Nadeshot frustrated as ESL shut down his restream of CSGO finals

Theo Salaun
Nadeshot wearing a 100 Thieves jersey.

Ahead of 100 Thieves’ announced departure from Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Mathew ‘Nadeshot’ Haag came under a bit of fire for disinterest in his org’s finals match at IEM New York and, subsequently, admonished by ESL for streaming the event.

Nadeshot came home to Los Angeles after 12 hours of travel and was excited to stream some of the Black Ops Cold War open beta for the first time, but, as the stream started, he also mentioned that he wouldn’t be responding to chat as much as usual because 100T was facing Furia in the IEM New York Grand Finals.

Unfortunately, some found it disappointing that the organization’s founder would multitask and play another game during his team’s final CS:GO match ever, with former pro Chad ‘SPUNJ’ Burchill even calling him out.

With people like SPUNJ discrediting Nade’s loyalty to his team and Black Ops Cold War coincidentally crashing, the 100T CEO attempted to switch over to the big match. But, in another string of disappointments, that idea wasn’t meant to be either.

After trying to watch the Grand Finals with about 13,000 viewers, Nade received word that this re-stream was against ESL guidelines and that he was not allowed to do so.

Frustratedly, he returned to his initial Black Ops Cold War plans and expressed some understanding, as well as disappointment with the tournament organizers’ decision.

“At the end of the day, I get it from a business perspective on ESL’s standpoint,” Nadeshot said. “I mean, they pay for broadcast rights and they’re putting on this tournament and all these things.

But, from my perspective, I have all of their sponsors and broadcast assets on my stream … I’m essentially just on a soapbox right now, blasting the stream but with just 12-13,000 more viewers.”

As he explained on stream, by putting the stream on full screen without any of his brandings, he felt that he was just giving the official broadcast more exposure. But, ultimately, he understands why the decision was made.

In a later clip, following his return to streaming BOCW, the 100T head honcho added further clarification.

While affirming that he fully understands why he wasn’t allowed to re-stream the event and that he respects ESL’s business decisions, he felt that this situation was unique and could have been handled differently: “Well, I got your logos up here, I’ve got none of my sponsors up here. Can’t we just make an exception?”

First criticized for not giving his team’s play enough attention and then reprimanded for giving it too much attention, this wasn’t one of Nadeshot’s more fortunate streams. Still, he understands why ESL came down on him and, perhaps more importantly, he did eventually get to play BOCW without his PC crashing.

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About The Author

Théo is a former writer at Dexerto based in New York and built on competition. Formerly an editor for Bleacher Report and philosophy student at McGill, he fell in love with Overwatch and Call of Duty — leading him to focus on esports for Dex.