Guild Esports has entered a consulting agreement with Duncan ‘Thorin’ Shields to develop a ‘top-level’ Counter Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) team, according to a Twitter post from Thorin.
Thorin, a long-time esports journalist who has covered the industry since 2001, has reported on, casted and presented CS:GO competition for many years. Through this arrangement, Guild may well be following the footsteps of North American organisation Cloud 9, which earlier this year signed Henry ‘HenryG’ Greer as its General Manager tasked with creating a star-studded CS:GO roster.
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In his announcing tweet, Thorin said: “Guild Esports made a splash with their initial announcement and I’m pleased to announce that as they look to enter the Counter-Strike space, where I have been deeply embedded for decades, I have agreed to a consulting partnership with them.”
Last month, Guild Esports debuted on the London Stock Exchange, closing with a market capitalisation of £41.2m. The organisation also announced last month it had agreed a three-year sponsorship deal worth a total of £3.6m with an unknown technology firm.
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Guild’s first venture into esports occurred earlier this year by signing a highly rated European Rocket League squad, as well as world-class FIFA competitor Niklas ‘NRaseck’ Raseck. More recently Guild has signed another highly rated European squad, this time in VALORANT, and now sights are set on CS:GO.
Thorin added: “I will help them develop their model for building the team and advise on players and staff I think appropriate to aid them in establishing themselves as a significant force in this part of the industry.”
Carleton Curtis, Executive Chairman at Guild Esports said on the agreement: “We are delighted to partner with Thorin and work with him to build the best Counter-Strike entry strategy for Guild.”
Though Thorin alludes to the importance of General Managers in his release, it seems he will act as Guild’s consultant only.
Esports Insider says: Thorin’s knowledge of CS:GO is undeniable. HenryG and Cloud 9 made waves on social media in their pursuit of top CS:GO players, and clearly, Guild has taken notice. The first thing new organisations should do is outsource where its knowledge is not strong; let someone that knows better do the job of finding teams and setting up operations in new titles. Guild has done that with the addition of Thorin.