Adam Apicella leaves Esports Engine

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For those that may not know, Adam Acipella is one of the forefathers of MLG. When MLG was bought by Blizzard he would continue developing it and the brand, exclusive to Call of Duty which seeded the current Call of Duty League he left that to start Esports Engine and than partnered with Microsoft and Halo to bring us the operations and productions side to the HCS tournaments we love and know. Adam is quite literally the heartbeat to most of these operations as a leader and veteran in this space. 

Esports Engine is owned by Vindex, an infrastructure company which also owns Belong Gaming Arenas. Vindex, along with all its subsidiaries, was acquired by ESL FACEIT Group (EFG) earlier this month. EFG itself is a merger between long-standing tournament operator ESL and competition platform FACEIT.

ESL and FACEIT were acquired and merged by Savvy Games Group — an investment fund fully owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund — for $1.5bn (~£1.24bn) last year. Human rights institutions have accused the Saudi state of ‘sportswashing’, which some esports stakeholders believe has reached esports and gaming via such deals.