The EE Blog: EternalEnvy Accuses Former Team, Team Secret, of Delayed Payments and Monetary Indiscretion
What a bombshell.
In a lengthy blog post on the Team NP website, the polarizing carry player Jacky “EternaLEnVy” Mao accused his former org, Team Secret, of monetary indiscretion. He outlined how team owners Clement “Puppey” Ivanov and team director Kemal Sadikoglu have delayed payments to players taking an unagreed upon cut from his tournament winnings and using sponsorship revenue from Dota for non-Dota related costs in a lengthy blog post on the Team NP website.
Here’s a summary of the post so far:
- Secret took a 10% pay cut from players known as an Organization cut. This was not discussed with the players. The original promise to players was that Secret will take 0% from prize winnings. Only Puppey knew of the cut.
- The 10% cut from players was supposedly to pay for the manager, CyborgMatt.
- No player salaries. Salary promised ranged from $12,000 or $15,000.
- Players signed no contracts.
- Secret took 50% of money received from PandaTV. The deal amounted to $1 million plus a $250,000 cut from stream donations in exchange for 30 hours of streaming per month from Puppey and Artour “Rtz” Babaev, while the entire team had to stream a total of 250 hours per month. Puppey streamed 12 hours in three months.
- Conflicting stories on sponsors. According to EE, Puppey claims that Team Secret will not work with small-time sponsors, yet no sponsor money made it to the players. Even promises of hardware didn’t make it.
- Puppey got physical with W33ha and bullied him through his career in secret.
- Puppey is apparently unprofessional and lazy. Accusations of him drinking instead of scrimming with the team, not attending practices at all and playing guitar instead of scrimming surfaced. This is reportedly the reason why Saahil “UNiVeRsE” Aarora left the team after the first Major together.
The post is archived and a video of Puppey raging and destroying a monitor was also attached by EternalEnvy on the post. They can be viewed here: https://archive.is/4OEUP
Alternative link: https://saylith.github.io/monogatari/himitsumonogatari.html
Link to .gif version of Puppey video: https://giphy.com/gifs/l3vR42W8PCqSocks8/html5
EternalEnvy’s post comes at the heels of Team Secret’s disbanding after their 13-16th place finish at The International 6. EternalEnvy, known as one of the most raw and unfiltered professionals and Dota 2, outlined his reasoning for leaving Team Secret and his motivation for creating his own team, Team NP.
According to the Canadian carry player, players in Team Secret signed no contracts and were given their prize pool shares at delayed times, often with strange prize cuts made with 0 consultation. The illumination only came to players once EternalEnvy confronted both Puppey and Sadikoglu.
EE’s blog reads: “Contrary to popular belief, Secret 3.0 never had any player salary…”
“So although Secret at that time was a top team in both popularity and tournament placements, not only did Kemal/Puppey not secure any sponsors but instead they took 10% of our money.”
EE also mentioned that former teammates Rasmus “MiSeRy” Filipsen and Omar “W33” Aliwi have had trouble receiving back-payments or tournament winnings. Both are owed prize payouts delayed for over a year.
Team Secret has faced similar accusations in the past, with the team’s former manager, Evany Chang, accusing the org of failing to pay her or the team’s 2014-15 roster tournament winnings for over two years.
The PandaTV deal
EternalEnvy alleged that the Team Secret organization reported kely $144,500 of a failed streaming deal with Chinese streaming platform, PandaTV. According to EE, the PandaTV deal would have paid out $1 million and an additional $250,000 in donations to the team for a deal that required players to hit certain streaming hours per month.
But the deal fell through since according to EE, Puppey was disinterested in streaming, fulfilling only 12 hours of streaming in three months. In the end, only a fraction of the deal paid out, with Team Secret pocketing a substantial amount.
The problem with Pupppey
EternalEnvy goes on to detail his strained relationship with Puppey, Team Secret’s remaining original player, captain and owner of the team.
In his post, EternalEnvy claims that Puppey verbally berates players, threatens physical violence in arguments, refuses to practice and secretly negotiates the prize cuts from the team’s winning behind the player’s backs.
On more than one occasion, EternalEnvy claims that Puppey refused to practice for big events, has refused to take responsibility for misplays and has verbally challenged teammates to fist-fights.
Former Team Secret player, Rasmus “MiSeRy” Filipsen, came out with his own statement detailing his experience with monetary indiscretion from Team Secret.
In a Medium post, MiSeRy explained how he only received his own prize winnings for XMG Captain’s Draft and Dota Pit Season 2 a year and a half later after the fact.
He notes however that he and teammate W33 are still missing payouts for 2015 tournament placings.
He also corroborates the false promises made by the team, saying that “The amount of big words, promises about salary, sponsor deals, and the belief that we were playing for an organisation that was different from most, just makes me want my full share.”
According to MiSeRy, contacting the team’s director, Sadkoglu, has been a Sisyphean effort. No effort of transparency was given by Team Secret’s management. Even the 10% organizational cut revealed by EE came as a surprise to MiSeRy as he was told that the team would not take money away from the players.
Team Secret has yet to issue a statement on the revelations made by their former players.
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