XSET are pretty much done with esports after exiting Apex Legends

XSET dropped its Apex Legends team and said it is putting a “strategic pause” on esports as it moves almost entirely away from competitive gaming.

XSET officially announced it dropped its ALGS roster on April 30. The organization’s former players revealed they had been dropped hours before, and claimed XSET was leaving Apex Legends esports altogether.

Apex Legends was the last game where XSET fielded a competitive esports team, as many of the other people signed to the brand as competitive gamers are content creators or co-owners of the company.

When contacted by Dexerto, XSET said it is pausing its esports efforts but will still be involved with competitive Fortnite in some way.

“It’s no secret that the esports industry faces financial challenges, and while we believe these will eventually be resolved, XSET has chosen to take a strategic pause from competitive esports. While we have always fielded competitive teams, esports has never been the core mission of XSET.

“Instead, we are doubling down on strengthening our gaming lifestyle focus… We may re-enter esports at some point, but we don’t have any current plans to do so soon. The only area we will touch competitive gaming is in Fortnite, and we plan major growth there, so stay tuned for some big things coming,” XSET co-founder and CEO Greg Selkoe said in an email.

XSET has been pulling further and further away from esports since its initial founding in 2020 when it had multiple esports titles and players signed on. The company’s co-founder, Macro Mereu, left to start his own esports company, M80, in 2022. Selkoe told Dexerto in 2023 that he wanted to be in esports, but the investment also had to make sense for XSET’s bottom line.

“If you have 15 esports teams it costs a lot of damn money,” he said at the time.

XSET competed in as many as 12 different esports titles in 2022 at its peak investment with teams in Rocket League, Rainbow Six: Siege, and Valorant. The organization never brought home a championship title in a major esport, though it qualified for some of the biggest tournaments in Apex Legends, Valorant, Rocket League, and Rainbow Six.

The organization is one of many who have pulled back their investment in esports as the industry faces negative economic headwinds.