Compete Division of Kotaku and Deadspin to Shut Down

In an interesting twist on the nature of esports coverage, “Compete”, a joint venture between Kotaku and Deadspin to cover competitive gaming, is effectively no more. In a post made to the site just hours ago, Editor Dennis Young revealed that while Kotaku would still be covering esports and competitive gaming, for now Compete is no more.

“Here’s our most heated gaming moment yet: Compete in its current iteration is shutting down next week. Esports coverage at the company will live on at Kotaku, but this joint project that Deadspin and Kotaku started in March 2017 to cover competitive gaming is ending.

It was a joy to bring this weird little corner of the sports and gaming worlds to our readers. We’d particularly like to thank our peers in the esports media and 11 Deadspin commenters, who both equally appreciated our decision to cover esports like sports. Esports is a rich topic worthy of skeptical, thorough, and fun journalism, and we’re grateful that a vertical premised on that was able to attract a large and growing readership. This also would not have been possible without enthusiastic writing and editing contributions from Kotaku and Deadspin staffers, and a dedicated and patient crew of freelance writers.

Eric and I are accepting buyouts and leaving the company—please hire us—while Maddy will remain as an editor at Kotaku. We’re proud of the work we did, and while this part of it is over, we believe readers will have a chance to see it continue at this company and elsewhere.”

The site had previously faced some criticism from fans for the style of coverage they trended towards, so it will be interesting to see how the greater Kotaku network handles future breaking news. For more news from the gaming industry, check out the recent update in the PUBG / Epic Games lawsuit saga.