Esports and lifestyle brand 100 Thieves is laying off staff

By Jay Peters, a news editor who writes about technology, video games, and virtual worlds. He's submitted several accepted emoji proposals to the Unicode Consortium.

100 Thieves, a popular gaming, esports, and lifestyle brand, laid off about 30 employees on Tuesday, according to esports journalist Jacob Wolf. The cuts hit roles in sales, marketing, content and human resources as well as senior positions including chief revenue officer, director of people, director of talent, and head of partnerships, Wolf reports.

Matty Lee, the former chief revenue officer, wrote a blog post about his departure on LinkedIn. Other former staffers have been tweeting about being laid off, including one who produced and edited a splashy film released Tuesday hyping 100 Thieves’ 2023 esports jerseys.

100 Thieves, which was founded in 2017 by streamer and former Call of Duty pro Matthew "Nadeshot" Haag, has grown to be one of the most recognizable names in esports. In addition to competitive gaming, it has a major apparel business, acquired gaming peripherals company Higround in 2021, and is making a video game currently called "Project X." Drake, Scooter Braun, and streamers Valkyrae and CouRage are co-owners.

Forbes ranked 100 Thieves as the second-most valuable esports organization in an article published in May. But given Tuesday's layoffs, it appears that 100 Thieves isn't immune to the economic challenges that have affected many other companies as of late; even giants like Meta and Amazon have announced sweeping layoffs.

100 Thieves didn't immediately reply to a request for comment. Tuesday's layoff follows another from July 2022 that affected more than a dozen workers on the company's social media and content teams.

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