In a shocking bit of news, it seems The Guard will have to rebuild its entire structure after news outlets reported massive layoffs.
The esports community was rocked when, on February 22, it was reported by several outlets that The Guard, one of the most interesting up-and-coming organizations backed up by billionaires Stan and Josh Kroenke, had laid off its entire staff.
2023 has been rough for the esports industry, with 100 Thieves and OpTic also letting go of dozens of staff members, but The Guard's situation seems so out of left field for everyone involved.
The Guard Lets Go Of Entire Staff
According to Esports.gg, every single member of The Guard, extending to the content team, social team, talent relations, and creative team, is no longer working for the company.
Several employees heavily criticized (and justifiedly so) The Guard's decision to go ahead with these massive layoffs. Ariel Ben-Abraham, former GM of apparel at The Guard, stated he had moved to Los Angeles just two days before the layoffs happened.
Moved here two days ago and now everyone is laid off LMAOOO what a fucking joke.@hollywoodparkca you have the most disgusting HR department. Security was trying to detain me for simply trying to backup important files on my laptop.Also does know how to get out of 19 lease? pic.twitter.com/SQDaOQBtof
— Ariel Ben-Abraham (@ArielCreate) February 22, 2023
Another employee, Mavriq, posted on February 12 that he had left his job in tech after joining The Guard as a short-form producer.
LIFE UPDATE - quit my job in tech- moved to LA- joined @TheGuard as a Short-form producer pic.twitter.com/OxffiUusBA
— Mavriq (@MavriqGG) February 12, 2023
Naturally, the org has yet to make a comment via social media since, well, there are probably no employees left to handle their online presence or draft a PR statement.
What will happen with The Guard's competitive presence remains to be seen. The org currently fields teams on Valorant, Call of Duty, Apex Legends, and Overwatch, their longest-tenured team dating all the way back to 2017. The org briefly tried to dip its toes in Halo picking up a roster and fielding it from November 2021 to January 2022.
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