Chinese cybersports organization FunPlus Phoenix has announced that it has stopped investing in its CS: GO division. The discipline team lasted less than a year, and its dissolution was attributed by management «to the limitations and difficulties associated with remote».
In January 2021, the organization acquired several players formerly on the GODSENT roster, and Jonathan «Devilwalk» Landberg became the team's coach. Earlier in the year, FunPlus Phoenix was able to win the Snow Sweet Snow tournament and qualify for IEM Summer, but a string of setbacks followed. The team failed to make significant gains at subsequent events. The team also failed to qualify for PGL Major Summer, ending up 14th in the European RMR rankings after crashing out of IEM Fall at the group stage and finishing ninth at Flashpoint3.
The Chinese eSports organization first attempted to break into the professional CS: GO scene back in March 2020 when it partnered with Flashpoint. However, due to the pandemic, plans for offline events were canceled, and FunPlus Phoenix was not able to reach the international level at that time.
The last FunPlus Phoenix had players from Finland, Slovakia, Montenegro, Denmark and Serbia. It remains unclear exactly when they will be released from their contractual obligations, but Draft5 news portal is already reporting that the Astralis are considering acquiring one of them, Asger «Farlig» Jensen, to bolster their roster.