Counter-Strike Professional Roster Finalised

Guild Esports PLC (LSE: GILD; OTCQB: GULDF), a global gaming-focused media business, is pleased to announce that following the announcement of a new Counter-Strike team on 21 August 2023, Guild has finalised its professional roster, signing five professional players as well as coaching staff to support the team.

The team, which competes under the banner of 'Guild Eagles', previously competed together as 'Bad News Eagles'. It comprises Kosovan players Genc "gxx-" Kolgeci, Flatron "juanflatroo" Halimi, Sener "SENER1" Mahuti, Dionis "sinnopsyy" Budeci, and Swiss player Rigon "rigoN" Gashi. Guild has additionally hired the team's coaching staff: Jonatan 'Devilwalk' Lundberg, Kevin 'Krystal' Amend, and Keiran 'KayJay' Playfair. James Banks, who previously managed the team, has joined the Company as a consultant. The Guild Eagles has a growing audience in both the players' home region and across the world, with a combined social media reach of over 500,000 across Twitter, Instagram and Twitch.

The team has achieved competitive success as Bad News Eagles, qualifying and competing at three Counter-Strike majors in Antwerp, Rio and Paris and in 2023, the team won a total of $96,000 in prize money. Since joining Guild, the team has seen immediate competitive success, winning eight out of its last 10 matches. Guild Eagles recently beat G2 Esports, the fifth-ranked team in the world.

The Guild Eagles join the Company ahead of the Esports World Cup, to be hosted in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in summer 2024. Guild intends to compete in the World Cup as part of the Company's strategy to establish a foothold in the MENA region. Gaming and esports are increasingly popular in MENA, which is estimated to have 87.9 million gamers by 2026 (source: Statista, 2023), and acts as a geographic bridge between Europe, Asia and Africa, all of which have well-established gaming communities.

At the Esports World Cup, the world's biggest esports teams will compete across multiple genres of esports, each esports organisation will be expected to compete across all esports, with the winner crowned the best esports organisation in the world. It is expected to have the largest prize fund in esports history (source: Reuters, 2023).

Guild Eagles are Guild's second Counter-Strike roster, following Guild's signing of an all-female Counter-Strike team in March 2023. The funding to launch the Guild Eagles was provided by multiple sources, including a national esports federation.

Jasmine Skee, CEO of Guild Esports, commented: "Counter-Strike is a legendary esport that continues to grow in popularity. For a number of years Guild has explored how best to enter the esport, and we were delighted to launch our all-female team earlier this year. The Esports World Cup provides the perfect opportunity to expand our Counter-Strike presence, and we're thrilled to have the Eagles on board. They have immediately hit the ground running at Guild, putting in some incredible performances in the short time since they joined - we can't wait to see what they can do at the World Cup next year."