It has recently come to light that Mad Catz is taking a different direction with its company and may drop top tier fighting gamers Daigo Umehara, Mago, Tokido, and others, who are top Street Fighter players in the world, from company sponsorship. Rumors have it that the company is in dire straits at the moment and is in need of all of its partitioned budgets to be focused on a solitary project.

Steam Keys Esports: The Company’s Direction

Not only that, but Mad Catz has recently announced that it will be laying off 37% of its staff in order to support its new hierarchy. With another former Mad Catz sponsored fighting gamer, Poongko, signing off on DoTA’s Team Secret, the Mad Catz hullabaloo is just further being amplified.

Daigo Umehara, one of the most, if not the most, successful individual esports athlete has been sponsored by Mad Catz for an extremely long time. Along with his contemporaries, Tokido and Mago, they are only three of the Fighting game gods of Japan that will be without any financial backing if their contracts are not renewed. The players themselves have stated that their initial contracts will end or have ended this March of 2016 and are unsure of their future with the company.

Steam Keys Esports: The Future of the Mad Catz Gods

If worse comes to worst, they will be forced to part ways with Mad Catz, however there won’t be any real difficulty in finding some other to sponsor them. Like what was earlier stated with Poongko, many Moba esports teams have been opening their doors to professional fighting gamers and they may well be picked up by other prolific teams such as Evil Geniuses, Red Bull, Razer, or maybe even Invictus Gaming. There is no shortage of teams that are willing to sponsor three of the best Street Fighter players in the world, it’s all a matter of what they will choose.

It’s in my opinion that this is going to be a grave error that Mad Catz will regret in the near future if they do not renew the contracts of their players. While the company may be flogging at the moment, it’s been famed for sponsoring Daigo Umehara and his fellow gods, and would do itself a disservice in letting that distinction go. Nothing is set in stone at the moment, so we’ll wait for further developments on that front.

For more esports news, follow Steam Keys Esports column every week for news on the latest happening in the various scenes around the globe. Check out marketplaces for cheap Steam games and Steam redeem code to get in on the action in Mobas and Fighting Games.