Compete, the esports hub from Kotaku and Deadspin, is closing down next week.
It has been confirmed that Compete, the esports venture run by Kotaku and Deadspin, will effectively come to an end next week.
Editors Eric Van Allen and Dennis Young will be leaving the company, while Maddy Myers will remain on staff at Kotaku. Compete was launched in March 2017 with a remit to provide in-depth coverage of the burgeoning esports scene.
In a post confirming the news, Dennis Young said:
It was a joy to bring this weird little corner of the sports and gaming worlds to our readers. We’d particularly like to thank our peers in the esports media and 11 Deadspin commenters, who both equally appreciated our decision to cover esports like sports. Esports is a rich topic worthy of skeptical, thorough, and fun journalism, and we’re grateful that a vertical premised on that was able to attract a large and growing readership.”
Kotaku editor Stephen Totilo later confirmed on Twitter that the closure was due to budget cuts imposed by Unvision, the company that owns Gizmodo Media Group.
Last year, we tried something different: Compete, an esports site melding the sensibilities of Kotaku and Deadspin. I'm so proud of what @dpyoung13, @seamoosi and @MIDImyers did with the site and gutted that due to Univision cuts we're ending the project https://t.co/64E8TKyFH6
— Stephen Totilo (@stephentotilo) June 29, 2018
The closure of Compete comes as a total of forty-four people have accepted buyouts at Gizmodo Media Group. Rumours continue to circulate that Univision are looking to sell the company which also includes The Onion, The AV Club, and Jezebel among its suite of websites.
