One of Germany’s biggest esports orgs, cowana Gaming, closes doors

In a statement released on December 6, cowana Gaming, one of the biggest esports organizations in Germany, announced that it is ceasing operations at the end of 2022.

The statement, released on Twitter in a Twitlonger post, explained that their closure is due to an “international crisis” and the fact that many parts of their business were “no longer executable.”

“The protracted nature of these circumstances has led us to decide to discontinue the [business] at the end of the year,” cowana Gaming’s statement said.

The German esports organization said that it will pay out the remaining salaries of its esports players and staff by the end of the year, and that it will release them of their contracts, as well.

The organization’s website lists itself as having a CS:GO roster, a WarCraft player, and four sim racers. The CS:GO team parted ways with the organization in November 2022. The org previously had a Rainbox Six squad, a Call of Duty roster, a Valorant team and a League of Legends roster.

cowana Gaming shuts down after two years

The German esports organization is owned by cowana Marketing, a marketing agency based out of Langenzen, Germany. The company also organizes sim racing events in conjunction with its esports arm and covers sim racing news with SimRacing Unlimited.

While not on the international awareness level of BIG, another German esports giant, cowana Gaming had a decent reach in Europe and at one time had esports teams in multiple titles. The org’s highest achievement in esports was the CS:GO roster’s fifth-place finish at ESL Meisterschaft: Autumn 2022. The organization also qualified for the European Pro League in Rainbow Six.

The organization has also been accused of not paying salaries to its former CS:GO players, with many stating so in their posts about leaving the German esports organization.