Valve, the developer of Half-Life and owner of the popular Steam digital gaming platform, recently filed a lawsuit against an Esports organiser based in Singapore. The organiser, Global Electronic Sports Championship, or GESC, is said to have failed to pay out the winning teams and staff who were a part of tournament events held in March and May 2018.
The tournaments ran by GESC Indonesia and GESC Thailand in their respective countries, were Dota 2 Minor tournaments. Both tournaments were qualifying events for annual The International 2018 and both events each had US$300,000 (~RM1.24 million) in prize money up for grabs for participating teams that included Fnatic and Evil Geniuses. Unfortunately for GESC, the current total unpaid stands at a whopping US$750000 (~RM3.1 million) and include unpaid wages for contractors and on-screen talents.
The lawsuit was filed with the High Court of the Republic of Singapore back in April of this year. Further, Valve also said that it has severed any and all business ties with GESC, saying that it requires all tournament operators to pay participants on a timely basis for the benefit of Esports events in the long-term.
Tales of Esports tournament organisers either failing to pay their dues or running afoul with the crowd are becoming increasingly common. Years ago, Fallout Gaming, a Malaysian Esports organiser, found itself in hot water through a series of unfortunate events, with the local community ultimately accusing them of running “pyramid scheme” under the pretence of an Esports gaming company.
(Source: DotEsports via PCGamesN)
