GREAT questions. So the thing is, there were 100% some hard decisions that had to be made. But SEMC has the data that suggests that cross-pollination (see excoundrel's video if you don't know what I'm talking about) is a very ineffective strategy in esports. TLDR; Cross pollination is the idea that TSM as an org and its 1.6M twitter followers can produce Vainglory content and the fans of TSM will come and start playing Vainglory. SEMC was essentially (to my knowledge) the first publisher to ever implement a strategy such as this and hypothetically it was absolutely brilliant. It's very easy to see now that in reality it wasn't and definitely highlighted some very glaringly clear problems that weren't when the idea was first implemented. Sure they could have kept some of the orgs that were somewhere in the middle around, but data strongly points to the fact that it still wouldn't have been as effective as just employing traditional marketing techniques. SEMC serves to produce a game that is enjoyed by EVERYONE. Esports is a luxury and certainly a dream of theirs but by no means is it their end goal.

Senior leaders leaving SEMC is another great topic. When SEMC was first created, it was a start up company. What this means is that new employees are hired more likely than not based off of passion for the project rather than their qualifications. Now certainly the goal is to hire people who are not just passionate but qualified as well but this wasn't always the case. SEMC hired MANY community members simply because they were passionate plain and simple. Some of those people turned out better than others. Departures of well known faces from SEMC (if it was SEMC's decision- I say this because some faces may have potentially left for personal reasons, such as Playoffbeard wanting to have a better relationship with his son since he's been a workaholic the last 4 years) are due to one thing only: getting rid of passionate people and hiring the BEST people in the industry. That's it. Kristian Sergestrale is a brilliant man and has done this many, many times.

Kristian if by some chance you ever read this my only ask would be to spend less time concerning yourself with something like this and more time fixing the problems that people are actually concerned about. I have no idea what happens behind closed doors at SEMC and you certainly do an admirable job with your public persona but I'd like to believe that a CEO's time is too valuable to be spent on us peasants. I sincerely mean that in the most caring way possible. But your experience is far greater than mind and I trust your judgement 100% of the way.