A two-sentence tweet has seemingly brought to an end one of Counter-Strike’s most noteworthy Tier 2 Tournament Organisers (TOs). According to HLTV, YaLLa have filed for bankruptcy. Many prominent players, production staff, and broadcast talent claim that they are still owed money from previous events.
The TO posted the following on X: “Dear Counter-Strike community, the YaLLa Compass journey has come to an end. Thanks to each and every one of you who supported us.”
YaLLa Esports may be thankful for those who supported them, but it seems they did not support their staff and freelancers, with many taking to social media to claim they have not received payments, with one such accusation dating back to November 2024.
YaLLa Esports leaves dozens unpaid
Alexandru ‘s0und’ Ștefan became the first player to speak out about missing prize money. The former Nexus player has five YaLLa Compass events on record, with the prize money earned by his team totalling $14,000, however, it is unclear whether the missed payments correspond to all events or only recent events.
The bulk of the money earned by Nexus comes from YaLLa Compass Qatar 2025 and its qualifier, where Nexus earned $7,500 and $5,000, respectively.
Many of the missed payments listed seem to correspond to YaLLa events that have taken place this year, however, ex-500 player Teodor ‘SPELLAN’ Nikolov claims that payment was never made “since November 2024,” dating back to YaLLa Compass Fall 2024 where 500 finished 2nd, claiming $3,500.
British and Irish broadcast talents were amongst those to go out of pocket from the seeming bankruptcy, with Jamie ‘TheEternalJay’ Martin, Freddie ‘GrimyRannarr’ Pritchard, and Jack ‘Zerpherr’ Kelly with Jay posting “Goodbye to my €lmao” and the other two posting money-related gifs.
Production staff have reacted in a similar way, airing their grievances and sharing sarcastic money-related gifs. This includes freelance observer, Janka ‘JanicKa’ Vorčáková.
YaLLa Compass and Counter-Strike
YaLLa Compass was the brand of YaLLa’s Counter-Strike tournaments, hosting various online events dating back to YaLLa Compass Fall 2023. The height of the United Arab Emirates’ headquartered TO’s lifespan came in its YaLLa Compass 2024 LAN event.
The $400,000 LAN, based in Abu Dhabi, was won by The MongolZ, at the time a significant achievement in the team’s march to becoming the Tier 1 contender they are now.
However, their next planned LAN tournament, YaLLa Compass Qatar 2025 was moved online, with its prize money halved due to an unexpected clash with the BLAST.tv Austin Major’s MRQs, which were announced long after the event was planned. In the end, the $300,000 failed to attract top teams, with NaVi Junior, the Natus Vincere academy team, winning the event.
It is unclear whether the demise of YaLLa Qatar had a specific impact on YaLLa’s fate, or whether their plans were simply too expensive and ambitious for a crowded Tier 2 scene, which includes several tournament organisers vying for the same viewership in a tight schedule.
YaLLa were not the only TO to suffer from the BLAST.tv Austin Major, with StarLadder cancelled their StarSeries Season 19 due to the elongated schedule resulting from Stage 1 being added to the Major.
The now Indian owned Tournament Organiser re-enters CS with StarSeries Season 20, beginning September 18, prior to StarLadder hosting the Budapest Major in December.
Darragh Harbinson is an esports writer specialising in Counter-Strike. He has written for Esports News UK, Esports Insider, UKCSGO, Dexerto, and Rush B Media.