After a hugely successful summer, Counter Logic Gaming today announced the surprise decision to part ways with Head Coach Chris Ehrenreich, effective immediately. Appointed as to the role in May of this year, Ehrenreich led his team to 1^st place in the Summer Finals at Madison Square Garden, defeating TSM along the way, and was widely regarded as a success. However, this move hints at complications in the relationship outside of pure play, seemingly confirmed in a recent Twitlonger post.

In the post, Ehrenreich alludes to the problems behind the scenes: ‘There were several reasons that led to this decision, but the primary one was my failure to conduct myself as a coach in line with CLG’s and my own standards. In the end I breached the trust of both the organization and the team.’ He also praised CLG for the decision, stating, ‘We agreed that I did not live up to the expectations, independent of results, that the organization set out for my position…it would be mutually beneficial for myself and the team to part ways as my presence on the team would be a detriment to the team's future.’

Until details of what has transpired are released it will be hard to know if Ehrenreich has a future in competitive League, or even eSports as a whole, but there is no doubt his work with the team produced the kind of results many owners will pay handsomely for. In the post he states his intention to continue in the field, and provided his crimes were not overly heinous it seems obvious he’ll be in demand from CLG’s competitors.

As for the team themselves, this represents something of a step backwards after the huge improvement over the summer, but was clearly a decision they felt compelled to take. CLG CEO Devin, ‘Mylixia’ Nash had this to say on the team site. ‘The decision to ask a staff member to step down is never simple. Chris and I worked together for several months on a transparent improvement plan to keep his relationship with the company on track…the  results of it led to unsatisfactory outcomes and our eventual request for him to step down.’

Nash was also quick to praise his departing coach, although he did not seem to fully credit Ehrenreich with the team improvement. ‘Chris made contributions to this organization that were critical to our victory this year. My hope is that he utilizes his experience in CLG to carry on his career in e-sports towards the advancement of the industry.’ We will have to wait to see how the story unfolds, but for not it is fair to say CLG have taken a big chance, releasing arguably one of the most promising coaches in North American League.