I also played vVv for their A-Team for a couple of months under (vVvReseT). The team was going great and of course I was excited to join(especially since I was playing with a former WC3 teammate and good friend, vVvMurDeR. I was never one of those people who were ever to get sponsored or go to a trip, but I do remember asking one manager if I end up going to an MLG(and paying out of my own pocket) if I can stay in the vVv room, which then I was told no I couldn't. I'm not posting this to bash vVv but it really saddens me because I saw players who were promise so many things either that be a trip to MLG, paid flight, or even a hotel room, yet got that taken away from them.
But the organization was very shady. I also remember being removed from the A-Team because of my lack of playing which I understand. However, I know that wasn't a real reason or anything because I was told if I start to play more than before then I could be on the team again. I began to practice very hard and trained 5-8 hours a day(more than my previous 2-4) but was still told I couldn't play. Stuff like this really puts you in a position to just scream and slap the management. I was even promised something small like a mouse and when I asked for it they said (go get one). I was also the one who almost streamed the most because I was told it would bring a lot of publicity but even then I wasn't given credit for it.
I don't know it was just a very shady organization. I am deeply sadden though that this was the way it had to end! I had some great times with Rocker, Murder, Toxsik, Glon, Titan, EzaLB, Daisuki, Ruff, and many others. Hope they all end up on good teams(if they still play)! Good luck boys!
Man, vVv already sounded like a shit team back when that SugarBear guy made a TL thread a year or two ago about their academy they were making where you were required to go to a major offline tournament per month at your expense lol. I don't think they ever had the slightest clue of what they were doing.
I'm sorry, but my impression over the years was that vVv was a family clan? I mainly remember a shit guild on WoW Ursin, a pretty bad (but populated) runescape clan and a few CS players with the tag.
Hi, I am Fearful and This is my statement(Former Aspire Player) I joined vVv a little under 2 years now and I was very excited to be a part of the organization. I loved the Loser's Bracket and Wednesday Night Starcraft. I loved all the focus we had in the Starcraft 2 community. It was really fun at the start.
But over the months, things started to crumble. We lost Time, Titan, and mainly our entire A team. vVv Stopped giving us attention as they were more focused on LoL since they were more passionate about it, which is understandable.
Over that time, I saw less and less activity going on where I wanted to raise activity, but no one really cared anymore. When BabyToss joined the organization, she had complete dedication to Starcraft 2 and vVv and even defended it time and time again when people bashed on us. She now knows why they were and is no longer blinded by it.
Anyways, she requested to start and Academy Team and got what she wanted. From there on out, we have grown and got a second Academy team. We were all excited and passionate individuals. The only problem was, the management had like no communication with us at all. We only had Salvor who tried to do everything possible to keep us satisfied.
When Nub joined vVv, I was excited because I thought that vVv was starting to take more interest in our division again, but I was wrong. Shortly after he joined, the dropped the entire A-Team. Nub was given broken promises(from what I have seen and heard) and that has upset all of us to the point where the entire Aspire players decided to leave. That then gave vVv almost no one in the Starcraft 2 division, so they dropped it.
They told BabyToss that they would give us a goodbye thread as we have all decided to leave, but instead made it seem like they just dropped us and gave the reason that Starcraft 2 was a dying e-Sport. I will not bash on vVv nor will I curse them.
I am unhappy with what they did and how they tried to fill the hole they dug for themselves, but I am glad that I got to meet the amazing people that were in this with me. They are what made vVv enjoyable for me and not the management. If it weren't for them, I would have left vVv a long time ago. That is what I have to say and I wish to all of us good luck in our future endeavors as we will go on to do big things.
This is something that I expected to happen with basically any clan not "sponsoring" the very very top players. If you are a middle tier national player in the US who has no realistic shot of placing well in any major event, why would any company sponsor you? And I dont mean that with any disrespect towards the players themselves, but I mean from the companies perspective, what exposure does a middle of the road US player get? And when I say middle of the road I mean something outside of top 5 or whatever (you choose the arbitrary metric). I mean, maybe its me being jaded, but I never for once believed that most teams would do a fraction of what they supposedly promised.
For a large company that has a vested interest in its players, paying several hundred dollars for a plane ticket is absolute chump change. To all players, if your team even gives a hint that a full plane ticket wouldnt be covered for a domestic US flight, you are in a poor relationship. I get that some people simply like to play the game and will take whatever they can get and thats fine if you understand the situation you are in. I dont know everyones situation, but I would guess theres maybe a handful of players in North America who are truly "sponsored".
If you arent placing high in events like MLG/IEM/WCG/WCS, etc regularly, chances are you arent really "sponsored" and need to be realistic regarding your situation.
The circlejerking in the vVv forum is hilarious and sad at the same time. I don't know why any ex vVv member would make it a point to differentiate between the shitty management and the community, since the community seems to be all to eager to ride the management's dick over their news post and proclaim that the SC2 division was dropped because they were bad and/or the game is dying.
It's always a shame when another team turns out to be a scam or at the very least incompetent and exploitative, but the nature of the eSports industry sadly allows for it. All aspiring progamers can do is to be vigilant and remember the names of guys who have fucked people over before. So remember Jerry Prochazka a.k.a. LordJerith, the owner of vVv, and stay away from that asshole.
Interesting stuff =/. I'm dead tired, so I apologize if this is incoherent
As a member of the old squad consisting of Time, Murder, Rigid and Myself (ruff came a little later <3), I should probably say a few things. To me, Jerry was rather forward of what he expected and truthfully gave us the conditions which were expected in order to earn a sponsorship. I can even remember the times at MLG where he would completely annihilate me for not performing well enough-- threatening to drop me, etc. (it was true, I could have really done well. Although, the one time I did well, I wasn't forced to catch a flight the day of at 6am and play until 1am into the 4th bracket. Ironically, the one time I showed up the day before, I only ended up losing to white-ra 2-1). At the time, he wanted to pull sponsorship completely and raze the sc2 division to the ground. But, he couldn't. He was stuck with us because all the more known players were taken, leaving him us.
So, he tried to build a foundation for vVv by making the most talented player the captain, Murder. Fast-forward a few months and life pulls him away for a little bit. Time decides to move on, Rigid is already gone (miss you!), and i'm pretty much the only one remaining. This is when Ruff and Hasu show up to fulfill the open roster spots in efforts to piece the team back together. But, no offense, Murder and Time were the stronger players at the time and helped put vvv on the map for early sc2.
This is about the time sponsorship actually hit its peak for vVv. All the events previous to the time ruff, hasu, and myself competed, I paid out of my pocket to attend (minus hotel). For I think 2-3 events, Jerry ended up paying the full sponsorship as promised from the contracts during this time. Sadly, we performed horribly (except ruff. lol at strifeco game). So, Rhode Island was pretty much the last major venture I think vVv ended up taking. Well, at least for the time I was there.
I don't know if this has shared any revelation of what not, but I thought it should at lest be written for whoever feels the need to read my shitty writing.
Personally, I like Jerry and Jordan. They are intelligent men who have helped me along my way through life and countless others who were on the team. It is odd when your boss talks to you more about personal issues/life than he does the business side.
As for the business side, I can understand the reasoning for Jerry's investment and the realism he displayed during my time with them. However, I do believe they missed an opportunity when Time/Murder/Myself were seriously considering a team house. The talent of murder and the freaking genius of Time was absurd. I think we could have made a strong team, especially with Glon/Rocker/Ruff/Hasu coming to the team a little later. We could have been scary... so much talent, what a waste.
I had 1 or 2 friends in the academy that played with our clan from time to time when my clan was still functioning. From what I gathered from them, being in vVv's academy was basically being a twitter pusher ect mixed with some starcraft. That always sounded pretty sad to me. With all of this stuff coming out in the open now, I'm glad I never threw any of my teammates their way. Also really sad to anyone who gets caught up in these kind of things. There are an amazing amount of opportunists and shady characters in our scene, from teams to tournament organizers ect. While it is sad to hear, and worse for the players that had to waste their time with it, it's great that this stuff comes to light. Hopefully the more bad press this kind of stuff gets, the higher the bar gets raised and the less we see of it.
obscure team trying to make it in a "vocation" that actually doesnt work. i mean cmon, did you think that short of being one of the top TOP TOP TOP not just "gm" players in the world would give you a career in this? i think the problem with esports is they want to be like sports. online games are not sports, less money, less absolute skill assessment, and with less money comes less qualified personal/teams/etc.
the best players play ladder. you dont need to be in a team to play ladder, you dont need to be in a team to meet good players and get better. you can without the help of ANYONE get into gm and once you have done that people will at least give u a chance to practice/discuss with etc. esports needs to just stop existing in the physical world and just do online tournys and get a dayjob. if a team has mad money through whatever means, dont get a teamhouse just send them to events and give em a uniform or whatever. you squander money on things that dont matter in an attempt to be more legitimate but in the end you just hurt yourselves and then players/the esport
God damn i cant stand people who post shit like "who cares?" and "vVv who?"
Seriously, it has nothing to do with whether they are known, how much skill they have or anything
Its the amount of time and dedication all these people were putting in, when they are told they will get something out of it, then they find out they are being lied to and taken advantage of.
Im truely sorry to hear so many people are effected by the horrible management that was behind your team. i hope the best for you guys, and well the vVv management? Sad to say buy i hope this bites you in your ass 10x over.
On January 30 2013 11:05 Sadist wrote: This is something that I expected to happen with basically any clan not "sponsoring" the very very top players. If you are a middle tier national player in the US who has no realistic shot of placing well in any major event, why would any company sponsor you? And I dont mean that with any disrespect towards the players themselves, but I mean from the companies perspective, what exposure does a middle of the road US player get? And when I say middle of the road I mean something outside of top 5 or whatever (you choose the arbitrary metric). I mean, maybe its me being jaded, but I never for once believed that most teams would do a fraction of what they supposedly promised.
For a large company that has a vested interest in its players, paying several hundred dollars for a plane ticket is absolute chump change. To all players, if your team even gives a hint that a full plane ticket wouldnt be covered for a domestic US flight, you are in a poor relationship. I get that some people simply like to play the game and will take whatever they can get and thats fine if you understand the situation you are in. I dont know everyones situation, but I would guess theres maybe a handful of players in North America who are truly "sponsored".
If you arent placing high in events like MLG/IEM/WCG/WCS, etc regularly, chances are you arent really "sponsored" and need to be realistic regarding your situation.
Highly agree. People have to be realistic.
Some guy spoke here about joining the team academy when he was mid masters. If that is so, then, had I played a few more games in 2011 every day to push up my points, I could have been next in line to get "sponsored".
But you and I know that I'm nowhere near good, and likewise, a mid master player may be "very good" on bnet but relatively awful in tournaments. I don't even know what people mean by "placing well" anymore in MLG. Top 3? Top 16? Top 50?
Let's take Desrow for example, who I think can be called a bona fide pro player. He's not simply edging into GM, he's consistently in GM, quite prominent, attends many NA tournaments. But let's not kid ourselves, he'll get steamrolled by any real MLG contender.
So what makes you think a company can shell out a half grand to fly their players here and there when short of a miracle, the best thing they'll ever achieve in a tournament is relative ignominy?
On January 30 2013 11:32 -vVvTitan- wrote: Interesting stuff =/. I'm dead tired, so I apologize if this is incoherent
As a member of the old squad consisting of Time, Murder, Rigid and Myself (ruff came a little later <3), I should probably say a few things. To me, Jerry was rather forward of what he expected and truthfully gave us the conditions which were expected in order to earn a sponsorship. I can even remember the times at MLG where he would completely annihilate me for not performing well enough-- threatening to drop me, etc. (it was true, I could have really done well. Although, the one time I did well, I wasn't forced to catch a flight the day of at 6am and play until 1am into the 4th bracket. Ironically, the one time I showed up the day before, I only ended up losing to white-ra 2-1). At the time, he wanted to pull sponsorship completely and raze the sc2 division to the ground. But, he couldn't. He was stuck with us because all the more known players were taken, leaving him us.
So, he tried to build a foundation for vVv by making the most talented player the captain, Murder. Fast-forward a few months and life pulls him away for a little bit. Time decides to move on, Rigid is already gone (miss you!), and i'm pretty much the only one remaining. This is when Ruff and Hasu show up to fulfill the open roster spots in efforts to piece the team back together. But, no offense, Murder and Time were the stronger players at the time and helped put vvv on the map for early sc2.
This is about the time sponsorship actually hit its peak for vVv. All the events previous to the time ruff, hasu, and myself competed, I paid out of my pocket to attend (minus hotel). For I think 2-3 events, Jerry ended up paying the full sponsorship as promised from the contracts during this time. Sadly, we performed horribly (except ruff. lol at strifeco game). So, Rhode Island was pretty much the last major venture I think vVv ended up taking. Well, at least for the time I was there.
I don't know if this has shared any revelation of what not, but I thought it should at lest be written for whoever feels the need to read my shitty writing.
Personally, I like Jerry and Jordan. They are intelligent men who have helped me along my way through life and countless others who were on the team. It is odd when your boss talks to you more about personal issues/life than he does the business side.
As for the business side, I can understand the reasoning for Jerry's investment and the realism he displayed during my time with them. However, I do believe they missed an opportunity when Time/Murder/Myself were seriously considering a team house. The talent of murder and the freaking genius of Time was absurd. I think we could have made a strong team, especially with Glon/Rocker/Ruff/Hasu coming to the team a little later. We could have been scary... so much talent, what a waste.
Totally agree with everything you said. We were definately a strong team for the time. We lost 3-4 to Prime and they didn't play bullshit players they sent out MKP vs Time in the Ace match when MKP was already an established fan favorite.
On January 30 2013 12:13 Marcus420 wrote: God damn i cant stand people who post shit like "who cares?" and "vVv who?"
Seriously, it has nothing to do with whether they are known, how much skill they have or anything
Its the amount of time and dedication all these people were putting in, when they are told they will get something out of it, then they find out they are being lied to and taken advantage of.
Im truely sorry to hear so many people are effected by the horrible management that was behind your team. i hope the best for you guys, and well the vVv management? Sad to say buy i hope this bites you in your ass 10x over.
I completely agree with this. The non-chalant attitude of people "who gives a fuck" etc really annoys me and essentially gives smaller organizations the leeway to get away with this kind of stuff. It's totally despicable and ethically wrong.
Glon - Good luck on GoSu! Titan - Miss you. Fearful - Keep working.
<3.
On January 30 2013 12:50 hiru wrote: Who cares about any of this? Why does every single piece of news in the SC community have to be made into drama?
Did you even read the thread? This community *amazes* me sometimes...and not in a good way.
EPT
