In 2022, 100 Thieves lost $2.5 million on its Call of Duty League (CDL) team, the Los Angeles Thieves, the organization’s president and COO John Robinson said on a podcast today.
Robinson, 100T founder and CEO Matthew “Nadeshot” Haag, 100T SVP of esports Jacob “Maelk” Toft-Anderson, and Nadeshot’s personal assistant Joe Kalas spoke about the L.A. Thieves’ impending rebuild, as well as the state of esports on the Nadeshot Knows podcast. And in an effort to fully illustrate why 100T has moved on from all of the players on its 2023 CDL roster, Robinson broke down the losses the esports organization sustained with its CDL team in 2022, during which the L.A. Thieves won a $500,000 Major and $2.55 million world championship event.
“This was actually a really simple and straightforward challenge that we were facing. I’ll put it out there: We lost $2.5 million on our Call of Duty program last year when we were the world champions,” Robinson said.
While he did say he would endure the losses again if he knew a world title was on the other side, he stressed the unsustainability of doing that each year. The organization’s sustainability was called into question in July 2022 when 100T laid off employees and again in January 2023 when several dozen more staffers and the chief revenue officer were laid off.
Robinson also spoke about a seemingly lofty goal that has been handed down to each of 100T’s businesses, which includes its Juvee energy drink, keyboard and peripherals business of Higround, content, apparel, and of course, esports.
The goal is profitability, something long sought-after by esports organizations. Robinson said that every part of 100T is being asked to “hit a threshold level of break-even next year,” and that has led to a full-blown rebuild for LAT, which Nadeshot, a former CoD pro, claimed was not something that he wanted to do.
“If you think that I want to win a world championship last year and win a Major this year, and then say goodbye to all of our players—absolutely fucking not,” Nadeshot said.
He did say, however, that it is necessary and that he is excited to do something different with the CoD team: be underdogs.
“If anything, I think next year [for LAT] might be even more exciting. Our backs are against the wall in terms of what we’re able to spend, so now we have to get creative with younger players and see if they can turn into the superstars of tomorrow,” Nadeshot said. “And I think that’s actually fun trying to be the underdog for the first time in a while…”
Related: CDL rostermania: All confirmed CoD roster changes after 2023 Call of Duty League season
LAT’s offseason, which began much earlier than excepted thanks to a first-round exit at the 2023 CDL Championship, really kicked off with the retirement of Octane, who immediately became a content creator for 100T. The legendary AR player’s announcement has since been followed by the departures of Drazah, Envoy, and Kenny, all of whom are reportedly set to join different teams than one another.
