Team Secret accused again for allegedly owing money

Team Secret accused once again for allegedly owing money to their current and former players. Last February the team was accused of owing tournament earnings and failing to fulfill agreements and arrangements by OG. Now, infamous for his public blasts and rants, Jacky “Eternal Envy” Mao has authored another revealing testament to Team Secret’s business dealings and team dynamics. Former member Rasmus “MiSeRy” Filipsen has also taken up the pen to express his experience, backing up EE and his story.

Team Secret has been accused for the second time within one year for allegedly owing money to their current and former players. In February of 2016, Evany “the_evany” Chang, current manager of OG and ex manager of Team Secret, had accused the Team Secret organization of failing to pay tournament prize money owed from more than a year ago. According to the detailed timeline by Evany, the debts incurred began in October of 2014. The money owed is from various tournament winnings between the dates of October and December 2014.

According to Evany, all former players including Artour “Arteezy” Babaev, Ludwig “zai” Wåhlberg, Kuro “KuroKy” Salehi Takhasomi, Tal “Fly” Aizik and Johan “BigDaddy” Sundstein have been effected in this situation.

At that time Dotablast contacted Kemal Sadikolgu to clarify the situation as well as obtain an estimate on timelines or resolution status. Sadikolgu had not responded.

Now, infamous for his polarizing opinions and publicly vocal outcries, Jacky “Eternal Envy” Mao has lit Reddit, Twitter and Facebook on fire once again. This time he has come forward about the internal dynamics, financial obligations and business dealings of his previous team – Team Secret.

In a very lengthy blog, EE details with screen shots and videos much of the team’s interactions and discussions – primarily surrounding finances and perceived deception, avoidance and ‘shady’ business deals.

Secret has taken a cut of approximately 340K USD (assuming they paid everyone which they did not, and EGB/Meta don’t account for any $). Anyway I’m sure that amount covered for all the expenses throughout the year. Hell, if the SEAcret boys were offered a salary, that’s where it comes from. Players like W33/Misery together gave Secret approx $56000 from prize cuts without gaining a single salary the entire year. I have given them $29333, and gained 24K in salary, for a total of -5K for the year. We actually lost money playing for Secret.

– Jacky “Eternal Envy” Mao

Most prominent points to note include:

• 10% prize earning cuts when players were already notified they would not have any cuts from the prize pool
• lack of written contracts
• promises of 5 figure salaries
• significant delays of prize payments – of amounts up to $180,000 and taking more than one year to pay.
• dismissive responses to follow up and questions
• conflicts of information between owner Kemal Sadikolgu and tournament organizers on the payment status
• lack of contact or delayed discussions regarding payments
• loss of streaming contracts due to failure to meet terms
• 50% portion of streaming contract revenue to be paid to organization
• lack of money received for player jerseys
• aggressive and intimidating behaviors
• misleading and deceptive payments made for players for various reasons

EE’s points are shocking for an organization that was formed with the intent to circumvent the “shady” and “greedy” organizations, giving players all the power and earnings they deserve. Jacky’s information is substantiated by screenshots of conversations, documents and video footage. It also reflects what was brought up months ago by The Evany and OG and is backed by MiSeRy’s heartfelt point of view written on Medium.

If you consider all the events together: the very late payouts and the randomness of them, the jerseys that were sold in Team Secret’s name with the player’s nicknames on them (which have still yet to be paid to any players), and now the 10% cut. You could easily be encouraged to think; has Secret and Kemal paid for anything throughout all the tournaments and bootcamps? Or was it all in the end financed by our own success without us knowing?

– Rasmus “MiSeRy” Filipsen

Once again Dotablast has contacted Kemal Sadikolgu to clarify the situation but have not received a response as of yet.

In the end, not all organizations or players have this experience, but any is enough to call attention to it. General good advice is to make sure there is a written contract, read and reviewed – especially by a lawyer if possible.