The MADNESS of North in CSGO: A disaster from start to finish | Richard Lewis
North has ceased operations including their once-promising CS:GO division, and Richard Lewis explains how mismanagement and missed opportunities eventually led the Danish disaster to end.
Counter-Strike fans will likely remember North in passing. Even though they never won much, they were always backed by enough money to bring on great talent with an even more impressive team structure behind them to help the CSGO project.
Unfortunately, they never amounted to more. Lewis was thoroughly impressed with the caliber of players North were able to pick up throughout their short history. Names like Emil ‘Magisk’ Reif, Mathias ‘MSL’ Lauridsen, and René ‘CajunB’ Borg are just a few players that are or could have been backbones to truly great lineups.
The organization had the aspirations of being a pound-for-pound rival with legendary org Astralis and, in multiple iterations, they had a chance to do so.
NorthInside and out, it just wasn’t a well-managed organization. They squandered some of the best years of MSL, they signed players for rumored salaries reaching $20,000 per month with nothing to show for, invested in a questionable rebrand, and that’s just to start.
There will always be a question of what could have been when it comes to North, but the CS:GO scene was already moving past them even while they were in operation. Danish Counter-Strike isn’t short of talent, and the org wasn’t short of opportunities to succeed.
Ultimately, the four-year project has now come to a close with many lessons to be learned for other teams and organizations in the esport.
