EPTAbout three months ago, Anderson Barrett (Athena), joined the public sMi channel and right away a few of our older members recognized and remembered him from our past interactions with him. This individual was a part of the team in BW for an extended period of time and used his relationship with the older and past members to wiggle his way back into their hearts and gain a spot on the team while I was in the middle of a leave of absence from managing sMi for my 8-5 job that had gotten really hectic. Anderson spent 8+ hours a day on SC2 playing games and interacting with the members of the team for a little over two months, so we all thought he was a good and trustworthy guy.
Eventually I received a phone call from one of my members telling me that they were getting a private investor to sponsor the team and they were going to be picking up a number of new players. Of course I was suspicious of this right away and told him not to do anything until I had a chance to talk to these two individuals. Before I ever really had a chance to do anything, promises were made and contracts were drawn up and signed by players.
The private investor was going by the name of Kelly Dawn and with his partner, Anderson Barrett, they were going to sponsor sMi and promised a lot of things. According to the contracts that these two individuals had written up, the players were promised an Alienware X51 desktop, any Razer headset, mouse, and keyboard of their choice, as well as a base salary depending on the player (albeit no salary would be given within the first 3.5 months due to it being an "evaluation period").
During a span of a few weeks, I had attempted to get into touch with this Kelly Dawn and find out as much information about the guy as possible. He was supposed to be a multimillionaire that sponsored a LoL team and ran his own businesses while working for Razer, yet couldn't give me a phone number and never had time to physically talk to me. These things just didn't add up.
While all of this is going on, myself and a number of the members on the team had been trying to get Anderson and Kelly to inform us when the gear would be ordered and shipped out. A number of times we were told that the gear had been ordered and then told the opposite because the players would be receiving a new keyboard from Razer that wasn't out yet called the Razer Blackwidow Illusion and they had to be built first before we would get anything. I expressed a number of times that I wanted a copy of all the gear ordered and a copy of the tracking numbers for the shipments. I was told and promised that they would provide these to me, but I never received them. At this point I was just playing along with everything trying to gather as much evidence against these people as possible.
Later on, I was informed that all of the gear would be shipped out to Anderson first so that he could then ship them to the players separately. Eventually, one day, about two weeks ago, Anderson claimed to have received all of the gear for the players. He told us all that he had their gear and would be shipping them out within the next two days. I asked him for a picture of the gear so that I could make a post on here to display everything we had received to alleviate any doubts about team and to calm the players down on the team. After I asked him for this, he sends me a picture of four plain brown boxes stacked on top of one another with a Dell box mixed in there. He tells me it contains the keyboards, mice and three Alienware X51 computers. In response, I tell him take the gear out of the boxes and place them together to look nice and take a picture. Of course he comes up with an excuse and then goes on to say he doesn't have time because he was going to go hang out with a friend at their place. In my head I was thinking, "Really? You can't take 5-10 minutes out of your time to display all of the gear and take a nice picture of it?". One day passes by and nothing. The second day, during the EES Team League qualifiers (and while I was at work) he tells us that he is leaving to go to a local UPS store to ship the items and would be back.
The Picture: http://f.cl.ly/items/1q1z1Y3S3w2a1A3L0Y1X/IMG_9060.jpg
+ Show Spoiler +
![[image loading]](http://f.cl.ly/items/1q1z1Y3S3w2a1A3L0Y1X/IMG_9060.jpg)
When he returned a number of the players were asking him why he didn't take a picture of the gear and other things because they were all suspicious of him at this point. He took it as them attacking and ganging up on him and he threw a hissy fit saying he didn't have time to take a picture and explained that he spent $400 of his own money to ship the items out. We then asked him where the tracking numbers for the shipments were and he responded with a story that was just brilliant. He tells us that the guy that was working there assisting him was new to the store and didn't know how to give tracking numbers for the shipments. He claimed that there was no one else there at the time. He went on to explain that he left the gear up there because the manager of the store was supposed to be there the next morning and would email Anderson the tracking numbers by 5 PM. The next day rolls around and nothing comes from Anderson. Then everyone starts to ask him about it and he freaks out again calling players names and being really rude.
Magically Kelly appears and wants to talk to the players and myself. He explains that everything was delayed because of him and to not blame Anderson. He stated that the players were being very disrespectful and didn't deserve the gear because of it. He tells me that he had Anderson go back to the UPS store and that Anderson received a refund and took all of the gear back to his home. Anderson was currently in possession of the gear. This is kind of a tangent, but Kelly would always appear at the most opportune times to back Anderson up and say pretty much exactly what Anderson had said within a timeframe of about 1-2 minutes. Anyways, I explain to him why everyone is acting the way they are and he's having none of it. I then mention the picture ordeal and he tells me that Anderson has every right to hang out with friends and go drinking whenever he wants. I responded with , "Sure, but in a situation like this where he knows the tension of the team is high and they're expecting a picture from him, why not take 5-10 minutes out to take a picture before heading out with your buddies?". He never responded to that.
Anderson approaches me the next day and informs me that Kelly told him that he and I should get together to take pictures of the gear (he lives in Frisco, TX which is about 15 minutes from where I live). Anderson and I arrange to meet during the upcoming weekend. Saturday rolls around and he tells me it is his grandmother's birthday and he is going to spend the day with her. As an alternative he tells me that we will definitely do it on Sunday and that he would call/text me around 1 PM the next day. Well, about 2 PM Sunday comes along and I don't hear anything from him at all. I get on Skype and see that he's telling the guys, in response to their asking if we had gotten together yet, "No. I haven't heard from Tim at all. He was supposed to call me." Of course I call him out on it and he blows it off with a, "Oh lol I thought you were going to call me. Sorry I'm busy right now and about to go to the hospital with my son. I'll call you when I'm on the way home and I'll pick up some beer for us." That never happened.
At one point right before all of the drama, JimRising approached Anderson and asked him if Kelly would pay for him to go to the Campus Party tournament. Anderson and Kelly agreed and as far as I knew had worked out all of the details with him via the help of Days translating. Then a few days later Anderson is yelling at Days saying that it’s his fault that JimRising can’t go to the tournament any more because he wasn’t online to translate something for him. When I saw the message I asked Anderson what had happened and he told me that it was taken care of with the help of Major translating in Days’ place. This obviously was not the case as Anderson came up with another excuse for not being able to send Jim to the tournament. He claimed that Jim didn’t sign the front and back of his contract so they couldn’t send him, when in fact Jim did sign all of the places he needed to on the contract.
Then about two more days pass and someone says something that starts all of this drama up again. However, I had done my homework and googled Anderson Barrett. Here is what I found:
1) http://mugshots.com/US-Counties/Texas/Collin-County-TX/Barrett-Steadman-Anderson-II.21781967.html
2) http://www.lookwhogotbusted.com/denton-county-tx/barrett-anderson-steadman-jr
Of course I was done with all of this by this time, however I wanted to get more evidence of him lying and to prove that what I had thought for a long time was true, Kelly Dawn doesn't exist.
I called the exact UPS location he told me he went to to ship the items and get his refund. The girl that answered the phone was extremely nice and helpful after I explained a bit of the situation to her and told her that I thought I was being lied to. I asked her if anyone that worked at that location was new and wouldn't know how to give out tracking numbers. She informs me that the newest member of their staff has been with them for at least 6 months and that all of the employees there know how to provide tracking numbers. She then searched her system for anyone called Anderson Barrett for the past month and returned no results. Furthermore, she searched through refunds given within the past 2 weeks and none of them were anywhere near the amount Anderson had claimed to had paid.
I then confronted Kelly and asked him plainly if he is employed by Razer. In an earlier conversation he had told me that he could get all of the Razer gear “for like $20 a piece”. He responded with:
[7/25/2013 8:36:59 PM] Tim "sMi.DirtyBirD" Bowen: Kelly
[7/25/2013 8:37:39 PM] Tim "sMi.DirtyBirD" Bowen: You never really answered my question before and I hate to bug you about it, but how are you getting all the gear for the price you get it at. You said you get it for like $20 a piece or something.
[7/25/2013 8:37:47 PM] Tim "sMi.DirtyBirD" Bowen: Do you work for Razer?
[7/25/2013 8:38:20 PM] Kelly Dawn: I didn't see that question. But yes. I do, I help and design programming on keyboards.
After I received his reply, I sent an email to Razer to confirm this mans employment. Here is the email chain with their response: + Show Spoiler +
Sponsorship Verification
Tim Bowen <redacted>
Jul 27 (4 days ago)
to sponsorships
Hey guys,
This isn't really a sponsorship verification as much as it is an employment verification. Right now there's a gentleman who's going by the name of Kelly Dawn and is "sponsoring" my team sMi in SC2. He's claiming a lot of things and we still have yet to receive our gear.
[7/13/2013 9:19:57 PM] Kelly Dawn: Ya when it's been sent ill receive one as well. The keyboards are being built. They are going to be testers for "illusion".
He's saying that we'll receive a new keyboard from Razer that isn't out yet called the Razer Blackwidow Illusion.
Furthermore, he's saying that our players will receive these things:
1.) Alienware X51 CPU - Not your problem here
2.) Razer mouse of choice
3.) Razer headset of choice
4.) Razer keyboard of choice
From the information I have, the guy is a Razer employee and can get these things for "like $20" a piece according to him.
Basically, I'm trying to verify that this is a real person and he actually does associate with Razer. Every time I try to get pictures of the equipment or meet up with his middle man to do anything in regards to the equipment, there's always an excuse.
If you could verify one way or the other that Kelly Dawn is or is not a Razer employee, I would really appreciate it.
Thanks,
Tim Bowen
Andrew Philippou <redacted>
Jul 27 (4 days ago)
to me, Xternal
Hi Tim,
We have no one that works at Razer by the name of Kelly Dawn. Can you please provide contact details for the individual claiming to work for Razer? Also can you please confirm how you found out about sponsorship verification that we offer here at Razer?
Thanks in advance
Best regards,
Andrew Philippou
Razer| Sombrero^
eSports Content & Marketing Specialist (Global)
From: Tim Bowen [mailto:redacted]
Sent: Saturday, 27 July, 2013 8:35 AM
To: Xternal - Sponsorship
Subject: Sponsorship Verification
______________________________________________________________________
This email has been scanned by the Symantec Email Security.cloud service.
For more information please visit http://www.symanteccloud.com
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
This email has been scanned by the Symantec Email Security.cloud service.
For more information please visit http://www.symanteccloud.com
______________________________________________________________________
Tim Bowen <redacted>
Jul 27 (4 days ago)
to Andrew
Andrew,
I appreciate the hasty reply. The only contact information I have for this person is, unfortunately, skype. His ID on there is: kelly.dawn9
His Skype profile has this information:
DOB: Wednesday, April 19, 1978
Age: 35
Location: Sacramento, United States
I just asked him again so that I could verify that it's coming from his mouth that he works for Razer and this is what he said:
[8:36:59 PM] Tim "sMi.DirtyBirD" Bowen: Kelly
[8:37:39 PM] Tim "sMi.DirtyBirD" Bowen: You never really answered my question before and I hate to bug you about it, but how are you getting all the gear for the price you get it at. You said you get it for like $20 a piece or something.
[8:37:47 PM] Tim "sMi.DirtyBirD" Bowen: Do you work for Razer?
[8:37:48 PM] Tim "sMi.DirtyBirD" Bowen: oO
[8:38:20 PM] Kelly Dawn: I didn't see that question. But yes. I do, I help and design programming on keyboards.
[8:39:55 PM] Tim "sMi.DirtyBirD" Bowen: Ah, I see.
Perhaps he's using a different name than his real one? I don't know. I doubt someone would go through the trouble of doing that though.
I found the email address for sponsorship verification via a link on team-empire's website: http://www.team-empire.org/news/764/?lang=en
Thank you,
Tim Bowen
Tim Bowen <redacted>
Jul 27 (4 days ago)
to Andrew
Andrew,
I was just told his email address: kelly.dawn9@live.com
Andrew Philippou
Jul 27 (4 days ago)
to me, Xternal
Hi Tim,
This individual might be trying to scam you, all Razer employees have an e-mail address like mine that end in “@razerzone.com”. To confirm that he is not using an alias you can ask him to send you an e-mail from his @razerzone.com account.
Thanks for the information regarding how you found out about the sponsorship verification.
Best regards,
Andrew Philippou
Razer| Sombrero^
eSports Content & Marketing Specialist (Global)
From: Tim Bowen [mailto:redacted]
Sent: Saturday, 27 July, 2013 9:48 AM
To: Andrew Philippou
Subject: Re: Sponsorship Verification
Tim Bowen <redacted>
Jul 27 (4 days ago)
to sponsorships
Hey guys,
This isn't really a sponsorship verification as much as it is an employment verification. Right now there's a gentleman who's going by the name of Kelly Dawn and is "sponsoring" my team sMi in SC2. He's claiming a lot of things and we still have yet to receive our gear.
[7/13/2013 9:19:57 PM] Kelly Dawn: Ya when it's been sent ill receive one as well. The keyboards are being built. They are going to be testers for "illusion".
He's saying that we'll receive a new keyboard from Razer that isn't out yet called the Razer Blackwidow Illusion.
Furthermore, he's saying that our players will receive these things:
1.) Alienware X51 CPU - Not your problem here
2.) Razer mouse of choice
3.) Razer headset of choice
4.) Razer keyboard of choice
From the information I have, the guy is a Razer employee and can get these things for "like $20" a piece according to him.
Basically, I'm trying to verify that this is a real person and he actually does associate with Razer. Every time I try to get pictures of the equipment or meet up with his middle man to do anything in regards to the equipment, there's always an excuse.
If you could verify one way or the other that Kelly Dawn is or is not a Razer employee, I would really appreciate it.
Thanks,
Tim Bowen
Andrew Philippou <redacted>
Jul 27 (4 days ago)
to me, Xternal
Hi Tim,
We have no one that works at Razer by the name of Kelly Dawn. Can you please provide contact details for the individual claiming to work for Razer? Also can you please confirm how you found out about sponsorship verification that we offer here at Razer?
Thanks in advance
Best regards,
Andrew Philippou
Razer| Sombrero^
eSports Content & Marketing Specialist (Global)
From: Tim Bowen [mailto:redacted]
Sent: Saturday, 27 July, 2013 8:35 AM
To: Xternal - Sponsorship
Subject: Sponsorship Verification
______________________________________________________________________
This email has been scanned by the Symantec Email Security.cloud service.
For more information please visit http://www.symanteccloud.com
______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
This email has been scanned by the Symantec Email Security.cloud service.
For more information please visit http://www.symanteccloud.com
______________________________________________________________________
Tim Bowen <redacted>
Jul 27 (4 days ago)
to Andrew
Andrew,
I appreciate the hasty reply. The only contact information I have for this person is, unfortunately, skype. His ID on there is: kelly.dawn9
His Skype profile has this information:
DOB: Wednesday, April 19, 1978
Age: 35
Location: Sacramento, United States
I just asked him again so that I could verify that it's coming from his mouth that he works for Razer and this is what he said:
[8:36:59 PM] Tim "sMi.DirtyBirD" Bowen: Kelly
[8:37:39 PM] Tim "sMi.DirtyBirD" Bowen: You never really answered my question before and I hate to bug you about it, but how are you getting all the gear for the price you get it at. You said you get it for like $20 a piece or something.
[8:37:47 PM] Tim "sMi.DirtyBirD" Bowen: Do you work for Razer?
[8:37:48 PM] Tim "sMi.DirtyBirD" Bowen: oO
[8:38:20 PM] Kelly Dawn: I didn't see that question. But yes. I do, I help and design programming on keyboards.
[8:39:55 PM] Tim "sMi.DirtyBirD" Bowen: Ah, I see.
Perhaps he's using a different name than his real one? I don't know. I doubt someone would go through the trouble of doing that though.
I found the email address for sponsorship verification via a link on team-empire's website: http://www.team-empire.org/news/764/?lang=en
Thank you,
Tim Bowen
Tim Bowen <redacted>
Jul 27 (4 days ago)
to Andrew
Andrew,
I was just told his email address: kelly.dawn9@live.com
Andrew Philippou
Jul 27 (4 days ago)
to me, Xternal
Hi Tim,
This individual might be trying to scam you, all Razer employees have an e-mail address like mine that end in “@razerzone.com”. To confirm that he is not using an alias you can ask him to send you an e-mail from his @razerzone.com account.
Thanks for the information regarding how you found out about the sponsorship verification.
Best regards,
Andrew Philippou
Razer| Sombrero^
eSports Content & Marketing Specialist (Global)
From: Tim Bowen [mailto:redacted]
Sent: Saturday, 27 July, 2013 9:48 AM
To: Andrew Philippou
Subject: Re: Sponsorship Verification
In response to this, I asked Kelly if he could send me an email from his Razer email address and he never responded to me.
I then came to the conclusion that Anderson and Kelly were one and the same. Kelly was always on a mobile device while Anderson was always on the computer program for Skype. And as I said, “Kelly” would jump in to save the day for Anderson and back him up at the most opportune times.
When I confronted Anderson about everything in the team skype chat, he didn't have any answers for Kelly and claimed that the money he received from Kelly was always under his wife's name, not his. And after giving us some of the same excuses he started to resort to personal insult and went on a rampage of telling everyone they were "shit" and "sucked." He was busted and he knew it. As a last resort, he said he would take a picture of the gear he had received. Ten minutes later he sends me a crappy picture of what looks like his own computer gear and not at all what the players were supposed to get:
http://f.cl.ly/items/3Y3b421S2j1a3c2C0239/photo.JPG
+ Show Spoiler +
![[image loading]](http://f.cl.ly/items/3Y3b421S2j1a3c2C0239/photo.JPG)
When this didn't suffice, he started to rage again and tried to tell people they were removed/kicked from the team when he never even had the power to do that in the first place. He told someone to "GTFO MY TEAM" and I responded with, "No, Anderson, you GTFO my team." We then removed him from the skype conversation and removed him from the team on SC2.
He then goes to [redacted at request] and tells him this:
+ Show Spoiler +
[3:55:24 PM] Anderson Barrett: they found out
[3:55:28 PM] Anderson Barrett: i was scamming them
[3:55:34 PM] Anderson Barrett: there is no investor lol i was trying to get money out of smi
[3:55:36 PM] Anderson Barrett: but they found out
[3:55:38 PM] Anderson Barrett: so the scam is over
[3:55:39 PM] Anderson Barrett:
[3:55:44 PM] Anderson Barrett: they caught me
[3:55:28 PM] Anderson Barrett: i was scamming them
[3:55:34 PM] Anderson Barrett: there is no investor lol i was trying to get money out of smi
[3:55:36 PM] Anderson Barrett: but they found out
[3:55:38 PM] Anderson Barrett: so the scam is over
[3:55:39 PM] Anderson Barrett:
[3:55:44 PM] Anderson Barrett: they caught me
And to all of the sMi players saying this:+ Show Spoiler +
[3:54:35 PM] Anderson Barrett: i know you are shit
[3:54:38 PM] Anderson Barrett: so what if i'm scamming smi
[3:57:26 PM] Milad: ????
[3:57:35 PM] Milad: Stop messaging me
[3:54:38 PM] Anderson Barrett: so what if i'm scamming smi
[3:57:26 PM] Milad: ????
[3:57:35 PM] Milad: Stop messaging me
That is the whole, entire, super long, dumb as can be story. If you ever come across this individual, please do not believe a word he says.
Please do not hold this against us. We trusted this individual due to his history with us and how he acted for a period of 3 months before this offer even came about. We took a leap of faith on a private personal investor and it turned out to be the worst case scenario it could have possibly been. Of course it sounded way too good to be true, but when it's someone you've known for years, you don't expect it to turn out this way.
Again, I apologize to everyone who was hurt by this in any way and hope that we can have your forgiveness. As an alternative, to try to make good with the players that are willing to give us a second chance, I'm in discussions right now with one of our owners and founders about he and myself personally sponsoring the team. We won't be able to offer near as much as what Anderson/Kelly were falsely offering, but if he's willing to help, we could do most of what the original offers were.
Hopefully we still have the support of the community in our long tread to recover our name. I’m sure many people will want to hate on us for all of this, but we did what we could, what I’m sure a lot of teams would have done, and took a chance. After finding out all the information that we now have, we took actions immediately to inform all parties involved and removed Anderson (Athena) from the team and apologized to the players.
We wish the players that will be leaving the best of luck and hope that they have great success in the future. We will always be rooting for you and hope that you don't think too badly of us.
PS: I'm sorry this is so long.
