OG’s latest financial report reveals that the organisation lost €2,919,146 (~$3,332,102) last year. The numbers confirm that OG is struggling to keep the lights on and are projecting an imminent disaster if they don’t find a way to generate revenue.
Following our report from last month regarding unpaid prize pool money from 2024, we kept asking for a statement from OG, but we were told by the organisation CEO, Daniel Sanders, that he was advised by the OG legal team not to give any comments regarding the situation.
At the same time, we’ve been contacted by current and former OG employees who wanted to share information on how the organisation is run, what changed in recent years, what could be at the root of the problem, and what could have contributed to the financial decline.
"I am not doing this to screw OG,” a current employee with the organisation wrote to us. “I am doing it because this used to be the best place that I worked my entire life, and I wish that I could return to that time."
Questionable decisions
A series of questionable decisions, cash burn to the point where the company is running out of money, and hirings that aren't explained could lead OG onto an unwanted and dangerous path. We learned that although the organisation ran low on liquidity in 2024 and is in the impossibility of paying the prize pool money to some of their former players, promotions, new hirings and expansion into new game titles and regions were a part of the strategy to recover financially.
In their financial report for 2024, OG states the following:
The financial developments of 2024 have adversely affected our cash flow and have led to uncertainty regarding the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern. Despite Management's efforts to implement strategic measures to improve financial stability, the Company has experienced recurring operating losses and cash flow shortages. Consequently, there is significant doubt about the Company's capacity to continue as a going concern for the foreseeable future.
OG identifies a few reasons for their financial decline, as being “underperformance in key competitive titles and a broader shift in the esports ecosystem. Changes in game publisher support, league structures, and monetisation models.”
These point towards Valve’s decision to discontinue the Dota Pro Circuit and change the Battle Pass model. However, while OG states that their rosters “did not achieve expected results in major tournaments, further limiting performance-related income and brand exposure,” some of the organisation’s actions were to expand into new regions and new titles. This is how OG is now having more employees than in 2024 and more teams or “strategic partnerships” such as the one they have with the esports division of the Malaysian Selangor Red Giants (SRG) football club. Their expansion in new titles includes four new games: Honor of Kings, Marvel Rivals, EAFC, and Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, the latter being a part of the SRG partnership.
More so, OG is looking into new regional markets from where they hope to bring in capital. Their targets are the Asia-Pacific (APAC) and China regions.
The blind leading the blind: The Kalvin Chung controversy
The person brought in to help the organisation “to access one of the most valuable and complex markets in global esports,” as OG states in the financial report, is someone known in the industry for filing for bankruptcy and disappearing with his players’ prize pool money and salaries.
Kalvin Chung, or by his full name, Jin Wai Kalvin Chung, had two companies registered in the United Kingdom, MNM Esports (Molotovs and Marshmallows Limited) and DLC Studios, both dissolved. MNM Esports and Kalvin Chung disappeared in 2023 with over £ 200,000 in debt to their players and staff.
Jin Wai Kalvin Chung has also deleted all his Western social media channels only to make a return now as OG China Regional Lead while using his second name, Kalvin, in what could be seen as an attempt to avoid making an instant connection with MNM and DLC Studios.
According to sources close to OG who wish to stay anonymous, the OG management has been made aware of Jin Wai Kalvin Chung’s past and the money he owes to his former players, but all the information was disregarded. At the end of the day, OG is trying to recover from a 3 million euro loss in 2024, relying on someone with a more than shady track record.
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