Nick Allen, the Chief Operating Officer of Counter Logic Gaming, explained the reasoning behind CLG's departure from Counter-Strike in ​a recent interview with Travis Gafford.





The organization ​pulled out of the scene in November for what was described at the time as "financial reasons." Allen elaborated on that reasoning with Gafford and said the decision stemmed form multiple factors, which included worry over the political climate and backing a game that features terrorists.

"It is increasingly difficult to bring in sponsorship revenue because of the political climate and the world we live in, terrorists versus counter-terrorists, red blood, that sort of thing," Allen told Gafford.





Allen also discussed the costs of competing in the CS:GO environment. "It's incredibly tough to have a winning team on both the infrastructure side and players salary side," he said.





Combining the political factor and costs made the CS:GO ecosystem a bit challenging to get into for an organization, Allen said.





It's interesting to hear Allen explicitly mention the terrorist/counterterrorist angle as a reason for CLG leaving CS:GO. It's perhaps the first time someone within the scene has publicly questioned the game's viability because of the nature of the game. In July 2016, a German TV station ​pulled its broadcasts of ELEAGUE's initial CS:GO season following a terrorist attack in Munich, but there haven't been many examples of public backlash to the game based on political reasons.





Allen said he wants to find games that are sustainable and have an ecosystem that will allow to benefit the players and CLG itself. CS:GO simply doesn't seem to fit into those plans at the moment.



