G2 Esports has announced that CEO Carlos ‘ocelote’ Rodriguez will be permanently stepping down from his post. The news follows the monolithic organisation’s eight-week suspension of the Spaniard after he became enveloped in controversy, sparked by a clip posted to his personal Twitter page last weekend of himself and controversial figure Andrew Tate partying.
“It’s been a tough week for us all following the events of last weekend”, G2’s Twitter statement begins. “Today we received, and accepted, Carlos’s announcement to step down as CEO of G2 Esports.”
Reaffirming its brand values, G2 states that it does not “support any form of misogyny”, and that it will “continue to prioritise fostering inclusivity and supporting a diverse gaming community.”
Speaking on the decision in a new Twitter video captioned “thank you”, ocelote says that he takes “full responsibility over everything that went on in the last few days”, and that he feels “fucking destroyed about it.”
“I created G2 eight-plus years ago,” ocelote says, “and I bootstrapped it with what I earned as a player, [and] invested everything into it – not only money, but also time. What initially was a dream of mine eventually became a group of people with similar ambitions, culture, and goals. That’s something I will always look back to and be happy about, because I think we’ve done a good job of it.”
Thank you 🚀 pic.twitter.com/2kL25RutfQ
— 😌 CarlosR ocelote ❤️ (@CarlosR) September 23, 2022
Following the clip of ocelote and Tate surfacing online, many were quick to call out the now-former-CEO. Initially, ocelote responded negatively, stating that “nobody will ever be able to police” his friendships, and that he can party with “whoever the fuck” he wants to.
Of course, such actions can have major consequences, despite ocelote later apologising. Reportedly, as a result of the controversy, ocelote’s actions cost G2 a spot in the 2023 Valorant Champions Tour partnership program’s Americas League, jeopardising the work of his employees and colleagues.
Indeed, with this move, it appears that both parties have acknowledged the risk ocelote poses to the G2 brand moving forward.
As a former League of Legends pro, ocelote had originally founded G2 as a LoL team back in 2015, serving as its CEO since. In the time between then and now, the organisation has grown tremendously, and now fields teams across a number of titles.
Most recently, G2 formed the all-women LoL team G2 Hel. G2 also has an all-women team in Valorant, G2 Gozen.
With ocelote – who has been a driving force both on-screen in G2’s content and behind the scenes – out of the picture, his absence will be impossible to not feel going forward.
