European esports organization The Imperial has parted ways with its Dota 2 roster.
The Imperial announced the news on Twitter Friday, saying the roster was moving on to a new organization. In a Facebook post, CEO Oli Adams said the small org, which re-launched in May, wasn't able to provide a counter-offer that matched what was being offered by the new org.
"It's a really sad day for the organisation that we announce the departure of our Danish friends! However the opportunity they've been offered was something we could not compete with," Adams said.
"It is upsetting that organisations such as ourselves can't grow when bigger ones come knocking. We will be signing a new team in the coming weeks but not necessarily in DOTA!"
During their time with The Imperial, the team managed a fourth-place finish at DreamLeague Season 6, and managed to run the difficult gauntlet of the Boston Major EU open qualifiers to earn a seat at the regional qualifier. They were unable to make it to the Major itself, finishing 5th-10th at the Europe qualifier after going 4-5 in the round robin.
Before signing with The Imperial, the roster known as the Danish Bears narrowly missed qualification for several big events, but did manage to defeat Ad Finem 3-0 in the finals of Rumble Town after victories over RoX and Prodota Gaming.
Jon "Babyknight" Andersen, who plays position 2 for the roster, tweeted that the new organization for the roster will be announced shortly.
Our new sponsorship will be announced in not too long. Very hyped about it. We wouldn't have left Imperial otherwise. Stay tuned every1 :)<3
— Jon Andersen (@BabyKnight_DotA) December 9, 2016
The Imperial initially signed a CS:GO roster in May, but released them in August.
Josh "Gauntlet" Bury is a news editor for theScore esports. You can find him on Twitter.