What does the statement say?
It should be noted that the statement below has also been signed by the players on the CS2 roster: jkaem, Cai "CYPHER" Watson, Vladan "VLDN" Radević and nexa.
“Due to the latest news and developments inside the Bleed organisation, we have decided to take things publicly. After months of attempting to resolve our internal issues privately, we feel compelled to share what has transpired and is still ongoing. BLEED's upper management team has consistently ignored our concerns, leaving us no choice but to go public and cut all ties with them,” the statement opens, highlighting the reasons behind going public
“From the outset, we've grappled with delayed salary (up to four months at the time), buyout, bootcamp, and other payments. For reference, most of the players got their first salary in April even though they signed contracts in December. Before CQ for RMR bootcamp was organised and paid 50% by Kassad and the other 50% by players. Other organisations have confirmed that they have failed to pay buyouts for several players (still not paid to this day), threatening them with legal actions and going public with the information if they don’t pay, and about 60% of tournament prize money is still outstanding. Several times during the last 4-5 months the team refused to play officials and practice (weeks at the time) until some of the payments were made,” the statements go into great detail about the internal disputes under question.
“Multiple players from other divisions (Dota2, Valorant, and R6) reached out to us with similar concerns, not to mention employees regularly giving notices about breaches of contract and delayed salaries. Reputation got so damaged that players refused to even consider joining Bleed, knowing all these things, and relationships got broken to the point that all people were thinking about leaving ASAP,” the statement highlights that the problem extends beyond the CS2 division.
“These financial uncertainties have created significant stress, impacting our preparation, motivation, and performance. It’s crucial to highlight that even in 2024, supposed tier-1 esports organisations can struggle with basic obligations. We’re utterly flabbergasted by the lack of communication from BLEED's top management. They’ve repeatedly lied about payments, made empty promises, and kept us hoping things will get better. Most of the time we’ve been completely ignored by management—radio silence on their end. We’re currently consulting with our legal team to determine our next steps and move things forward. We plan to search for a new organisation that can offer us stability and meet the essential requirements for effectively managing a team,” the statement highlights how the situation and the management’s attitude towards it has affected the team as a whole.
“On top of everything, CEO has disappeared from the face of the earth, and nobody can find him. We will participate in the next two tournaments (RES Regional Champions and Thunderpick World Championship 2024) under the name UNPAID,” the statement concludes, making it clear that the roster has cut ties from the organization.
Now that the roster has gone public with the situation and the unfair practices they have been subjected to, the organization will have no choice but to respond soon enough.
