FunPlus Phoenix has agreed in principle to a deal that would send GODSENT’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive roster to the Chinese esports organization pending FPX’s ability to negotiate contracts with each of the roster’s members individually.
The news comes after the FLASHPOINT founding member declined to participate in the league’s second season, citing a desire to grow a “long-lasting” CSGO roster. FPX general manager Petar “peca” Markovic confirmed the rumor, making sure to mention that the deal was far from set in stone, but that FPX had made headway on its acquisition of the GODSENT players.
We at @FPX_Esports have been in deep talks with @GODSENTgg in the past several months regarding the acquirement of their CSGO roster. The mutual agreement has finally been made, and right now we are waiting for the players to review and eventually sign their contracts. #goFPX https://t.co/f2F8paDcfp
— Petar Peca Markovic (@pecagg) December 28, 2020
The careful wording is more than just savvy business from FPX and peca, especially in the context of FPX’s original entry into competitive CSGO. FPX originally entered FLASHPOINT 1 after acquiring Heroic’s CSGO roster, but things took a turn for the worse when the roster’s star player, Patrick “es3tag” Hansen, decided that his talents would be better spent at Astralis.
Almost as soon as it had begun, FPX and its deal with Heroic were dead in the water. The main issue became clear with time: While FPX had indeed purchased the roster’s remaining contracts, Astralis had courted and signed its own deal with es3tag that would send the rifler to the Danish team before FPX could negotiate one for themselves.Â
After it was revealed that es3tag wouldn’t be playing under the FPX banner, the entire deal between FPX and Heroic fell through. FPX was forced to adopt independent team Bad News Bears for the remainder of FLASHPOINT. To add insult to injury, Astralis would go on to sell es3tag to FLASHPOINT founding team Cloud9 in what Astralis CEO Anders Hørsholt called “one of the biggest transfers on record” only two months after his official signing and just a handful of matches played with the Danish team.
It wasn’t made clear if FPX would return to the professional CSGO scene at all, especially considering what an embarrassing sequence it had been for the famous organization. peca declined to give an estimated date to fans for an official announcement, but it looks like FPX is content with taking things a little slower for their second attempt at competitive CSGO.
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