Home Gaming Bravado Gaming’s Project Destiny comes to an end as players move to Denial Esports

Bravado Gaming’s Project Destiny comes to an end as players move to Denial Esports

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DenailBravado

Early last year, Bravado Gaming’s Counter Strike: Go team relocated to the US to make South African-shaped mark on the international esports scene. Consistently beating their local competition (and making almost every local competition a final between themselves and rival Energy Esports), the decision to move was a smart one, that would see the team up their game and their profile. They did just that, coming second at Dreamhack Winter, winning the South African World Electronic Sports Games regional qualifiers and then bagging the DreamHack India title.

It seemed as though the team’s move, Project Destiny, was a model for success. Then, late last year, the organisation admitted it had run out of funding, and needed to secure more cash to continue its run in the US. To that end, they launched an Indigogo crowdfunding campaign that looked to fall just short of the $30,000 target. Then, before that campaign’s end this month, the organisation summarily cancelled it, saying that no more money should be donated. That led to heaps of speculation. Had Bravado secured funding elsewhere? Had they decided to just pack it up and return to South Africa? Had the team been swallowed up by another organisation?

It turns out to be the latter, as Denial Esports announced it would be taking on many of the Bravado CS:G Squad.

Aran “Sonic” Groesbeek, Rhys “Fadey” Armstrong, Ruan “Elusive” Van Wyk, Johnny “JT” Theodosiou and Coach Tiaan Coertzen have all moved on to Denial Esports. Demitri “Detrony” Hadjipaschali has opted to remain with Bravado, though he was apparently offered a spot with Denial too. Dimitri’s Brother, Andreas, is the CEO of Bravado Gaming.

In a statement titled “Project Destiny Comes to an End,” the organisation intimates that the deal between former Bravado players and Denial was unexpected.

“We’re extremely sad to announce that the Bravado Gaming Counter-Strike: Global Offensive squad has come to a decision not to renew their contracts with us for 2019 but instead have accepted an offer from another organization”

“Bravado held meetings with the squad in order to discuss various options and propose viable solutions that would enable us to continue the vision. As a last resort the players and management decided that we look at the possibility of a crowd-funding campaign which most of you are aware of. In hindsight however, what we did not foresee was the opportunity for other organizations looking to pick-up a fast-rising team, partly because as the suggestion originated from the players we did not for a moment believe that they would take up such offers as the campaign was originally initiated for Bravado and it’s (sic) CS:GO squad as a unified effort.”

In the statement, Bravado asserts that it was on track to meet its campaign goals, with a corporate sponsor willing to pick up any shortfall. The organisation has apologised to fans and donors saying that this entire debacle was disappointing, and that backers will be refunded.

“…management realizes how this can reflect badly on the organization, especially after the concerted effort of many high-profile players in the community coming together to assist us in reaching this goal.

Therefore, we want to make it clear that this decision was purely on the players to cancel the campaign and accept the offer they received from Denial E-Sports. We want you to know that this is no reflection on the ethics of the Bravado brand and it’s (sic) management.”

Bravado’s loss here is undoubtedly Denial’s gain – and whatever squad the organisation puts together now will be a very different one to the Bravado that dominated the south African scene and made such a splash internationally.

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Last Updated: January 29, 2019

13 Comments

  1. Skittle

    January 29, 2019 at 08:54

    Kind of a dick move if the funding was secured

    Reply

    • Gavin Mannion

      January 29, 2019 at 08:54

      I would not for a second believe 100% what management says in these scenarios.

      Reply

  2. G8crasha

    January 29, 2019 at 08:54

    I think I shall do a research paper on esports in South Africa. But where does one publish it?

    Reply

  3. Magoo

    January 29, 2019 at 10:23

    I’m a huge bvd fan and watched many hours of bvd cs this year, often staying up to or waking at 3am to catch their matches. I supported them the way my parents would support the springboks. May seem absurd to some of you but I am a proud supporter of the SA squad that tore up NA this year. All the way to #20 in the world, overtaking names that have been synonymous with esports for many years. I would absolutely not call project Destiny a failure.

    I’m not sure what’s going on between management and the team, but both before and after this happened, I witnessed the huge amount of love and respect that the players have for each other and the sportsmanship they displayed. It’s admirable to say the least. Even so, I personally didn’t donate to the indiego campaign because I didn’t agree with the concept. I was more willing to see a handful of the players join other brands in NA.

    By far and wide the saddest thing about this is the decision by Detrony not being with the team anymore. I respect the players decisions to join Denial and I respect Detrony’s decision to stay with Bravado. All of the players are still on good terms and I hope that all the fans and haters (looking at you grumpy Gavin >.>) can learn to respect their decisions just the same.

    Looking forward to a great 2019 for Denial. Top 20 was just a milestone anyway. 😉

    Reply

  4. Gavin Mannion

    January 29, 2019 at 08:41

    After Bravado stole so many local players from other organisations and pranced around with over sized ego’s I can confidently say I am actually happy to see this.

    They had all the opportunities in the world to make this a success but ego, bad personal life choices and bad management led them down this path to failure.

    Can they come back from this and thrive again? I doubt it but I will respect them a ton more if they do.

    Reply

    • Michael Matusowsky

      January 29, 2019 at 10:12

      Sure they can come back. Just poach some more players from other teams, again :P. Bravado are the Bayern Munich of south africa, no matter how good Dortmund is the players always end up at Bayern one way or another xD.

      Reply

  5. CrAiGiSh

    January 29, 2019 at 09:31

    Sooooo are we all Denial fans now?

    Reply

  6. HvR

    January 29, 2019 at 10:06

    Guess
    Demitri had no choice otherwise there would have been a very bad vibe at the Hadaspalala Chirstmas dinner

    Reply

  7. BakedBagel

    January 29, 2019 at 10:42

    Daily reminder that BVD did this alot to other teams locally.
    Energy Esports (#1 Competetor for a while) had this happen to them by BVD themselves

    Aint nice is it

    Reply

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