Although there are always two sides to every narrative, the following is an accurate portrayal of many’s experience. This is not to say everyone will have a similar experience when interacting with this organisation, but to exercise caution when doing so. The names of sources and subjects will not be included.

As outlined on their website, Team Norse Thunder (TNT) was founded in 2016 as a social enterprise which uses gaming & eSports programmes to combat “social isolation and loneliness”, becoming a registered CIC (community interest company) in 2021, obtaining sponsorship most notably from the University of Birmingham; sadly, many of our sources have indicated this mission statement couldn’t be further from how the organisation is run from within, especially when it comes to Team Norse Thunder’s Pokémon Unite programme.

Until very recently, TNT had four rosters representing the org in Pokémon Unite – Team Red, Yellow, White & Black. “There was a lot of tension between two of the rosters in particular, with the org’s owner throwing his full support behind one, turning a blind eye to one of the captain’s systematic bullying which caused several roster splits, forced a long standing member to leave the organisation. The atmosphere created led to one of the rosters leaving the organisation”. 

Prior to the beginning of 2023, TNT brought a coach in for the org’s, at that time, singular, Pokémon Unite roster. “The coach started promisingly, appearing to be dedicated and had ideas to help us improve – however, this didn’t seem to last long and tensions began to rise between the coach & org owner due to the potential damage the org owner did to Thunder’s image by posting immature tweets out to antagonise a big streamer.”

“When the coach implored the org owner to keep to contractual obligations & hold each other to TNT’s mission statement, the coach was unceremoniously kicked out of the org including the social parts of the servers which are intended for everyone.”

This pattern of completely removing and isolating people from the social aspect of the organisation has been continued throughout the past 6 months.

At the beginning of 2023, the Unite section of the org was split into two separate rosters, Team Red and Team Yellow. Two very strong players were signed to Team Red to aid their development into a competitive outfit however, this didn’t last very long. “The org owner didn’t appreciate comments made about one of Team Red’s long standing member’s ELO/Ranking – these comments being that it was not thought appropriate for ‘competitive’ players to only play during designated practice sessions or hold low veteran ranks on ladder. It was clear the decision had been made to kick this particular player out of the organisation, however they waited over a week so this player could represent the org in a tournament and lead more training sessions first. Immediately after the tournament, he was kicked out of both the competitve and social elements of the organisation with little explanation/reasoning provided other than an orgwide message being sent by the owner stating the player was removed due to “toxicity”. Feeling uncomfortable with their treatment, another player immediately left TNT.”

Team Yellow’s atmosphere wasn’t fairing much better either – “Yellow’s captain seemed to have a vendetta against two of the longer standing members of the organisation and was doing everything he could to get them both removed from his team. One of the two were forced onto the organisation’s weaker roster, replaced by one of the captain’s friends from the second roster. The Yellow roster became very “cliquey” with the captain, captain’s friend and vice captain attempting to freeze the other two players out of the team; this seemed incredibly odd as the two being frozen out were the two better performing players in the team.” Following a disastrous UCS tournament, two players were moved from the Yellow Roster to the Red roster, whilst the captain’s friend was also removed.

“It appears the captain of Team Yellow was receiving some very odd, special treatment from the org’s owner. This roster was given all the resources and assistance from the organisation. This seemed extremely strange based on a string of DMs sent by Team Yellow’s captain to the previous longest standing member of the organisation claiming that no one at Team Norse Thunder, including his vice captain, was “on his level” and he wanted to start his own roster within the organisation but felt obliged to keep his Vice Captain around despite trying to get him to simply take the captaincy over on the Yellow Team. A few other DMs were sent which caused this particular member to leave the Unite section of the organisation and, despite several members of the org expressing their discomfort with this person remaining, the org owner did not provide him with the same treatment as the previous player removed”

This person’s problematic behaviour has continued, constantly offering trials to players, signing them then removing them from the organisation completely after one or two bad games. This behaviour is seemingly supported by the org owner as each trialist is immediately removed from the social aspects of the organisation despite this completely going against TNT’s mission statement.

One particular, former player, has said “the experience I had with TNT has left me completely burnt out. It was my first experience of competitive E-Sports and it’s left me questioning whether I even want to continue playing” whilst a former trialist quipped “TNT’s reputation across the community is seen as a joke. They have poor tournament results, they treat trialists horribly. Any players not making the cut aren’t even afforded the opportunity to socialise away from the competitive area of the organisation, instead being booted out completely.”

Sadly, it appears the reputation Team Yellow have given TNT throughout the Pokémon unite community is having knock on effects with the organisations other rosters with a recruitment post for Thunder’s Team White roster being subjected to ridicule in one of the largest Pokémon Unite community servers before being swiftly removed.

In fact, it seems that not only did any future trialists have a lucky escape, with Team White’s captain confronting one of the commenters aggressively in another team’s public server, but there appears to be an undertone of acceptance with TNT’s poor community reputation with White’s captain exclaiming “you can have a issue with TNT”

Recently, three of the organisations longest serving members came to a decision to cease representing TNT in competitive tournaments. “We made it very clear that, although we no longer wished to represent the org competitively, we wanted to remain part of the social element of the organisation. We were immediately removed from the organisation despite their whole mission statement centering around “social inclusion” and “battling lonliness with gaming”. When I messaged the owner asking why, he responded that he had removed us to “protect himself” even though we had done or said nothing negative towards/about him or TNT. He even went so far as to completely block us on our preferred platform for communication, this particularly hurt as we used to be close.”

It now appears Team Norse Thunder are branching out into a different competitive mobile game, with the launch of their new team “Pale Fox Esports” recently spending a night plotting out the next year for both teams.

However, questions will be raised as to whether either team will still be active. A quick look at companies house indicates that Team Norse Thunder was dissolved as a CIC on 27th June 2023, bringing access to future funding into significant doubt.

Recent events have signified a drastic fall from grace for a company which, only a year ago, was shortlisted for a start up business award.
We reached out to Team Norse Thunder’s director David Scotford for comment and were provided with the following:

“We as an organisation, and I as an individual, have learnt a number of valuable lessons across the last 12 months and it’s important to recognise we haven’t always got things right. We do not hide from this, but we have taken a period of reflection to ensure we do things in a different way going forward. 

“It is particularly important to recognise that our esports teams are separate from our community food bank and social inclusion venue, and these projects have added significant value to people’s lives. Our esports program has not been in the position we have wanted it to be across various measures.

“As to the dissolution of the CIC, this is part of our change into a new structure and is a normal part of an organisation’s evolution. Our new set up is being put in place at the moment, but day to day operations are unaffected. Key partners are fully aware of the transition and have been part of driving the change.”

Though the quotes from Team Norse Thunder seem to indicate a willingness to improve their culture and behaviour towards people, we were sadly approached by one of the captains for a Pokémon Unite roster (shortly after comment was provided by TNT), sending thinly veiled threats in an attempt to prevent us from posting this article. Whilst disappointing, this behaviour is, unfortunately, on brand from what we came to expect from certain members of this organisation.

We hope Team Norse Thunder can begin to rehabilitate their image within esports, potentially with a much needed shift in culture, going back to their roots of promoting social inclusion, not simply social inclusion when it suits.

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