Heavyweight French company closes down all esports operations

After nearly 13 years, France’s original esports organisation, Team LDLC, has announced they would cease all esport operations beginning in July.

Team LDLC was founded in 2010 by the electrical gadget retailer LDLC, and the organisation is widely recognised for their CS: GO lineups.

The roster of Richard “shox” Papillon, Vincent “Happy” Cervoni Schopenhauer, and Nathan “NBK-” Schmitt helped LDLC win the DreamHack Winter 2014 Major and cement the organization’s place in Counter-Strike annals. There are only 13 organisations to achieve this feat.

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After only three months as champions, Team EnVyUs acquired the squad and went on to win the DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca 2015 Major, becoming France’s most successful team to date.

Many other prominent CS players, such as Dan “peak” Madesclaire, Kevin “Ex6TenZ” Droolans, and Kenny “kennyS” Schrub, have also played for Team LDLC.

In addition to its core Counter-Strike: Global Offensive roster, LDLC now features two FIFA players and a French League of Legends squad that won the French League tournament for the third split in a row this year.

Team LDLC merged with the French football club Olympique Lyonnais, commonly known as Lyon, in January 2020, changing its name to LDLC OL.

The city of Lyon has had its own esports team, OL eSports, competing primarily in FIFA, since 2017.In the wake of the merger between the two brands, Lyon announced plans to hold major international esports tournaments in their planned 16,000-seater multi-purpose stadium.

Just over three years later, the two parties have parted ways, and LDLC has decided to get out of esports entirely.

According to a press statement issued by the LDLC Group on May 16 that was translated from the French, “while the groups gain from a substantial track record and acknowledgment amongst video gaming lovers, they have not, regardless of their best attempts, handled to take a enough positioning among the public.”

Thus, effective July 2023, the LDLC Group and the OL Group have decided to end their LDLC OL partnership early. Once this partnership is finalised, LDLC Event will cease all of its operational activities in the e-sports industry.

Although LDLC has a rich history in esports, the organisation has been steadily reducing the number of games in which it participates in recent years, leaving just FIFA Counter-Strike and League of Legends. Battle Royale: Call of Duty S2: StarcraftWorld Rally Championship in Electronic Sports and Heroes of the Storm

Since being demoted from the ESL Pro League in 2018, its team has been unable to compete against the vast majority of the game’s best teams in Counter-Strike.

Team LDLC has announced that it would be leaving the esports industry in July, therefore from June 8-11, the organization’s CS team will be focusing on a transfer fight to remain in the ESL Challenger League. However, the LoL squad does not have any scheduled matches until the Summer Split of the LFL 2023 season, which is also expected to begin in early June.

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