Gen.G announces return to Counter-Strike
Today, on Chinese social media platform Weibo, Korean-American organization Gen.G have announced their return to Counter-Strike. The organization, previously hosted a North American CS:GO team led by Damian "daps" Steele from late 2019 to early 2021 before transitioning away from the title. Interestingly, despite Gen.G's Korean roots and NA history in CS, Gen.G have announced the team will be Chinese, becoming the latest organization to further invest into China.
As previously mentioned, Gen.G's first outing in the world of Counter-Strike saw the organization enter the NA scene by signing the core of Cloud9's 2019 roster alongside Hansel "BnTeT" Ferdinand and Sam "s0m" Oh. While the roster found early success by winning DreamHack Open Anaheim 2020, the team was brought down by a number of issues including the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, the release of VALORANT, and a lack of investment and interest by the founding organizations, Gen.G included, in the Flashpoint league.
As a reminder, Gen.G raised eyebrows in their final event, Flashpoint 2, by fielding elder statesmen Richard "Xizt" Landström in his final event as a player alongside Rasmus "kreaz" Johansson, creating a "Frankenstein-esque" roster that only won a single series against OG.
While Gen.G's announcement is sparse on specific details for their plans, Gen.G noted China as a growth region of particular interest for the company. This can be seen dating back to 2019 when Gen.G opened an office in Shanghai and invested into an NBA 2K franchise named after the city, the Gen.G Tigers of Shanghai.
As the second Major of 2024 is set to be in Shanghai, Gen.G are likely looking to capitalize on Asia's first official CS Major with a local team that can raise the company's profile in China with fans.
Along with their intentions to sign a Chinese team, Gen.G also announced their plans to have their esports education brand in China, GGA, begin to offer courses on CS2.
