MY THOUGHTS ON #PlayerRights, the PEA and PLAYERS.

As of recently, many professional Counter-Strike players of teams such as Cloud9, Counter Logic Gaming, Team Liquid, and Team SoloMid have joined together after alleged reports regarding being told by the PEA that they do not have the right to choose where they wish to compete and  intend to prevent them from playing in ESL Pro League.

25 of the world’s top 25 professional players within Counter-Strike have selected Scott “SirScoots” Smith to represent them in a “PlayersRights” movement, which an open letter was released on Scott’s behalf, which will be provided in this post. In this open letter the players say, “As players, we dedicate our lives to the game of Counter-Strike. We are grateful for the opportunity to be professional Counter-Strike players, and we consider ourselves lucky to be able to do what we love for a living.We acknowledge that our careers as professional players would not be possible without the foundation that supports us.”

When the PEA (Professional eSports Association) was created, its’ owners claimed “it was their goal to empower the players and that it would share decisions with players. However as of recently as stated in the open letter, “we started seeing more serious reasons for concern about what the PEA was doing, and were hearing rumors that some of us were about to be told we would have to withdraw from the next season of ESL Pro League.”

In my opinion, as someone who was an enthusiast and avid viewer of Counter-Strike and other FPS games, and an owner of a well-known eSports team, I can understand the frustration from the players, as ESL & EPL are where the majority of these players built a name for themselves, and from what I understand, they feel they are having the independence to choose where they want to compete, which I can understand the owners and PEA’s side of this.

Along with this, Jason Katz, the commissioner of PEA explained that “EPL could either accept the proposal, or the PEA would force us to withdraw from EPL and restrict us to playing in only the PEA league.” This means the PEA and the owners of any of the 8 teams involved intended to prevent their players from playing in EPL. For those wondering how this is possible and how the PEA can just force them out of a major competition, it’s because it is included in their contracts. The players claimed “ our owners had always given us the clear impression that we held the final say when it came to where we competed.”  As a eSports owner, of course my organization is not as big as C9 or TSM, but I give my players the ability to preform online or at any event they please, because that spreads the notoriety of the player and the team more than being locked in a particular league.”

Many owners have claimed that their players did not know what the open letter claimed, saying people, such as saying Sean Gares manipulated his former teammates into signing the letter. Scott has also noted publicly that “the players were informed of and approved the tone and messaging of the letter. They were given the option to preview the exact copy in advance. Those that wished to do so, did so, and approved the exact copy before it was published. Many players said that the tone and messaging was enough for them to approve and since the letter has been published.”

According to Scott and a recent tweet, he claims that “team owners are going to players one by one, seems like they are trying to break up #playersrights movement.” This seems to be a legitimate claim as Sean Gares, who was with TSM till yesterday and a big part of the open letter, was released from his time at TSM. Sean states in a twitlonger that, “It seems like some people who have followed the situation think that I didn’t speak with Andy at all during this process.He basically implies it in his text to me and his community response, but this is just not the case. On December 9th, Andy and I went to lunch together and talked about our new team and different esports industry issues. This lunch, which came two days after Scott sent our first letter to the PEA, was very friendly. We specifically discussed how the players had selected Scott to represent us, and Andy said he was well aware of it.”

Sean goes on to say, “Despite what has happened, I still appreciate my time on TSM. I wish that things didn’t have to end this way. I understand that Andy is in a tough place and I don’t wish him any ill will, but warping the truth is not fair to me or anyone, and it is not right way to handle all of this. As for the other things Andy mentions in his response, I did not “manipulate” anyone and my former teammates have already confirmed this in their public reply to Andy.”

Andy made a counter-response saying, “At no point did my players directly talk to me about not wanting to participate in PEA. In less than a week, he (Sean) misled and manipulated my other players, convincing them to add their names to a letter they had not read and did not understand. Even after learning what happened with the letter, I was willing to work things out with Sean, but unfortunately Sean again chose not to directly engage with me and expressed he would prefer to leave TSM. I will not hold Sean in contract jail, I will let him go to whichever team he wants.” This is due to claims that Sean convinced all of our players to tweet with the hashtag #playerrights which suggests that TSM is mistreating all of our players and taking their rights away.

Sean provided a extensive amount of Twitter and text messages between him and Andy, after Andy learning of the letter, blaming Sean for putting a negative image on TSM and its’ players and its’ sponsors. You can find that gallery of messages here: http://imgur.com/a/h5IIx

I do not have anything against those in the PEA who have worked for better player conditions, healthcare, full time contracts rather than those comparable to small sports league. I am not trying to paint a bad image of many of these people, as the CEO’s have a long history of doing a lot of great things for players. I’m supportive the players on the issue they have raised, namely being told they can’t play in the ESL Pro League. It’s important for all players and teams for that matter, to ensure they can play at the highest level against the best teams out there, and hope that the player can have what they want. I as a owner, I want to see a peaceful compromise between players and teams to where the owners and players are happy with the rights and decisions they wish to have for themselves, while giving benefit to the teams, owners, and sponsors going into 2017 and future years.

Engaged eSports Scandal

An eSports organization has come under fire and legal attention after the players decided they want out of their organization, and I was recently lucky was lucky enough to talk to players/management from Engaged eSports and its’ owner known as Christopher “Legend” Castle, and other brands where the owner has associated with about the recent drama that has gone down in the scene.

To fill readers in on what went on with soul here is a small summary.

The Engaged eSports organisation owned by Christopher Castle came into the eSports scene very fast. They tried to make a name for themselves at the Halo last chance qualifier, but failed to do so. During this journey, CEO Chris “Legend” Castle found his way into some trouble with other organizations and now has found more trouble by failing to pay it’s designers, staff, and several if not all of its’ former players.

I looked further into the matter and are happy to present you with my Investigation.

The team known as Engaged was formed in June this year, but underwent a number of lineup changes in Call of Duty, CS:GO, Rainbow Six: Siege and many other titles. After one of its’ teams secured a placing they did not expect, the owner Chris or Legend informed the players that they would not be getting paid or the benefits they deserved or were promised, something the players claims is a breach of contract.

Throughout our investigation we were told by staff members and other partners that Chris didn’t seem fit to run an organization. He was always angry with the staff, and players and frequently failed to keep staff updated on ongoing situations, along with promising players things he couldn’t deliver. To add to Chris’s negative image, he continues to blame the players and threaten to hire private investigators on any individual who tries to expose him, or asks one of his members for assistance with articles or anything helping other teams, and frequently talks in a demoralizing manner about the players who were once with him after they leave.

I recently spoke to Patrick McJunkin also known as Vik, the co-owner of Lethal Gaming. LLC about his experience with Christopher “Legend” Castle and thoughts on Engaged.

Tristin: What were your initial thoughts on Legend when he joined Lethal?
LETHALxVIK: Skeptical. He said he wanted to invest large sums of money per event for a percentage of our Org.

Tristin: Were there things that potentially concerned you during his time in Lethal? Anything with players or sponsors?

LETHALxVIK: Without even signing a contract he was quick to add co-owner to his twitter bio, and quickly we saw that he was contacting our sponsors via twitter to get them to sponsor his other orgs he “owns” such as Engaged.

Tristin: Were you aware that Legend was involved in a scandal before joining Lethal regarding him hacking the former Era Competitive’s twitter and turning it into Engaged’s?
LETHALxVIK: No, we were not.

Tristin: What do you think about Engaged having a business license for the state of NY in the county of Onondaga, with all of the scamming, fraud and other actions? Should the state of NY look into a investigation of their practices and possibly eSports firms and the WESA look at banning and shutting their org down?

LETHALxVIK: Absolutely. If any organization is run in an unethical business manner then it should be reported. I believe they will find more evidence than what we all have experienced.

Tristin: What do you say to those players that have not signed with Engaged and the partners that Engaged has?

LETHALxVIK: I would tell all the current sponsors that are affiliated with the organization to terminate contracts immediately. I cant imagine what company would want to be tied to a brand with a dirty reputation and history. As for players that are looking for an organization to play under, i would say do your research into the history of the org and no matter what is said or promised to you, ask for everything in writing.

Quick story, We just signed a pro team for Rainbow Six Siege that was scammed by Engaged. They were offered all kinds of promises. The players had qualified for the Season 3 pro league. Legendary quickly got his org info & logo to the event host claiming ownership of the team and it was posted on the official tournament roster. The players had not been signed yet and were not owned by Engaged. The players got fed up and demanded the contracts and then Engaged/Legendary blocked them all on twitter and announced that they released the team. I saw all this unfold and decided with our ownership group to pick them up and signed them to legit contracts like a real organization should.

Many former designers, players, and affiliated individuals with Engaged or Christopher “Legend” Castle express their experience of the fraudulent and scamming that was done by Christopher Castle.

The dozens of images above were provided by AsapDZN, a designer who formerly was with Engaged, who was promised hundreds of dollars a month in exchange for his designs, which he never received after 2-3 months, totaling more than $300 ASAP was scammed out of.

I asked Asap about his experience in Engaged, to which he provided the following statement “Legend picked me up because he was looking for someone to remaster the engaged logo because apparently he ‘lost’ the file. After I remastered it he said that I can join the team and get a salary of $150 a month. (Verbal contract, i have proof of it in twitter and Skype messages). I asked for an actual contract but it never happened. The first month went by and he stalled the payment to the next month. I didn’t want to say anything then because I thought if I did I wouldn’t get paid. The second month came and he literally ignored me. Ignored all of my messages so I got fed up and called him out for it. I did so much work for engaged and if you total it up its probably worth more than $300.
I dint get paid any money and basically did free work for a team ran by a scammer” He also goes on to state “He also said that ‘leads’ get paid. I asked Hydra who was lead at the time when I joined and he told me that he doesnt get paid. So Chris or Legend lied here as well.”

I recently spoke to Trevor Kenz, the former Rainbow Six captain for Engaged about his experience with Christopher “Legend” Castle and thoughts on Engaged, to which he provided the following statement “To be honest after the previous dealings I had with smaller orgs. I was already fairly cautious. So when we first started talking I was already fairly skeptical. Since becoming a pro player I have found that there are so many organizations out there scamming teams.After quite a lot of talking with him over Skype and various other social media outlets. About a week after he “announced us” without signing us officially. We started getting a ton of messages from other organizations
saying he was a scammer but at the same time I had doubts because half of them would just make some bogus offer to me afterwords. He also often threatened me and my team with legal, which due to him deleting his twitter, I do not have the conversation of, but I’m not the only one this has happened to.”

The big thing is in the county of Onondaga, NY, Christopher Castle filed a LLC license for Engaged, which means a sole proprietorship and its owner are treated as a single entity. The main problem with Engaged and the actions of Mr. Castle is, with the dozens of players, designers, and staff that is planing to sue Engaged and Mr. Castle is that the people to whom you owe money (“creditors”) can go after not only your business assets, but your other property as well. This can include your house, your car, and your personal bank accounts. This means Mr. Castle is also at risk for any businesses that he also runs in the state of New York, and open to a investigation by the New York Business Agency, along with District Attorneys possibly getting involved.

After being outed as a scam, Mr. Castle deleted his personal Twitter account, he rebranded the team known as Engaged to Siege, which many on Twitter aware of his illegal and unmoral business practices spread warnings to the public to warn players and other individuals.
One of Engaged’s “sponsors” known as Clutch Chairz also has officially released their partnership and promo codes given to Engaged (Seen below)

There have also been claims of Chris or Legend doxing the private information of former players and managers before and during Engaged’s time as a means of intimidation along with threatening to sue his players if they try to leave him after they are scammed or other scenarios.

Vivi, the captain of the former Overwatch team for Engaged explained in images above that Legend started to threaten them and then when they left, he proceeded to hack and disable Twitter accounts for 2 of the players on the team. She also explains that he doxed (illegally accessing private information, commonly for swatting purposes), and did threaten to swat them.

The original manager of eRa Competitive, Alexandre was in a conversation with Legend back in July, concerning why Chris had hacked the eRa Competitive Twitter and turned it into Engaged’s, when Christopher “Legend” Castle have the following statement “Hey Buddy, just letting you know it’s a legally purchased entity” and also stating “Your IP is also saved in Twitter Jack, and I know you live in Florida.

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