LGB eSports have now officially confirmed that an organization is interested in one of their contracted players, Håvard "rain" Nygaard, however they have also specified that he currently remains under contract with the organization.

When it was announced earlier this week that SK Gaming were looking to build an international CS:GO team mainly around players Adil "⁠ScreaM⁠" Benrlitom and Mikail "⁠Maikelele⁠" Bill, one player's name who suddenly appeared in the spotlight was young Norwegian talent Håvard "⁠rain⁠" Nygaard.

However, Swedish player Maikelele later confirmed that a stumbling block in the way of these acquisitions was rain's very own LGB, who appeared reluctant to acquiesce with the player's departure unless a transfer fee were paid.



rain has an "interested organization" on his heels

Later rumors began to swirl that the Norwegian hotshot had been bought out to the tune of $40,000 by SK, however with an outright denial coming from LGB's management, mentions of this rumor began to disappear from the internet in due time.

LGB have now felt it prudent to come forward with their own press release about the situation in order to quash any ongoing rumors on this developing story; the organisation had this to say on the matter regarding rain:

"On behalf of LGB eSports we would like to bring some clarity surrounding the latest rumors regarding our player, Håvard ”rain” Nygaard. We hereby confirm that there are ongoing discussion with an interested organization regarding a potential acquisition of one of our five talented CS:GO players. As for the time being Håvard is still a part of LGB eSports until an agreement has been reached. If an agreement is not reached, Håvard will continue under his current contract in LGB eSports."

The statement therefore both confirms the interest of an organisation in acquiring the Norwegian player, yet also specifies that for all intensive purposes he remains a part of LGB.

Additionally, Hicham Chahine, the founder and CEO of Diglife, which owns LGB eSports among others, released the following statement, which adds the informative figure of rain's contract being in effect for the next 22 months:

”We have received initial interest from an international gaming organization regarding acquiring the services of Håvard. The player is still under contract with LGB eSports for the next 22 months. As for any contract there are legal obligations in place to protect the best interest of LGB eSports as an organization and the best interest of the player in our working relationship. Diglife and all organizations in our group , which includes Ninjas in Pyjamas, Copenhagen Wolves and LGB eSports, has the highest respect for contracts between players and their organizations on the global electronic sports scene. We therefore expect the same mutual respect from competing gaming organizations on the global scene regarding our players. With that in mind we are currently discussing the compensation for releasing the player 22 months prior the expiration of his contract with LGB eSports. It is very important to us to find a solution that is fair to LGB and Håvard in order to minimize the effects of a transition. The professional electronic sports scene has traditionally been poor at respecting the boundaries of contracts, which we intend to follow up in order to further professionalize the electronic sports industry we are a part of. We will keep all our fans and partners updated on the progress, and hope to have some more news regarding this matter in the near future.”

With continuous news breaking in the CS:GO scene regarding player transfers, the composition of new teams and superleagues with increasing prize-pools, only one thing can be sure: it is an exciting time to follow Counter-Strike.

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