Beyond the Summit has been one of the largest esports networks, offering tournaments in games like notable Smash Bros and DOTA. The organizer has hit rough times over the past year, with cutbacks being made across the board. It seems that’s come to a head recently, as we’ve learnt a week ago of big Beyond the Summit layoffs, with the organizer being close to shutting down.
BTS has recently announced enough layoffs that it looks like the organization is close to shutting down. They’re letting go of all of their staff, severely limiting what they’ll be able to do in the future.
How did we get here? What the shutdown means, and how it could affect the games that BTS are so involved with.
Source: Beyond the Summit
Beyond the Summit down fall was years in the making
BTS co-founder LD recently took to Twitter to explain what’s going on with the organizer right now. Simply, all full-time staff are being let go. The organizer will no longer have any active staff working on anything. Just the founders are going to try and keep Beyond the Summit going.
Fairly recently, before we heard of Beyond the Summit layoffs, the company had already made big pullbacks. They’d announced the ending of BTS Dota events, which was quite a knock to their roster of tournaments. This decision was long time coming.
All the way back before Summit X in 2019, we discussed how the new DPC system may harm Summit and BTS events, and after recently missing out on hosting a DPC circuit, it was only a matter of time for all of this to go down.
However, BTS did continue to put on events for games like Smash Bros. This recent move will likely put that to an end though. It’s a bit difficult to organize a tournament without any staff. The state of the competitive Smash circuit is not helping either.
Beyond the Summit isn’t going to be stopping right now though. They’re staying committed to an event that’s already on the horizon. Smash Ultimate Summit 6 is still going ahead. This will be held over March 23-26. It’ll serve as a bit of a finale to their Smash events, without much more on the horizon. Most of the best Smash Bros players will likely be in attendance for this final tournament from BTS.
Why is Beyond the Summit Shutting Down?
LD’s Twitter post on the topic focused on how the company had gotten to this point. Specifically citing the esports winter and economic pullback for esports that is currently taking place.
While Beyond the Summit had attempted to stay sustainable at its current level, the environment around the tournaments no longer supported it. Rather than continue to the point where the company would shut down entirely, they’ve chosen to significantly cut back. With most staff being let go, what they’ll manage to do in the future at this size is a bit of a mystery. Hopefully, things bounce back for the organizer eventually.
The post explaining the decisions was an emotional one from the co-founder. It specifically mentioned BTS staying as a community-focused organizer, rather than getting involved with any venture capital over the years. It’s a shame for the entire community that groups like this are feeling the drawback just as much right now.
A ton of the blame has to go towards the game developers and how the ecosystem is set up. Third-party organizers get little to no support and are usually left to fend for themselves to both fund their operation and prize funds.
Beyond the Summit shutting down isn’t the first. Big loss to esports this year. As this current situation around competitive gaming continues, it probably won’t be the last either. Hopefully the talent behind Beyond the Summit can go on to continue to do good things in competitive gaming over the next few years, especially as the industry recovers from its current downturn.
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