, this will work out for the team until they find a permeant replacement.
