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Pandemic Organization Closes
Team Pandemic has ceased operations, ending one of the greatest American eSports stories.
Team Pandemic – one of the few American eSports teams to survive the CGS onslaught – has closed its doors.
This may be attributed to the loss of many of their strong divisions, including a TF2 team early in 2009, the loss of a 1.6 team in 2009 and the lack of real success in any other division outside of their newer TF2 team, which had always been in hot contention with their rivals, even before Pandemic.
Mark Dolven, founder and operator of Team Pandemic, has not been a part of Pandemic for two years after he was signed to the CGS to manage the Carolina Core and later QPad's short lived American division.
Former Pandemic Counter Strike player, Chris Lemley, took the organization down a much more aggressive mainstream direction, signing CoD4, TF2 and WoW teams, all of which had great success with the organization.
However, since those games declined the organization has had problems with their identity, attempting to regain its roots in Counter Strike and other hardcore games like Quake and StarCraft, while also maintaining some control in the other titles such as CoD4 and TF2.
It has not been stated if the organization's shut down is permanent or rather a short break of operation and may come back in the either near or distant future. Their website says that they are retaining the Pandemic brand for later ventures.
The Pandemic website was shut down several days ago but then returned with a press release.
Full Press Release Below
Source: www.teampandemic.net
Team Pandemic – one of the few American eSports teams to survive the CGS onslaught – has closed its doors.
This may be attributed to the loss of many of their strong divisions, including a TF2 team early in 2009, the loss of a 1.6 team in 2009 and the lack of real success in any other division outside of their newer TF2 team, which had always been in hot contention with their rivals, even before Pandemic.
Mark Dolven, founder and operator of Team Pandemic, has not been a part of Pandemic for two years after he was signed to the CGS to manage the Carolina Core and later QPad's short lived American division.
Former Pandemic Counter Strike player, Chris Lemley, took the organization down a much more aggressive mainstream direction, signing CoD4, TF2 and WoW teams, all of which had great success with the organization.
However, since those games declined the organization has had problems with their identity, attempting to regain its roots in Counter Strike and other hardcore games like Quake and StarCraft, while also maintaining some control in the other titles such as CoD4 and TF2.
It has not been stated if the organization's shut down is permanent or rather a short break of operation and may come back in the either near or distant future. Their website says that they are retaining the Pandemic brand for later ventures.
The Pandemic website was shut down several days ago but then returned with a press release.
Full Press Release Below
"Conway, Arkansas – Effective March 1, TeamPandemic LLC. Are shutting the doors on nearly a decade of world champion esports divisions (2002-10).
From our humble beginnings as an Arkansas LAN team, the blue and white of the Pandemic swirl would evolve into a symbol of gaming’s elite… an icon which gamers worldwide recognize. Fortune 500 companies once valued and leveraged as a means to reach an entire demographic, yet only a very special and select few were ever lucky enough to wear.
Thank you to all those who have supported us and/or played a role in our success over the years: Mark Dolven, for kick starting the dream; Jim and Annette Lemley, for believing in it; our players and staff, without whom none of the real magic would have been possible; and of course our fans, the real lifeblood of eSports and the only hope of its growth and survival.
Special thanks to Joe Amorosa, Jared Coulston, Kelly Law-Yone, Duran Parsi, Amaris Folwer, Heather and Joel Hernandez, David Bjork, Matthew Kramer, Jennie Eckhardt, Grant and Jana Hall, Nathan Quinn, David Cho, Justin Loeb, Jacob Bohnert, Nick Leon, Micheal Holmes, Shawn Fanning, Craig Levine, Jarret Cale, Frederic Descamps, Matt Gilman, Brad Dickason, Steve Dottoli, Corey Dunn, Charlie Plitt, Abe Zarran, and many, many others.
Though the eSport aspects of Pandemic will cease operations immediately, we will be retaining the brand and engaging in new opportunities in the near future. Details will be released as they become available."
From our humble beginnings as an Arkansas LAN team, the blue and white of the Pandemic swirl would evolve into a symbol of gaming’s elite… an icon which gamers worldwide recognize. Fortune 500 companies once valued and leveraged as a means to reach an entire demographic, yet only a very special and select few were ever lucky enough to wear.
Thank you to all those who have supported us and/or played a role in our success over the years: Mark Dolven, for kick starting the dream; Jim and Annette Lemley, for believing in it; our players and staff, without whom none of the real magic would have been possible; and of course our fans, the real lifeblood of eSports and the only hope of its growth and survival.
Special thanks to Joe Amorosa, Jared Coulston, Kelly Law-Yone, Duran Parsi, Amaris Folwer, Heather and Joel Hernandez, David Bjork, Matthew Kramer, Jennie Eckhardt, Grant and Jana Hall, Nathan Quinn, David Cho, Justin Loeb, Jacob Bohnert, Nick Leon, Micheal Holmes, Shawn Fanning, Craig Levine, Jarret Cale, Frederic Descamps, Matt Gilman, Brad Dickason, Steve Dottoli, Corey Dunn, Charlie Plitt, Abe Zarran, and many, many others.
Though the eSport aspects of Pandemic will cease operations immediately, we will be retaining the brand and engaging in new opportunities in the near future. Details will be released as they become available."
Source: www.teampandemic.net