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- The Final Tribe acquires all Godsent assets, rights, and accounts in exchange for newly emitted shares in the company given to key stakeholders in Godsent.
- The organization will compete under the Godsent brand and the owning company, The Final Tribe AB will change its name accordingly.
- In a crowdfunding campaign, the organization raised $113K USD selling 10.5% of its shares. An additional campaign releasing 5-10% of the company will follow.
The Final Tribe, a Swedish esports organization founded in 2017, has merged with the Swedish Counter-Strike: Global Offensive organization Godsent. The Final Tribe brought its full operations, shareholders, management, bootcamping capabilities, and three Swedish rosters in Dota 2, League of Legends, and Hearthstone to the merger, while Godsent brought its founder, management, accounts, brand, and all associated rights. Additionally, Godsent will create a new Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team.
Ludwig Sandgren, CEO of The Final Tribe, will continue as the merged company’s CEO and remain the largest shareholder at 22.7%, while the previous CEO of Godsent, Henrik Denebrandt, becomes deputy CEO owning a 10.8%stake in the company and Markus “Pronax” Wallsten, a former Fnatic player and three-time Major winner who founded Godsent in 2016 alongside capital investor Toms Martin, becomes the second-largest shareholder at 21.6% and will spearhead the organization’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive division.
“While neither The Final Tribe nor Godsent is super interesting, the synergies of both teams combined, is what makes it very interesting for potential stakeholders such as sponsors and, a bit further down the line, investors,“ explained The Final Tribe founder Sandgren, who initiated the deal, to The Esports Observer on a phone call. “Godsent is a cool brand with big accounts and Pronax is a great person. Not only as a legend in esports, but also in bringing his extensive competitive knowledge to the team and his credibility build on respect from upcoming Swedish Counter-Strike talents.”
Going forward, all teams and players of The Final Tribe will play under the Godsent brand, and all team pages and accounts will be branded Godsent. The company The Final Tribe AB will eventually change its name and will be using Godsent’s accounts and the domain Godsent.gg, as previously owned by Godsent prior to the acquisition.
According to the organization, two of its main competitive goals for 2020 are to build a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team that can compete with the top organizations in the scene and qualify for Valve’s most important Dota 2 tournament, The International. The 2020 edition of the tournament will take place in Stockholm, Sweden.
In June 2019, The Final Tribe raised $113K from 147 investors in a crowdfunding campaign. Minimum investment per shareholder was $50. Combined those investors held a 10.5% stake in the company before the merger with Godsent which represents 6.7% subsequently to the merger. An additional crowdfunding campaign releasing another 5-10 percent of the company’s shares is planned in the next few months. Furthermore, Sandgren told The Esports Observer that the company is planning a seed financing round with a target of $1.1M.
This transaction is not the first time the ownership of the Godsent brand changes. In June 2017, recently restructured RFRSH Entertainment bought a minority stake in Godsent. Following a multi-team ownership compliance agreement between RFRSH and the World Esports Association (WESA), RFRSH was looking for parties interested in purchasing the Godsent brand. In that context, Godsent founder Wallsten announced plans for a new project with his peer Mikail “Maikelele” Bill. Eventually, Godsent ceased all operations in June 2018, after no buyer was found for the organization.
