A correction to the dates when Teng Dawei received payment have been added. The source corrected the information after checking with their records. 

Further corrections were added for proofreading purposes. 

Despite winning the Major All Stars Dota 2 tournament last March 22, 2015, Invictus Gaming (iG) claims that it has yet to receive their prize money from the tournament organizers, Fallout Gaming.

In a post on Weibo, iG Vice-CEO VK said the tournament organizers had gone in hiding and have yet to pay their dues, despite efforts from the team to contact them.

His translated post reads: “The tournament Malaysia All-Star (MAS) won by IG in Kuala Lumpur has been a long time, and now the new iG has only Ferrari left in their lineup.

“However the prize money hasn’t been paid out yet. The organizer, FallOut gaming, promised that the money will be given in installments. They have since disappeared. Chuan has tried to contact them several times but to no avail.

“By helping us share this post, we can help the old iG lineup to claim the money back. We currently have no idea when they will ever receive their money.”

For finishing in first place, iG is owed $50,390.55, or 45 percent of the $111,979 total prize pool.

SOLO MID. A year later and only Ferrari remains on the iG roster that won MAS. According to iG vice-CEO VK, they have yet to receive their winnings.

Unpaid Staff

But iG was not the only one owed money by the organizers of Major All Stars.

Tiffani “Babyoling” Lim, former Titan Manager who served as team liaison and translator at the event, said she had yet to be paid a single cent for her contributions.

Babyoling’s predicament is especially bittersweet, as it was her industry contacts that were used by FallOut Gaming to invite teams to the event.

“I was the one who contacted the teams and got them to Malaysia,” Babyoling told eSports by INQUIRER.net. “[I have not received] a cent till now. I trusted them.”

Former staffers who helped organize the event, including a production assistant who served as the de facto production manager at the event, have all since left FallOut Gaming due to unpaid wages, particularly for their time served at the Major All Stars.

One staffer, the head of volunteers head at the Major All Stars, came forward with his experiences. His task, along with 35 other volunteers? To usher the audience in and out of the Melawati Stadium.

Their arrangement was simple: The volunteers team’s only task was to usher and guide audience members to their seats. In return, they would be given three event shirts, meals while at the event, two free event tickets to share with their friends and a photo session with all of the participating teams.

What they got was almost unrecognizable from what was promised.

The promised three shirts? They received only one. Of the promised meals and beverages, the volunteers received only a lunch pack despite working 12-hour days.

Even the photo sessions for every team were cut to just the winner of the event, iG.

“We did most of the work required for others to do,” he said. “We were told everyday to go out and buy stuff for them and for the teams. We would be handed money and just told to go.”

“We bought weird things. Food for VIPs, even electrical appliances. At one point, we even bought air conditioners and fans. Wires, LAN cables, adapters, switches, everything,” he added.

After the event, the head of volunteers met with the organizers at FallOut Gaming to demand compensation. According to him, the breach of agreement, along with the logistics cost that he had to cover, should have been paid for by FallOut.

“I met them in person. I asked for 15,000 ringgit, to cover myself and 35 other volunteers,” he said. “But then they flat out ignored me. They wouldn’t even reply to my emails afterward.”

“I myself paid for hotel rooms for 35 people. I also covered their food and at times fuel to get to and from the event. It personally cost me over 7,000 ringgit,” he added. “I do not understand why our initial agreement was breached and we had to do jobs not included in the description.”

“There just no justice to us. Most of my members were under heavy fire from the audience. Some of us even endured not resting at all.”

Promise to teams

Even when teams were paid, strange contract loopholes were used to pay gaming organizations less than what they were owed.

Teng Dawei, manager for Team Redemption, told eSports by INQUIRER.net that while they did receive payment, they lost over $1,000 due to a dubious assertion of a contract stipulation.

Dawei said their contract to compete at the event outlined that the prize money to be paid out to Malaysian teams would be equivalent to the US dollar prize value converted to the Malaysian Ringgit (MYR) rate during the tournament. In March 2015, the foreign exchange rate was 3.3 MYR to $1.

The contract also stipulated that the payment would be done within three months after the tournament’s end.

For finishing in sixth place, Team Redemption were owed $6,718.74. They did not see their money completed until January 2016.

“We first received payment in July. The organizers had asked if they could pay in five installments. But when they paid, they still used the 3.3 MYR exchange rate,” Dawei said.

“The second payment was delayed, so the payment in September included the second and third payment,” he clarified.

Team Redemption received their full payment on January 28, 2016. By then, the exchange rate between the Malaysian ringgit and US dollar had improved, from 3.3 in March 2015 to 4.2 in Jan. 28, 2016.

Team Redemption received roughly ~22,700 ringgit from FallOut Gaming when they should have received 28,218 ringgit. They lost about 6,000 ringgit, or $1,428 from the exchange rate alone.

Invasion e-Sports suffered a similar fate, as they were slated to receive the same amount. Other teams in the tournament did not fare better.

According to sources close to the following organizations, the CIS teams–Na’Vi and Team Empire–had received in full payments from the Major All Stars Tournament. eSports by INQUIRER.net was unable to secure confirmation nor a statement as of press time.

When asked about FallOut Gaming’s reasoning for delaying payment, Dawei said they were told that it was a bank problem.

“Even when I threatened to go on Reddit [or] social media and pursue a lawsuit, they just said it will do no good. It was not going to speed up the process,” he said.

A close source and former GosuGamers writer told eSports by INQUIRER.net that upon contacting FallOut Gaming in July of 2015 regarding this same issue, the source was told not to publish a story, “or else they would no longer pay any of the teams.”

DELAYS. Day 1 of the MAS was delayed heavily due to technical issues at the event site. Poor communication forced fans to wait inside the venue in fear of missing out on the games.

Aftermath and legacy

Fans will remember the Malaysian All Star event for the complete shutdown of operations on the first day of the tournament, among many other failings of the event.

A total of only two games were played on the first day of the event, owing to a blown-out electrical system that caused a small fire that fried the backstage wiring.

Only the first game of Invasion e-Sports vs Na’Vi were shown onstage and commentated live. After a lengthy break, a replay of Team Empire vs Team Redemption’s Game 1 was shown onstage.

Fans and audiences stayed inside the event venue for some 6 hours, with other teams threatening to pull out entirely from the tournament. The event was salvaged thanks to the intervention of Kenchi Yap and the Mineski Events team from Malaysia.

eSports by INQUIRER.net reached out to FallOut Gaming but could not get a response in time for publication.

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