North CEO seemingly fired same day he suffers serious concussion

In an odd overlap of events, North CEO Christopher Håkonsson suffered a serious concussion in a cycling accident just before the team announced he would no longer head the Danish organization.

A DBLTAP article from November 17 reported that North’s CEO was on sick leave and had stepped down. North’s chief marketing officer Alexander Pedersen has been promoted to “interim CEO” with no timeframe given by the team to find Håkonsson’s replacement. There was no official announcement from the North organization, but Pedersen told the publication that it would immediately begin to look for new sources of outside financing. Neither North’s Twitter account nor its website lists a change in management.

Instead, a tweet from North’s Christian Slot, whose Twitter biography as part of the team’s communications and social media team, linked to the DBLTAP report and is the only source that mentions Håkonsson’s injury. 

North future uncertain after CEO replaced

The report states that Håkonsson had decided to step down from leading the organization, but the sudden release of Pedersen’s statement to DBLTAP and his lack of mention of the cause for Håkonsson’s sudden departure from the organization may concern some North fans.

The organization’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team has struggled for months, failing to place any higher than seventh place in any tournament in 2020. In an interview with HLTV last week, Heroic in-game leader Marco “⁠Snappi⁠” Pfeiffer called North “the worst team” he had ever been on. Between the reported accident, Håkonsson’s release, Pedersen’s pointed announcement that the organization is looking for further financing, and the lack of official word from North’s actual brand accounts, the organization could be looking at a period of instability going forward that may or may not affect the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team. 

In a reply to Slot’s tweet announcing Håkonsson’s accident, Håkonsson seemed to thank fans who had replied to the tweet with well wishes.

North is still scheduled to participate in DreamHack Winter 2020 starting on November 30.