A report from HLTV – which was later confirmed by Nikolaj Nyholm, Founder & CEO of RFRSH Entertainment – has revealed that the company will split from its two competitive brands, Astralis and Origen.
Both brands are now operating under a newly-formed company titled RFRSH Teams, which will be renamed before long.
This split means that RFRSH Entertainment, and its employees, will soon be solely focused on operating its CS:GO tournament circuit, BLAST Pro Series. The report explains that a few people still hold power in both RFRSH Entertainment and RFRSH Teams, though that will be rectified soon according to Nyholm.
Negotiations are underway for majority shares owned by people in RFRSH Entertainment to be acquired by RFRSH Teams. Nyholm told HLTV that the two companies will operate entirely independently of each other by the time that the StarLadder Berlin Major comes around on August 23rd.
It was noted in the report that “extensive interest from outside investors” in RFRSH Teams is expected. Astralis held the position of HLTV’s number one team from April 2018 to June 2019, and Origen placed second in the LEC Spring Split playoffs.
Esports Insider says: We’ve already seen some skepticism surrounding this move but we just think that this should have been done a long, long time ago. Conflicts of interest are no anomaly in esports but that doesn’t make them right; hopefully this is the first of many of these changes in the industry and we can get to a healthier place. That’s if the threads between RFRSH Entertainment and these brands are genuinely cut, of course.
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