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This morning Will Dean filed a Notice of Consent To Order For Relief And Appointment of a Chapter 11 Trustee. The motion states that he “…will cooperate with the trustee to preserve value for the creditors” and that the Board “consents to a sale of the business to Spartan Race Holdings. Inc., via a court approved order.” This essentially means that Mr. Dean will not fight the recent filings of debtors against Tough Mudder.

Will Dean and the debtors believe this motion removes obstacles which will speed up the process towards a Chapter 11 bankruptcy. This type of bankruptcy will allow Tough Mudder begin to pay debtors, and reopen Tough Mudder for business.

Will told us in an exclusive statement “I am very pleased that we have brought this matter to resolution. I wish Kyle and Joe all the best and am very pleased that the Tough Mudder brand and community will live on. I appreciate it has been a stressful time for all – not least the TMHQ team who I acknowledge have been put through a great deal. I am looking forward to turning my attention back to my new venture and wife and family.”

Obstacle Racing Media reached out to Kyle McLaughlin who told us: “Seeing Tough Mudder consent to the bankruptcy process is an encouraging sign, and in my view, an acknowledgment from Will Dean that the community’s voice has been heard: people want to see Tough Mudder continue on, and support the Spartan merger. — With the court’s support, hopefully Tough Mudder will be able to quickly facilitate a return to normal operations. I’ve been blown away by the strength and support of the Tough Mudder and wider OCR communities rallying to support a positive outcome for TM, and assuming Tough Mudder can clear the remaining obstacles in front of it— I think it’ll be back stronger than ever before”

Spartan CEO Joe Desena added that he “has been super impressed with Kyle’s hard work and the community standing with us through all of the legal proceedings.”

We also reached out to a spokesman for the creditors who had “many conversations with Will Dean. The man did the right thing, he apologized, and said he never thought it would go to this. He really didn’t realize how hurtful is actions were.”

There has already been a petition filed to speed up the normal 21 day process to have a Trustee assigned. All parties involved are hoping the court moves fast to choose a Trustee, and with all parties in agreement, can move toward a sale which will put the company essentially in Joe Desena’s hands. Joe has stated his immediate goal is to “Put Kyle back in charge and get everyone back to work as soon as possible”

Joe Desena and Kyle McLaughlin plan to release a social media post later today with an update.

Read the most recent articles, and how we got to this point here.