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It was our intent to make a statement in regards to Phoenix leaving Team Reign on Monday, but given today’s unexpected release of information I decided to quickly run through a list of facts. It’s not my intent to portray Phoenix in a negative light but it appears necessary to address a few points. Here is the summary of events regarding Phoenix; I will do my best to leave my personal feelings out of this.
Phoenix was promised transportation to the United States, plus full rent and living expenses in the Team Reign house. He was also to be given a small allowance once in the United States. All of these points were in his contract.
To clarify, Phoenix was not promised any salary beyond his small allowance. He was also never promised a trip to MLG Anaheim.
Phoenix refused to sign his contract, despite the rest of the team has signing theirs.
Phoenix also threatened to leave the team unless we met a few demands.* He demanded to attend MLG Anaheim. Once we discovered his desire to go to MLG Anaheim however, we told him we would try to make it work, despite the fact it wasn’t something we initially negotiated. In the end, it was not fiscally responsible for us to send him and he wouldn’t have been able to compete anyway, since he had no player pass. Additionally, Phoenix insisted he be brought to the US by August 1st, even though the team house would not be ready and he had no visa or a place to stay.
*As an aside, there is a budding organization that has been tampering with a few teams trying to snipe players under contract from both Reign and FXO. They went after Phoenix and told him not to sign his contract so that he could leave Team Reign.
For the past two months we have research how Phoenix would be able to stay in the United States for 9 months or longer through student visas and other visas. Unfortunately, Phoenix wanted no part of this and only wanted to come to the team if he could be flown back and forth to the US and Korea every 3 months (which would be a $1500 expense added on top of all other travel fees). We told him this was not financially feasible for us.
Phoenix and I talked for a few hours Wednesday night about the options for him to come to the United States. He said he did not want to stay in the US for longer than 3 months because he was expecting his military summons and did not want to become a fugitive in his own country. He said that it would be impossible for him to stay in the US for 9 months + at a time because he needed to return home often so he could go to the military if they called him.
I won’t pretend to know the details of Korean compulsory military service, but I am not going to force someone to come to the United States if they don't wish to.
I wanted desperately to work with Phoenix and told him we could bring him during the month of August and have him go to MLG Raleigh, but he did not consider that sufficient.
That summarizes most of the events of the past month.
I would like to make this clear: we completed literally everything that was in Phoenix’s contract, but Phoenix also never signed the contract and threatened to leave the entire time he was a part of the team unless we met more demands.
*Sidenote: Phoenix agreed to the terms of the contract, but then never signed it. This is where the trouble came.
We were past the negotiation phase.
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So negotiations didn`t work out. Big deal. I think you put him in too much a negative light.
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we completed literally everything that was in Phoenix’s contract, but Phoenix also never signed the contract and threatened to leave the entire time he was a part of the team unless we met more demands.
These kinds of players shouldnt be regarded as "professionals". Phoenix is an awesome player but this is behavior you'd expect from someone whos actually won or done something.
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Sounds like a pretty reasonable decision on Reign's part. Unfortunate that it got leaked prior to your official press release.
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On July 24 2011 02:48 aquanda wrote:
Sounds like a pretty reasonable decision on Reign's part. Unfortunate that it got leaked prior to your official press release.
^This. I support the decisions made by Reign.
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Thats sucks, Phoenix is so good. But sounds like you did everything you could have, and it just didn't work out.
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so phoenix burns you guys and you do the unprofessional thing by posting the dirt on TL
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On July 24 2011 02:48 TheAntZ wrote:Show nested quote +we completed literally everything that was in Phoenix’s contract, but Phoenix also never signed the contract and threatened to leave the entire time he was a part of the team unless we met more demands. These kinds of players shouldnt be regarded as "professionals". Phoenix is an awesome player but this is behavior you'd expect from someone whos actually won or done something.
Well he never signed the contract so he wasn`t officially tied to the team. They just can`t meet his expectations. How is that unprofessional?
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On July 24 2011 02:48 TheAntZ wrote:Show nested quote +we completed literally everything that was in Phoenix’s contract, but Phoenix also never signed the contract and threatened to leave the entire time he was a part of the team unless we met more demands. These kinds of players shouldnt be regarded as "professionals". Phoenix is an awesome player but this is behavior you'd expect from someone whos actually won or done something.
What are you going on about? No contract was signed, Phoenix was still in negotiation mode as every other person who has a brain would.
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Thanks for being clear on the whole situation. I appreciated the fact that you said that you had no plans to send him to Anaheim rather than play it off by saying "oh there were no more player passes available so we couldn't send him, otherwise we would." It's unfortunate to see he won't be on the team, but you guys look like a strong team nevertheless.
On July 24 2011 02:46 mango_destroyer wrote:
So negotiations didn`t work out. Big deal. I think you put him in too much a negative light.
I don't think Phoenix was put in a bad light. They just said his intentions. I personally don't think less of Phoenix for wanting to live his life in a specific way, and wanting to travel back to Korea. I'm not sure what you felt was negative, unless I missed something.
On July 24 2011 02:51 arbitrageur wrote:Show nested quote +On July 24 2011 02:48 TheAntZ wrote:we completed literally everything that was in Phoenix’s contract, but Phoenix also never signed the contract and threatened to leave the entire time he was a part of the team unless we met more demands. These kinds of players shouldnt be regarded as "professionals". Phoenix is an awesome player but this is behavior you'd expect from someone whos actually won or done something. What are you going on about? No contract was signed, Phoenix was negotiating as every other person who has a brain would.
Ya I agree with this... he wanted to get as much as he could from the offer, or go somewhere else. It seems like a smart decision. You wouldn't want to just sit back and take the first offer you are given.
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hmm i wonder who this budding organization is... "u know its drama but it sound reaaaal good"
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I think teams need to get this contractual stuff sorted out prior to making announcements to be honest, then from there, if they feel like releasing a player from their contract it's up to them.
It really just sounds like Phoenix was announced as a part of Reign before he signed a contract, and if this announcement hadn't been made until actual negotiations concluded, there would be much less, if any drama at all.
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On July 24 2011 02:50 Terranist wrote:
so phoenix burns you guys and you do the unprofessional thing by posting the dirt on TL
We never intended to post this, but the events that have occured(desrow outing this) forced our hand. We never wanted this to publicly reflect negatively on Phoenix but Desrow made it necessary, and i am quite upset it had to come to this.
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On July 24 2011 02:51 Chicane wrote:Thanks for being clear on the whole situation. I appreciated the fact that you said that you had no plans to send him to Anaheim rather than play it off by saying "oh there were no more player passes available so we couldn't send him, otherwise we would." It's unfortunate to see he won't be on the team, but you guys look like a strong team nevertheless. Show nested quote +On July 24 2011 02:46 mango_destroyer wrote:
So negotiations didn`t work out. Big deal. I think you put him in too much a negative light. I don't think Phoenix was put in a bad light. They just said his intentions. I personally don't think less of Phoenix for wanting to live his life in a specific way, and wanting to travel back to Korea. I'm not sure what you felt was negative, unless I missed something. Show nested quote +On July 24 2011 02:51 arbitrageur wrote:On July 24 2011 02:48 TheAntZ wrote:we completed literally everything that was in Phoenix’s contract, but Phoenix also never signed the contract and threatened to leave the entire time he was a part of the team unless we met more demands. These kinds of players shouldnt be regarded as "professionals". Phoenix is an awesome player but this is behavior you'd expect from someone whos actually won or done something. What are you going on about? No contract was signed, Phoenix was negotiating as every other person who has a brain would. Ya I agree with this... he wanted to get as much as he could from the offer, or go somewhere else. It seems like a smart decision. You wouldn't want to just sit back and take the first offer you are given.
Not sure the need to include specifics of all his demands was necessary, imo.
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On July 24 2011 02:48 TheAntZ wrote:Show nested quote +we completed literally everything that was in Phoenix’s contract, but Phoenix also never signed the contract and threatened to leave the entire time he was a part of the team unless we met more demands. These kinds of players shouldnt be regarded as "professionals". Phoenix is an awesome player but this is behavior you'd expect from someone whos actually won or done something.
Agreed. But oh wells.. RGN can pick up sheth now =]!!!!!!!!!!
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United States4796 Posts
On July 24 2011 02:46 mango_destroyer wrote:
So negotiations didn`t work out. Big deal. I think you put him in too much a negative light.
If it is indeed true that a player demanded things and threatened things I don't believe painting a character in a more positive light than this is possible.
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If he was so worried about his military service, why did he join the team in the first place? I don't see how anyone could find it okay to be sent back and forth every few months.
The contract isn't signed anyway (?), so you have no obligation to him to provide anything.
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On July 24 2011 02:50 Terranist wrote:
so phoenix burns you guys and you do the unprofessional thing by posting the dirt on TL
? wtf are you talking about?
(this shit isn't exactly a big deal)
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On July 24 2011 02:43 Mirhi wrote:
*As an aside, there is a budding organization that has been tampering with a few teams trying to snipe players under contract from both Reign and FXO. They went after Phoenix and told him not to sign his contract so that he could leave Team Reign.
Hmm thats actually really interesting. I wonder if EG was doing that- and in general who was trying to poach, and who they were trying to poach.
From what I've seen of Phoenix's stream, he doesn't seem like a bad guy- maybe he doesn't really understand how much trans-pacific costs are. Too bad for Reign and Phoenix.
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On July 24 2011 02:43 Mirhi wrote:
He said he did not want to stay in the US for longer than 3 months because he was expecting his military summons and did not want to become a fugitive in his own country. He said that it would be impossible for him to stay in the US for 9 months + at a time because he needed to return home often so he could go to the military if they called him
Not for anything, but this concern should have been the first thing brought up while negotiating his stay in the US. Because of such a small lack of understanding, both of them'z look like total jerkbags!
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EPT
