We are a new pro team, we are based in France. We started our recruitment in France by Quent and Nanaki former img players. Then we had our first international recruits were from Switzerland IMComingHome and Noblesse from korea to extend our team outside of the country. Once this was done and we had good feedback we started recently to recruits high level players from Korea with TAils and TOP. We hope that with those players we will reach a competitive level in major tournaments upcoming. (little teasing in 5 days a surprise is coming follow us )
For the funding question, we will organize with our partners an event. We are currently struggling with paper work, website(making it), logistic, etc. Once everything will be in order you will heard about our partners who are looking for the right moment to make the buzz
On September 25 2014 22:08 Invasion-eSport wrote: We are a new pro team, we are based in France. We started our recruitment in France by Quent and Nanaki former img players. Then we had our first international recruits were from Switzerland IMComingHome and Noblesse from korea to extend our team outside of the country. Once this was done and we had good feedback we started recently to recruits high level players from Korea with TAils and TOP. We hope that with those players we will reach a competitive level in major tournaments upcoming. (little teasing in 5 days a surprise is coming follow us )
It was announced that Noblesse was retired 'cause he wants to focus on Heroes of the Storm. Is he back? Some more infos?
I'm curious about what you said on Noblesse. He's been playing Heroes for Team No Limit. Aside from that, I'm happy for the team, pretty surprised that Top is even still around, but congrats to both parties
yes he has been streaming a lot and now he wants to get back on the scene as a pro gamer. We believe in him and we are sure that he will be back soon at a high level.
Kind of hard to get excited for this as it feels like another unknown team picking up desperate Korean players only to disband under curious cirstumstances shortly after.
What ever happened to innocent until proven guilty? If new teams want to recruit b-team koreans, all the more power to them. I will say the OP is lacking. No twitter, facebook, website etc. Gogo Top.
@Invasion-eSports you are still dodging the question about the fundamental element of your team ! Take in mind there were team Spectre not a long time ago... and it ended up horribly ! Just dont blow all your cash by singing players
On September 25 2014 23:03 TRaFFiC wrote: What ever happened to innocent until proven guilty? If new teams want to recruit b-team koreans, all the more power to them. I will say the OP is lacking. No twitter, facebook, website etc. Gogo Top.
I'm being skeptical, not accusing them of anything.
To be honest, unless your partners are really really big companies (like Air France level of big), why wait to make the buzz? Announcing the signing of well-known players without being clear on how you're funded will, sadly, mostly create a bad public image of you. Good job with the signings though, it would be really nice to see a new important european team, I just hope the next player is a Zerg !
I get a really bad feeling about this. Who are the sponsors? Where is the money coming from? How will you pay salaries + flights etc? Is this actually a professional team or a clan? Their website makes it sound like anyone can join:
To apply with us, you must:
Be Master or Top Diamond Have a microphone and be active on Teamspeak Read and respond regularly to forum topic
I hope you haven't misrepresented yourselves to Korean players who may not know better due to language barriers.
Watched his stream yesterday (Top). It was great except for having to mute the volume. Worst taste in music ever. Or to be more politically correct: least compatible taste in music with mine own.
Congrats to Top and the team, hope you guys find success.
As soon as a team goes from "Yay Koreans" to "How do we pay? It's a secret! We're fumbling with paperwork!" my B.S. meter goes off the charts. Good luck to TOP though.
On September 25 2014 22:08 Invasion-eSport wrote: We are a new pro team, we are based in France. We started our recruitment in France by Quent and Nanaki former img players. Then we had our first international recruits were from Switzerland IMComingHome and Noblesse from korea to extend our team outside of the country. Once this was done and we had good feedback we started recently to recruits high level players from Korea with TAils and TOP. We hope that with those players we will reach a competitive level in major tournaments upcoming. (little teasing in 5 days a surprise is coming follow us )
so basically you guys will be the next "newschool" team millenium :D
On September 26 2014 00:32 R1CH wrote: I get a really bad feeling about this. Who are the sponsors? Where is the money coming from? How will you pay salaries + flights etc? Is this actually a professional team or a clan? Their website makes it sound like anyone can join:
On September 25 2014 22:08 Invasion-eSport wrote: We are a new pro team, we are based in France. We started our recruitment in France by Quent and Nanaki former img players. Then we had our first international recruits were from Switzerland IMComingHome and Noblesse from korea to extend our team outside of the country. Once this was done and we had good feedback we started recently to recruits high level players from Korea with TAils and TOP. We hope that with those players we will reach a competitive level in major tournaments upcoming. (little teasing in 5 days a surprise is coming follow us )
img = imaginary gaming? Please give some more information about yourselves, I'd really like to know more about new foreign teams that are currently joining the scene.
On September 26 2014 00:32 R1CH wrote: I get a really bad feeling about this. Who are the sponsors? Where is the money coming from? How will you pay salaries + flights etc? Is this actually a professional team or a clan? Their website makes it sound like anyone can join:
Be Master or Top Diamond Have a microphone and be active on Teamspeak Read and respond regularly to forum topic
I hope you haven't misrepresented yourselves to Korean players who may not know better due to language barriers.
I have the same worries, though my word does not have the weight of a TL.net admin.
Then, seeing this article about how to execute a 4gate (which tbh is a bad tactic nowadays) is raising some doubts in me on how much in-depth game knowledge your team actually provides for koreans.
Your pictures of TOP are neither professional nor up-to-date, they rather look like coming from a quick skype chat like "yo we need picture of you". Not too convincing.
Then, your homepage is completely in french - how the heck is a korean supposed to read through contents?
Next up, on your facebook page, it says "IMComingHome GM zerg Smurfing with commentary" - which professional player would do that, backed up by the marketing channels of his team? Did you ever send one of your players to a Dreamhack, or IEM, or wherever?
It just looks so shady. I really want to believe that TOP found a decent team that enables him to have fun and find success. So please answer some questions! Is TOP going to play WCS EU in region lock (with all the consequences)? Is he staying in Korea? If so, at which house? Who are your sponsors? How do you raise money to actually send Tails or Top to tournaments?
On September 25 2014 22:33 TAMinator wrote: I forgot this guy even exists. He's still forever known as the guy that got destroyed by MVP
Hes been streaming a lot for a few months now.
He never actually stopped streaming consistently.
I checked out Invasion's website when Tails joined, and speaking personally, I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt until I have an actual reason not to. And if it means TOP plays in more events, then good for all of us!
On September 25 2014 22:33 TAMinator wrote: I forgot this guy even exists. He's still forever known as the guy that got destroyed by MVP
Hes been streaming a lot for a few months now.
He never actually stopped streaming consistently.
I checked out Invasion's website when Tails joined, and speaking personally, I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt until I have an actual reason not to. And if it means TOP plays in more events, then good for all of us!
So long as we don't have another LYGF I'll be happy.
As we said earlier we are a brand new team on the pro scene, as we can see there is a lot of question about our funding which we find it interesting people are more preoccupied by our funding than our project in the esport. So due to the high demand i'm going to answer (if there is more questions we will be happy to talk about it) we are currently and for the past 4 months funded by a family office. You are going to ask us what is their interest in investing in esport, there is first of all the taxes reason and there is also the fact that they found compatible one of the brand they are managing with esport. The team is created in 2 division one is the community made to have fun to meet nice people, the second part is the pro section where only pros are recruited. After long negotiations, we have reached an agreement to go to the next level and got the funds to be able to hire high quality players. We are also in talking to be able to make them come in Europe. Our structure is based as an organisation with 1 president and 5 board members. Those people take all the decisions concerning the pro roaster, recruitment, budget and sponsors. We are now 12 people working for this organisation (7 players and 5 staffs). The board and the staff is working for now 4 months (holidays were there so during summer not much work was done). Our designers are working on the logo, the new website, clothes, while others are taking care of the players (looking for their needs, tournaments, booking flights, accommodation, gears, etc) and one is responsible to write future articles and is responsible of the communication of the team. We opened a have a facebook page https://www.facebook.com/invasionesport and a twitter https://twitter.com/InvEsport.
On September 26 2014 01:22 Invasion-eSport wrote: As we said earlier we are a brand new team on the pro scene, as we can see there is a lot of question about our funding which we find it interesting people are more preoccupied by our funding than our project in the esport. So due to the high demand i'm going to answer (if there is more questions we will be happy to talk about it) we are currently and for the past 4 months funded by a family office. You are going to ask us what is their interest in investing in esport, there is first of all the taxes reason and there is also the fact that they found compatible one of the brand they are managing with esport. The team is created in 2 division one is the community made to have fun to meet nice people, the second part is the pro section where only pros are recruited. After long negotiations, we have reached an agreement to go to the next level and got the funds to be able to hire high quality players. We are also in talking to be able to make them come in Europe. Our structure is based as an organisation with 1 president and 5 board members. Those people take all the decisions concerning the pro roaster, recruitment, budget and sponsors. We are now 12 people working for this organisation (7 players and 5 staffs). The board and the staff is working for now 4 months (holidays were there so during summer not much work was done). Our designers are working on the logo, the new website, clothes, while others are taking care of the players (looking for their needs, tournaments, booking flights, accommodation, gears, etc) and one is responsible to write future articles and is responsible of the communication of the team. We opened a have a facebook page https://www.facebook.com/invasionesport and a twitter https://twitter.com/InvEsport.
Maybe revise that post and add it to the op? Clears some things up, but not too many. "family funded for tax reasons" - can you explain that a bit further?
I hope that he doesn't get screwed over.. wasn't long ago that he said that he didn't care for trying to go pro again so nice to see him making a return.
Interesting... this team is picking up most of these vet players that were always on B teams of their team... other than TOP, TOP had a good run in the beginning of WOL
On September 26 2014 01:22 Invasion-eSport wrote: As we said earlier we are a brand new team on the pro scene, as we can see there is a lot of question about our funding which we find it interesting people are more preoccupied by our funding than our project in the esport. So due to the high demand i'm going to answer (if there is more questions we will be happy to talk about it) we are currently and for the past 4 months funded by a family office. You are going to ask us what is their interest in investing in esport, there is first of all the taxes reason and there is also the fact that they found compatible one of the brand they are managing with esport. The team is created in 2 division one is the community made to have fun to meet nice people, the second part is the pro section where only pros are recruited. After long negotiations, we have reached an agreement to go to the next level and got the funds to be able to hire high quality players. We are also in talking to be able to make them come in Europe. Our structure is based as an organisation with 1 president and 5 board members. Those people take all the decisions concerning the pro roaster, recruitment, budget and sponsors. We are now 12 people working for this organisation (7 players and 5 staffs). The board and the staff is working for now 4 months (holidays were there so during summer not much work was done). Our designers are working on the logo, the new website, clothes, while others are taking care of the players (looking for their needs, tournaments, booking flights, accommodation, gears, etc) and one is responsible to write future articles and is responsible of the communication of the team. We opened a have a facebook page https://www.facebook.com/invasionesport and a twitter https://twitter.com/InvEsport.
Maybe revise that post and add it to the op? Clears some things up, but not too many. "family funded for tax reasons" - can you explain that a bit further?
tax avoidance? They don't want to pay so much taxes? They are "giving" money "away" so much that their tax % doesn't rise?
On September 26 2014 01:22 Invasion-eSport wrote: As we said earlier we are a brand new team on the pro scene, as we can see there is a lot of question about our funding which we find it interesting people are more preoccupied by our funding than our project in the esport. So due to the high demand i'm going to answer (if there is more questions we will be happy to talk about it) we are currently and for the past 4 months funded by a family office. You are going to ask us what is their interest in investing in esport, there is first of all the taxes reason and there is also the fact that they found compatible one of the brand they are managing with esport. The team is created in 2 division one is the community made to have fun to meet nice people, the second part is the pro section where only pros are recruited. After long negotiations, we have reached an agreement to go to the next level and got the funds to be able to hire high quality players. We are also in talking to be able to make them come in Europe. Our structure is based as an organisation with 1 president and 5 board members. Those people take all the decisions concerning the pro roaster, recruitment, budget and sponsors. We are now 12 people working for this organisation (7 players and 5 staffs). The board and the staff is working for now 4 months (holidays were there so during summer not much work was done). Our designers are working on the logo, the new website, clothes, while others are taking care of the players (looking for their needs, tournaments, booking flights, accommodation, gears, etc) and one is responsible to write future articles and is responsible of the communication of the team. We opened a have a facebook page https://www.facebook.com/invasionesport and a twitter https://twitter.com/InvEsport.
We care about your funding because we have seen so so many teams and organizations crash and burn in the past leaving the players high and dry along with no money and bills to pay.
On September 26 2014 01:22 Invasion-eSport wrote: As we said earlier we are a brand new team on the pro scene, as we can see there is a lot of question about our funding which we find it interesting people are more preoccupied by our funding than our project in the esport. So due to the high demand i'm going to answer (if there is more questions we will be happy to talk about it) we are currently and for the past 4 months funded by a family office. You are going to ask us what is their interest in investing in esport, there is first of all the taxes reason and there is also the fact that they found compatible one of the brand they are managing with esport. The team is created in 2 division one is the community made to have fun to meet nice people, the second part is the pro section where only pros are recruited. After long negotiations, we have reached an agreement to go to the next level and got the funds to be able to hire high quality players. We are also in talking to be able to make them come in Europe. Our structure is based as an organisation with 1 president and 5 board members. Those people take all the decisions concerning the pro roaster, recruitment, budget and sponsors. We are now 12 people working for this organisation (7 players and 5 staffs). The board and the staff is working for now 4 months (holidays were there so during summer not much work was done). Our designers are working on the logo, the new website, clothes, while others are taking care of the players (looking for their needs, tournaments, booking flights, accommodation, gears, etc) and one is responsible to write future articles and is responsible of the communication of the team. We opened a have a facebook page https://www.facebook.com/invasionesport and a twitter https://twitter.com/InvEsport.
Maybe revise that post and add it to the op? Clears some things up, but not too many. "family funded for tax reasons" - can you explain that a bit further?
Azubu style tax dodging? or wait, was that money laundering they were suspected of?
Is it even possible for a team to make a splash anymore in SC2? Are we so paranoid about new people coming in to involve themselves with the scene (which is kind of important, guys) that if someone dares to sign, and give money to, one of our oh-so-precious Korean gods (read as: Any Korean we have ever heard of), we will consistently call scam until they give us a photostat of their private accounting ledger? FFS, guys.
On September 26 2014 01:22 Invasion-eSport wrote: As we said earlier we are a brand new team on the pro scene, as we can see there is a lot of question about our funding which we find it interesting people are more preoccupied by our funding than our project in the esport. So due to the high demand i'm going to answer (if there is more questions we will be happy to talk about it) we are currently and for the past 4 months funded by a family office. You are going to ask us what is their interest in investing in esport, there is first of all the taxes reason and there is also the fact that they found compatible one of the brand they are managing with esport. The team is created in 2 division one is the community made to have fun to meet nice people, the second part is the pro section where only pros are recruited. After long negotiations, we have reached an agreement to go to the next level and got the funds to be able to hire high quality players. We are also in talking to be able to make them come in Europe. Our structure is based as an organisation with 1 president and 5 board members. Those people take all the decisions concerning the pro roaster, recruitment, budget and sponsors. We are now 12 people working for this organisation (7 players and 5 staffs). The board and the staff is working for now 4 months (holidays were there so during summer not much work was done). Our designers are working on the logo, the new website, clothes, while others are taking care of the players (looking for their needs, tournaments, booking flights, accommodation, gears, etc) and one is responsible to write future articles and is responsible of the communication of the team. We opened a have a facebook page https://www.facebook.com/invasionesport and a twitter https://twitter.com/InvEsport.
Well, given the current context I guess tax dodging makes sense, sadly. I wish we knew more about that family office though, because that's not a very transparent kind of sponsor. Also, if you followed what happened to quite a few teams and players in the foreign scene in the last year or so, I think you have to understand why everyone is concerned with how you're funded. I mean, the major foreign teams right now are all backed up with serious, strong and non-shady sponsors and management (Liquid, Axiom, Acer come to mind); all the teams funded by some kind of personal money all disappeared.
On September 26 2014 01:27 boxerfred wrote: Maybe revise that post and add it to the op? Clears some things up, but not too many. "family funded for tax reasons" - can you explain that a bit further?
tax avoidance? They don't want to pay so much taxes? They are "giving" money "away" so much that their tax % doesn't rise?
Yeah, I believe in France you can benefit from taxes reductions when you donate money to either family members or to some organisations. Not sure how it works precisely though, especially with an eSports organisation.
On September 26 2014 01:49 Circumstance wrote: Is it even possible for a team to make a splash anymore in SC2? Are we so paranoid about new people coming in to involve themselves with the scene (which is kind of important, guys) that if someone dares to sign, and give money to, one of our oh-so-precious Korean gods (read as: Any Korean we have ever heard of), we will consistently call scam until they give us a photostat of their private accounting ledger? FFS, guys.
No the issue is that no team that is established and strong in the scene right now flew out of the gates with a bunch of signings and big claims for merch ALL while saying "HEY WE STARTED 4 MONTHS AGO AND WE HAVE MONEY!"
A lot of the established esports brands in other games haven't transitioned to SC2 because its tough to enter the scene and its hard to make money.
When teams like dignitas aren't making signings, and teams like EG aren't signing these people, then how does a 4 month old company we've never heard of sign a bunch of players?
Throw in:
No outside sponsorships Lots of money to sign people, wanting to fly them to Europe but no website? Merch coming but the players aren't in any tournaments/leagues. The shift of WCS to a residency requirement and Tails/TOP not being top top top players for the Korean region.
None of it bodes well for the long term survivability of this team.
On September 26 2014 01:22 Invasion-eSport wrote: As we said earlier we are a brand new team on the pro scene, as we can see there is a lot of question about our funding which we find it interesting people are more preoccupied by our funding than our project in the esport. So due to the high demand i'm going to answer (if there is more questions we will be happy to talk about it) we are currently and for the past 4 months funded by a family office. You are going to ask us what is their interest in investing in esport, there is first of all the taxes reason and there is also the fact that they found compatible one of the brand they are managing with esport. The team is created in 2 division one is the community made to have fun to meet nice people, the second part is the pro section where only pros are recruited. After long negotiations, we have reached an agreement to go to the next level and got the funds to be able to hire high quality players. We are also in talking to be able to make them come in Europe. Our structure is based as an organisation with 1 president and 5 board members. Those people take all the decisions concerning the pro roaster, recruitment, budget and sponsors. We are now 12 people working for this organisation (7 players and 5 staffs). The board and the staff is working for now 4 months (holidays were there so during summer not much work was done). Our designers are working on the logo, the new website, clothes, while others are taking care of the players (looking for their needs, tournaments, booking flights, accommodation, gears, etc) and one is responsible to write future articles and is responsible of the communication of the team. We opened a have a facebook page https://www.facebook.com/invasionesport and a twitter https://twitter.com/InvEsport.
Well, given the current context I guess tax dodging makes sense, sadly. I wish we knew more about that family office though, because that's not a very transparent kind of sponsor. Also, if you followed what happened to quite a few teams and players in the foreign scene in the last year or so, I think you have to understand why everyone is concerned with how you're funded. I mean, the major foreign teams right now are all backed up with serious, strong and non-shady sponsors and management (Liquid, Axiom, Acer come to mind); all the teams funded by some kind of personal money all disappeared.
On September 26 2014 01:27 boxerfred wrote: Maybe revise that post and add it to the op? Clears some things up, but not too many. "family funded for tax reasons" - can you explain that a bit further?
tax avoidance? They don't want to pay so much taxes? They are "giving" money "away" so much that their tax % doesn't rise?
Yeah, I believe in France you can benefit from taxes reductions when you donate money to either family members or to some organisations. Not sure how it works precisely though, especially with an eSports organisation.
In the US it would depend on how the organization was registered with the government as a legal entity, can't be too far off in France as well. TB for example technically, all players for Axiom are contractors, rather than direct employees. This affords Axiom a certain amount of leeway with their responsibilities towards the players and obligations to them at least under US law. This seems slightly more under the table than that though.
On September 26 2014 01:22 Invasion-eSport wrote: As we said earlier we are a brand new team on the pro scene, as we can see there is a lot of question about our funding which we find it interesting people are more preoccupied by our funding than our project in the esport. So due to the high demand i'm going to answer (if there is more questions we will be happy to talk about it) we are currently and for the past 4 months funded by a family office. You are going to ask us what is their interest in investing in esport, there is first of all the taxes reason and there is also the fact that they found compatible one of the brand they are managing with esport. The team is created in 2 division one is the community made to have fun to meet nice people, the second part is the pro section where only pros are recruited. After long negotiations, we have reached an agreement to go to the next level and got the funds to be able to hire high quality players. We are also in talking to be able to make them come in Europe. Our structure is based as an organisation with 1 president and 5 board members. Those people take all the decisions concerning the pro roaster, recruitment, budget and sponsors. We are now 12 people working for this organisation (7 players and 5 staffs). The board and the staff is working for now 4 months (holidays were there so during summer not much work was done). Our designers are working on the logo, the new website, clothes, while others are taking care of the players (looking for their needs, tournaments, booking flights, accommodation, gears, etc) and one is responsible to write future articles and is responsible of the communication of the team. We opened a have a facebook page https://www.facebook.com/invasionesport and a twitter https://twitter.com/InvEsport.
Well, given the current context I guess tax dodging makes sense, sadly. I wish we knew more about that family office though, because that's not a very transparent kind of sponsor. Also, if you followed what happened to quite a few teams and players in the foreign scene in the last year or so, I think you have to understand why everyone is concerned with how you're funded. I mean, the major foreign teams right now are all backed up with serious, strong and non-shady sponsors and management (Liquid, Axiom, Acer come to mind); all the teams funded by some kind of personal money all disappeared.
On September 26 2014 01:39 TheBloodyDwarf wrote:
On September 26 2014 01:27 boxerfred wrote: Maybe revise that post and add it to the op? Clears some things up, but not too many. "family funded for tax reasons" - can you explain that a bit further?
tax avoidance? They don't want to pay so much taxes? They are "giving" money "away" so much that their tax % doesn't rise?
Yeah, I believe in France you can benefit from taxes reductions when you donate money to either family members or to some organisations. Not sure how it works precisely though, especially with an eSports organisation.
In the US it would depend on how the organization was registered with the government as a legal entity, can't be too far off in France as well. TB for example technically, all players for Axiom are contractors, rather than direct employees. This affords Axiom a certain amount of leeway with their responsibilities towards the players and obligations to them at least under US law. This seems slightly more under the table than that though.
It could be that it's a non-profit sports organization, legally.
On September 26 2014 01:22 Invasion-eSport wrote: As we said earlier we are a brand new team on the pro scene, as we can see there is a lot of question about our funding which we find it interesting people are more preoccupied by our funding than our project in the esport. So due to the high demand i'm going to answer (if there is more questions we will be happy to talk about it) we are currently and for the past 4 months funded by a family office. You are going to ask us what is their interest in investing in esport, there is first of all the taxes reason and there is also the fact that they found compatible one of the brand they are managing with esport. The team is created in 2 division one is the community made to have fun to meet nice people, the second part is the pro section where only pros are recruited. After long negotiations, we have reached an agreement to go to the next level and got the funds to be able to hire high quality players. We are also in talking to be able to make them come in Europe. Our structure is based as an organisation with 1 president and 5 board members. Those people take all the decisions concerning the pro roaster, recruitment, budget and sponsors. We are now 12 people working for this organisation (7 players and 5 staffs). The board and the staff is working for now 4 months (holidays were there so during summer not much work was done). Our designers are working on the logo, the new website, clothes, while others are taking care of the players (looking for their needs, tournaments, booking flights, accommodation, gears, etc) and one is responsible to write future articles and is responsible of the communication of the team. We opened a have a facebook page https://www.facebook.com/invasionesport and a twitter https://twitter.com/InvEsport.
The reason people are questioning your source of funding is the large number of scam teams and operations in the scene over the years that have folded owing players and staff large amounts of money that those people cannot afford to recoup via legal action. It isn't a slight against you at all, the fanbase simply wants you to bolster their confidence that you'll honour your promises and support TOP the way he deserves to be supported.
I can't really blame them, I mean, look at the list of organisations within esports in the last 4 or 5 years ALONE that have been caught cheating their players/staff: (And I know I'm missing a few more to boot, not to mention sponsors welching on deals with reputable teams, as was accused of LG with Team IM, TTeSports with Prime, and Intel with SlayerS)
Ministry Of Win ESGN eSahara (Absolute Legends) Werra Eclypsia Team ReIGN Team MJ Own3d (Still owes Destiny money) MYM MTw Virus Gaming Team Love Your Girlfriend Alloy eSports (And before that, they were KSG) NASL Team Apex 4Kings (They still owe DeMusliM a significant amount of money) Quantic Gaming (Twice!) AZUBU (Still operating but known to be funded by the VERY dubiously legitimate Sapinda investment group) vVv Gaming (Didn't cheat anyone to my knowledge, but gave so little support to their SC2 team that they left en-masse resulting in the closure of that division)
I think the community have earned the right to a little skepticism regards vague promises of funding from un-named or previously unknown enterprises.
That said, I don't see that as a reason to judge you before you've been given your fair chance - I just agree with the community's request for clarity regards your funding. Hopefully we're all making something of nothing, but it's better to be safe and ask the question first.
On September 26 2014 01:22 Invasion-eSport wrote: As we said earlier we are a brand new team on the pro scene, as we can see there is a lot of question about our funding which we find it interesting people are more preoccupied by our funding than our project in the esport. So due to the high demand i'm going to answer (if there is more questions we will be happy to talk about it) we are currently and for the past 4 months funded by a family office. You are going to ask us what is their interest in investing in esport, there is first of all the taxes reason and there is also the fact that they found compatible one of the brand they are managing with esport. The team is created in 2 division one is the community made to have fun to meet nice people, the second part is the pro section where only pros are recruited. After long negotiations, we have reached an agreement to go to the next level and got the funds to be able to hire high quality players. We are also in talking to be able to make them come in Europe. Our structure is based as an organisation with 1 president and 5 board members. Those people take all the decisions concerning the pro roaster, recruitment, budget and sponsors. We are now 12 people working for this organisation (7 players and 5 staffs). The board and the staff is working for now 4 months (holidays were there so during summer not much work was done). Our designers are working on the logo, the new website, clothes, while others are taking care of the players (looking for their needs, tournaments, booking flights, accommodation, gears, etc) and one is responsible to write future articles and is responsible of the communication of the team. We opened a have a facebook page https://www.facebook.com/invasionesport and a twitter https://twitter.com/InvEsport.
The reason people are questioning your source of funding is the large number of scam teams and operations in the scene over the years that have folded owing players and staff large amounts of money that those people cannot afford to recoup via legal action. It isn't a slight against you at all, the fanbase simply wants you to bolster their confidence that you'll honour your promises and support TOP the way he deserves to be supported.
I can't really blame them, I mean, look at the list of organisations within esports in the last 4 or 5 years ALONE that have been caught cheating their players/staff: (And I know I'm missing a few more to boot, not to mention sponsors welching on deals with reputable teams, as was accused of LG with Team IM, TTeSports with Prime, and Intel with SlayerS)
Ministry Of Win ESGN eSahara (Absolute Legends) Werra Eclypsia Team ReIGN Team MJ MYM MTw Team Love Your Girlfriend Alloy eSports (And before that, they were KSG) NASL Team Apex 4Kings (They still owe DeMusliM a significant amount of money) Quantic Gaming (Twice!) AZUBU (Still operating but known to be funded by the VERY dubiously legitimate Sapinda investment group) vVv Gaming (Didn't cheat anyone to my knowledge, but gave so little support to their SC2 team that they left en-masse resulting in the closure of that division)
I think the community have earned the right to a little skepticism regards vague promises of funding from un-named or previously unknown enterprises.
That said, I don't see that as a reason to judge you before you've been given your fair chance - I just agree with the community's request for clarity regards your funding. Hopefully we're all making something of nothing, but it's better to be safe and ask the question first.
This is a pretty good post. Is there a liquipedia page with a list and details dedicated to the teams and/or individuals who have done harm to the scene? I'm able to find each one individually...and there's the "teams" portal but I can't find a "Shady Organization"-type page (note: it doesn't have to be named that).
On September 26 2014 01:22 Invasion-eSport wrote: As we said earlier we are a brand new team on the pro scene, as we can see there is a lot of question about our funding which we find it interesting people are more preoccupied by our funding than our project in the esport. So due to the high demand i'm going to answer (if there is more questions we will be happy to talk about it) we are currently and for the past 4 months funded by a family office. You are going to ask us what is their interest in investing in esport, there is first of all the taxes reason and there is also the fact that they found compatible one of the brand they are managing with esport. The team is created in 2 division one is the community made to have fun to meet nice people, the second part is the pro section where only pros are recruited. After long negotiations, we have reached an agreement to go to the next level and got the funds to be able to hire high quality players. We are also in talking to be able to make them come in Europe. Our structure is based as an organisation with 1 president and 5 board members. Those people take all the decisions concerning the pro roaster, recruitment, budget and sponsors. We are now 12 people working for this organisation (7 players and 5 staffs). The board and the staff is working for now 4 months (holidays were there so during summer not much work was done). Our designers are working on the logo, the new website, clothes, while others are taking care of the players (looking for their needs, tournaments, booking flights, accommodation, gears, etc) and one is responsible to write future articles and is responsible of the communication of the team. We opened a have a facebook page https://www.facebook.com/invasionesport and a twitter https://twitter.com/InvEsport.
The reason people are questioning your source of funding is the large number of scam teams and operations in the scene over the years that have folded owing players and staff large amounts of money that those people cannot afford to recoup via legal action. It isn't a slight against you at all, the fanbase simply wants you to bolster their confidence that you'll honour your promises and support TOP the way he deserves to be supported.
I can't really blame them, I mean, look at the list of organisations within esports in the last 4 or 5 years ALONE that have been caught cheating their players/staff: (And I know I'm missing a few more to boot, not to mention sponsors welching on deals with reputable teams, as was accused of LG with Team IM, TTeSports with Prime, and Intel with SlayerS)
Ministry Of Win ESGN eSahara (Absolute Legends) Werra Eclypsia Team ReIGN Team MJ MYM MTw Team Love Your Girlfriend Alloy eSports (And before that, they were KSG) NASL Team Apex 4Kings (They still owe DeMusliM a significant amount of money) Quantic Gaming (Twice!) AZUBU (Still operating but known to be funded by the VERY dubiously legitimate Sapinda investment group) vVv Gaming (Didn't cheat anyone to my knowledge, but gave so little support to their SC2 team that they left en-masse resulting in the closure of that division)
I think the community have earned the right to a little skepticism regards vague promises of funding from un-named or previously unknown enterprises.
That said, I don't see that as a reason to judge you before you've been given your fair chance - I just agree with the community's request for clarity regards your funding. Hopefully we're all making something of nothing, but it's better to be safe and ask the question first.
This is a pretty good post. Is there a liquipedia page with a list and details dedicated to the teams and/or individuals who have done harm to the scene? I'm able to find each one individually...and there's the "teams" portal but I can't find a "Shady Organization"-type page (note: it doesn't have to be named that).
That said, I'm glad to see TOP back in action.
To be fair, NASL, Team MJ, and ReIGN weren't "shady" as such, they were just either not profitable enough to recoup investor funding in the case of NASL, never got off the ground but with the best of intentions in the case of Team MJ, and were attached to a sinking ship in the case of ReIGN.
Same net result - players and staff were out of pocket having done nothing wrong, but I won't ascribe malicious intent to them, they seemed to want to do the right thing, and they never lied to their staff or players, didn't run themselves into debt hoping for a miracle, just eventually had to say "I'm sorry, we can't afford to go on".
You could level the same accusations at ESL and some other organisations for their early prize money issues for example, but at the end of the day, everyone now knows ESL do good for the scene and have gotten past those problems. The difference is only that ESL is still around and was strong enough to survive long enough to fix those problems, whereas those other organisations were forced to fold.
On September 26 2014 01:22 Invasion-eSport wrote: As we said earlier we are a brand new team on the pro scene, as we can see there is a lot of question about our funding which we find it interesting people are more preoccupied by our funding than our project in the esport. So due to the high demand i'm going to answer (if there is more questions we will be happy to talk about it) we are currently and for the past 4 months funded by a family office. You are going to ask us what is their interest in investing in esport, there is first of all the taxes reason and there is also the fact that they found compatible one of the brand they are managing with esport. The team is created in 2 division one is the community made to have fun to meet nice people, the second part is the pro section where only pros are recruited. After long negotiations, we have reached an agreement to go to the next level and got the funds to be able to hire high quality players. We are also in talking to be able to make them come in Europe. Our structure is based as an organisation with 1 president and 5 board members. Those people take all the decisions concerning the pro roaster, recruitment, budget and sponsors. We are now 12 people working for this organisation (7 players and 5 staffs). The board and the staff is working for now 4 months (holidays were there so during summer not much work was done). Our designers are working on the logo, the new website, clothes, while others are taking care of the players (looking for their needs, tournaments, booking flights, accommodation, gears, etc) and one is responsible to write future articles and is responsible of the communication of the team. We opened a have a facebook page https://www.facebook.com/invasionesport and a twitter https://twitter.com/InvEsport.
Well, given the current context I guess tax dodging makes sense, sadly. I wish we knew more about that family office though, because that's not a very transparent kind of sponsor. Also, if you followed what happened to quite a few teams and players in the foreign scene in the last year or so, I think you have to understand why everyone is concerned with how you're funded. I mean, the major foreign teams right now are all backed up with serious, strong and non-shady sponsors and management (Liquid, Axiom, Acer come to mind); all the teams funded by some kind of personal money all disappeared.
On September 26 2014 01:39 TheBloodyDwarf wrote:
On September 26 2014 01:27 boxerfred wrote: Maybe revise that post and add it to the op? Clears some things up, but not too many. "family funded for tax reasons" - can you explain that a bit further?
tax avoidance? They don't want to pay so much taxes? They are "giving" money "away" so much that their tax % doesn't rise?
Yeah, I believe in France you can benefit from taxes reductions when you donate money to either family members or to some organisations. Not sure how it works precisely though, especially with an eSports organisation.
In the US it would depend on how the organization was registered with the government as a legal entity, can't be too far off in France as well. TB for example technically, all players for Axiom are contractors, rather than direct employees. This affords Axiom a certain amount of leeway with their responsibilities towards the players and obligations to them at least under US law. This seems slightly more under the table than that though.
It could be that it's a non-profit sports organization, legally.
That would be a new approach, I can't even think of how that would work.
I hope that top koreans will join some more safe (and famous) team. I mean, we all know who are TAiLS, Noblesse and TOP but they are not that huge koreans that everybody talks about everyday.
On September 26 2014 01:22 Invasion-eSport wrote: As we said earlier we are a brand new team on the pro scene, as we can see there is a lot of question about our funding which we find it interesting people are more preoccupied by our funding than our project in the esport. So due to the high demand i'm going to answer (if there is more questions we will be happy to talk about it) we are currently and for the past 4 months funded by a family office. You are going to ask us what is their interest in investing in esport, there is first of all the taxes reason and there is also the fact that they found compatible one of the brand they are managing with esport. The team is created in 2 division one is the community made to have fun to meet nice people, the second part is the pro section where only pros are recruited. After long negotiations, we have reached an agreement to go to the next level and got the funds to be able to hire high quality players. We are also in talking to be able to make them come in Europe. Our structure is based as an organisation with 1 president and 5 board members. Those people take all the decisions concerning the pro roaster, recruitment, budget and sponsors. We are now 12 people working for this organisation (7 players and 5 staffs). The board and the staff is working for now 4 months (holidays were there so during summer not much work was done). Our designers are working on the logo, the new website, clothes, while others are taking care of the players (looking for their needs, tournaments, booking flights, accommodation, gears, etc) and one is responsible to write future articles and is responsible of the communication of the team. We opened a have a facebook page https://www.facebook.com/invasionesport and a twitter https://twitter.com/InvEsport.
yeah, that doesn't looks shady at all. The reduce taxes don't make any sense, since the saving will allways be less than what you invested in the first place. You'll have to understand that it's basically the first time most of people heard about your team, and the shady sponsor-wants-to-be-anonymous just won't work anymore in the community. The family business has a brand compatible with esport? Ok, what brand is it ? No brand will sponsor anything without their name appearing somewhere, that's advertising 101. unless you answer clearly, you'll leave a terrible, terrible first impression
On September 26 2014 03:45 Cluster__ wrote: Not sure if anyone noticed this but regarding Invasion-- they're streaming now http://www.twitch.tv/invasionesport
They should stream a picture of their bank account balance
On September 26 2014 01:22 Invasion-eSport wrote: As we said earlier we are a brand new team on the pro scene, as we can see there is a lot of question about our funding which we find it interesting people are more preoccupied by our funding than our project in the esport. So due to the high demand i'm going to answer (if there is more questions we will be happy to talk about it) we are currently and for the past 4 months funded by a family office. You are going to ask us what is their interest in investing in esport, there is first of all the taxes reason and there is also the fact that they found compatible one of the brand they are managing with esport. The team is created in 2 division one is the community made to have fun to meet nice people, the second part is the pro section where only pros are recruited. After long negotiations, we have reached an agreement to go to the next level and got the funds to be able to hire high quality players. We are also in talking to be able to make them come in Europe. Our structure is based as an organisation with 1 president and 5 board members. Those people take all the decisions concerning the pro roaster, recruitment, budget and sponsors. We are now 12 people working for this organisation (7 players and 5 staffs). The board and the staff is working for now 4 months (holidays were there so during summer not much work was done). Our designers are working on the logo, the new website, clothes, while others are taking care of the players (looking for their needs, tournaments, booking flights, accommodation, gears, etc) and one is responsible to write future articles and is responsible of the communication of the team. We opened a have a facebook page https://www.facebook.com/invasionesport and a twitter https://twitter.com/InvEsport.
Maybe revise that post and add it to the op? Clears some things up, but not too many. "family funded for tax reasons" - can you explain that a bit further?
Azubu style tax dodging? or wait, was that money laundering they were suspected of?
Ya, that line is pretty sketchy since "family funded" has always been code for "no real backers" in the past.
Anyways, given how little Top / Noblelesse have been playing lately I don't think this is all that much risk for them anyways (not sure how active Tails has been / how long he's been off MVP).
On September 26 2014 01:22 Invasion-eSport wrote: As we said earlier we are a brand new team on the pro scene, as we can see there is a lot of question about our funding which we find it interesting people are more preoccupied by our funding than our project in the esport. So due to the high demand i'm going to answer (if there is more questions we will be happy to talk about it) we are currently and for the past 4 months funded by a family office. You are going to ask us what is their interest in investing in esport, there is first of all the taxes reason and there is also the fact that they found compatible one of the brand they are managing with esport. The team is created in 2 division one is the community made to have fun to meet nice people, the second part is the pro section where only pros are recruited. After long negotiations, we have reached an agreement to go to the next level and got the funds to be able to hire high quality players. We are also in talking to be able to make them come in Europe. Our structure is based as an organisation with 1 president and 5 board members. Those people take all the decisions concerning the pro roaster, recruitment, budget and sponsors. We are now 12 people working for this organisation (7 players and 5 staffs). The board and the staff is working for now 4 months (holidays were there so during summer not much work was done). Our designers are working on the logo, the new website, clothes, while others are taking care of the players (looking for their needs, tournaments, booking flights, accommodation, gears, etc) and one is responsible to write future articles and is responsible of the communication of the team. We opened a have a facebook page https://www.facebook.com/invasionesport and a twitter https://twitter.com/InvEsport.
The reason people are questioning your source of funding is the large number of scam teams and operations in the scene over the years that have folded owing players and staff large amounts of money that those people cannot afford to recoup via legal action. It isn't a slight against you at all, the fanbase simply wants you to bolster their confidence that you'll honour your promises and support TOP the way he deserves to be supported.
I can't really blame them, I mean, look at the list of organisations within esports in the last 4 or 5 years ALONE that have been caught cheating their players/staff: (And I know I'm missing a few more to boot, not to mention sponsors welching on deals with reputable teams, as was accused of LG with Team IM, TTeSports with Prime, and Intel with SlayerS)
Ministry Of Win ESGN eSahara (Absolute Legends) Werra Eclypsia Team ReIGN Team MJ Own3d (Still owes Destiny money) MYM MTw Team Love Your Girlfriend Alloy eSports (And before that, they were KSG) NASL Team Apex 4Kings (They still owe DeMusliM a significant amount of money) Quantic Gaming (Twice!) AZUBU (Still operating but known to be funded by the VERY dubiously legitimate Sapinda investment group) vVv Gaming (Didn't cheat anyone to my knowledge, but gave so little support to their SC2 team that they left en-masse resulting in the closure of that division)
I think the community have earned the right to a little skepticism regards vague promises of funding from un-named or previously unknown enterprises.
That said, I don't see that as a reason to judge you before you've been given your fair chance - I just agree with the community's request for clarity regards your funding. Hopefully we're all making something of nothing, but it's better to be safe and ask the question first.
Don't forget Virus Gaming. Maybe the first scam team? They still owe thousands of euros to Naama.
On September 26 2014 01:22 Invasion-eSport wrote: As we said earlier we are a brand new team on the pro scene, as we can see there is a lot of question about our funding which we find it interesting people are more preoccupied by our funding than our project in the esport. So due to the high demand i'm going to answer (if there is more questions we will be happy to talk about it) we are currently and for the past 4 months funded by a family office. You are going to ask us what is their interest in investing in esport, there is first of all the taxes reason and there is also the fact that they found compatible one of the brand they are managing with esport. The team is created in 2 division one is the community made to have fun to meet nice people, the second part is the pro section where only pros are recruited. After long negotiations, we have reached an agreement to go to the next level and got the funds to be able to hire high quality players. We are also in talking to be able to make them come in Europe. Our structure is based as an organisation with 1 president and 5 board members. Those people take all the decisions concerning the pro roaster, recruitment, budget and sponsors. We are now 12 people working for this organisation (7 players and 5 staffs). The board and the staff is working for now 4 months (holidays were there so during summer not much work was done). Our designers are working on the logo, the new website, clothes, while others are taking care of the players (looking for their needs, tournaments, booking flights, accommodation, gears, etc) and one is responsible to write future articles and is responsible of the communication of the team. We opened a have a facebook page https://www.facebook.com/invasionesport and a twitter https://twitter.com/InvEsport.
The reason people are questioning your source of funding is the large number of scam teams and operations in the scene over the years that have folded owing players and staff large amounts of money that those people cannot afford to recoup via legal action. It isn't a slight against you at all, the fanbase simply wants you to bolster their confidence that you'll honour your promises and support TOP the way he deserves to be supported.
I can't really blame them, I mean, look at the list of organisations within esports in the last 4 or 5 years ALONE that have been caught cheating their players/staff: (And I know I'm missing a few more to boot, not to mention sponsors welching on deals with reputable teams, as was accused of LG with Team IM, TTeSports with Prime, and Intel with SlayerS)
Ministry Of Win ESGN eSahara (Absolute Legends) Werra Eclypsia Team ReIGN Team MJ Own3d (Still owes Destiny money) MYM MTw Team Love Your Girlfriend Alloy eSports (And before that, they were KSG) NASL Team Apex 4Kings (They still owe DeMusliM a significant amount of money) Quantic Gaming (Twice!) AZUBU (Still operating but known to be funded by the VERY dubiously legitimate Sapinda investment group) vVv Gaming (Didn't cheat anyone to my knowledge, but gave so little support to their SC2 team that they left en-masse resulting in the closure of that division)
I think the community have earned the right to a little skepticism regards vague promises of funding from un-named or previously unknown enterprises.
That said, I don't see that as a reason to judge you before you've been given your fair chance - I just agree with the community's request for clarity regards your funding. Hopefully we're all making something of nothing, but it's better to be safe and ask the question first.
Don't forget Virus Gaming. Maybe the first scam team? They still owe thousands of euros to Naama.
Added.
There was also a team that died before it ever got started, run by some guy who got run outta town by people who knew him from the CoD scene. I want to say the name had something to do with Zombies or the undead, but I can't remember it. Any clues?
On September 26 2014 03:45 Cluster__ wrote: Not sure if anyone noticed this but regarding Invasion-- they're streaming now http://www.twitch.tv/invasionesport
They should stream a picture of their bank account balance
On September 26 2014 01:22 Invasion-eSport wrote: As we said earlier we are a brand new team on the pro scene, as we can see there is a lot of question about our funding which we find it interesting people are more preoccupied by our funding than our project in the esport. So due to the high demand i'm going to answer (if there is more questions we will be happy to talk about it) we are currently and for the past 4 months funded by a family office. You are going to ask us what is their interest in investing in esport, there is first of all the taxes reason and there is also the fact that they found compatible one of the brand they are managing with esport. The team is created in 2 division one is the community made to have fun to meet nice people, the second part is the pro section where only pros are recruited. After long negotiations, we have reached an agreement to go to the next level and got the funds to be able to hire high quality players. We are also in talking to be able to make them come in Europe. Our structure is based as an organisation with 1 president and 5 board members. Those people take all the decisions concerning the pro roaster, recruitment, budget and sponsors. We are now 12 people working for this organisation (7 players and 5 staffs). The board and the staff is working for now 4 months (holidays were there so during summer not much work was done). Our designers are working on the logo, the new website, clothes, while others are taking care of the players (looking for their needs, tournaments, booking flights, accommodation, gears, etc) and one is responsible to write future articles and is responsible of the communication of the team. We opened a have a facebook page https://www.facebook.com/invasionesport and a twitter https://twitter.com/InvEsport.
Maybe revise that post and add it to the op? Clears some things up, but not too many. "family funded for tax reasons" - can you explain that a bit further?
Azubu style tax dodging? or wait, was that money laundering they were suspected of?
Ya, that line is pretty sketchy since "family funded" has always been code for "no real backers" in the past.
Anyways, given how little Top / Noblelesse have been playing lately I don't think this is all that much risk for them anyways (not sure how active Tails has been / how long he's been off MVP).
They've been around long enough, I hope they did a bit of shopping about with this. For all we know they could be on the team as a, "hey look who we have on our roster," kind of thing. Start up teams always come with their own caveats, especially when they are claiming to be paying players.
Oh boy... another weird french team. It's been a while. Virus, Mistral, Alt-Tab, e-Sahara, Eclypsia... It's sad that the smaller legit hardworking teams (aAa, Nuit Blanche, Punchline) don't get the funds and recognition they deserve after years and years of work. It's unfair that the teams from the first group are better known than the ones from the latter.
And now another one... I mean, I don't accuse Invasion e-Sport of anything but the way they enter the SC2 scene is ridiculously similar to what did Eclypsia, LYGF, apex and teams like that. And that didn't end well as we all know. Plus, the recruitments seem soooo random. Noblesse, TAiLS and TOP ? They're probably cheap but good luck to attract sponsors with these kind of players.
I'm tired of shady teams that appear from nowhere and I'm angrier every time there's a new one.
This is probably really shady and not going to turn out well. These players are not good enough to win big tournaments and yet good enough to deserve decent contracts, and i dont see this team paying those without sponsors or anything or that form. Probably a rip-off
On September 26 2014 04:27 Boucot wrote: Oh boy... another weird french team. It's been a while. Virus, Mistral, Alt-Tab, e-Sahara, Eclypsia... It's sad that the smaller legit hardworking teams (aAa, Nuit Blanche, Punchline) don't get the funds and recognition they deserve after years and years of work. It's unfair that the teams from the first group are better known than the ones from the latter.
And now another one... I mean, I don't accuse Invasion e-Sport of anything but the way they enter the SC2 scene is ridiculously similar to what did Eclypsia, LYGF, apex and teams like that. And that didn't end well as we all know. Plus, the recruitments seem soooo random. Noblesse, TAiLS and TOP ? They're probably cheap but good luck to attract sponsors with these kind of players.
I'm tired of shady teams that appear from nowhere and I'm angrier every time there's a new one.
On September 26 2014 01:22 Invasion-eSport wrote: As we said earlier we are a brand new team on the pro scene, as we can see there is a lot of question about our funding which we find it interesting people are more preoccupied by our funding than our project in the esport. So due to the high demand i'm going to answer (if there is more questions we will be happy to talk about it) we are currently and for the past 4 months funded by a family office. You are going to ask us what is their interest in investing in esport, there is first of all the taxes reason and there is also the fact that they found compatible one of the brand they are managing with esport. The team is created in 2 division one is the community made to have fun to meet nice people, the second part is the pro section where only pros are recruited. After long negotiations, we have reached an agreement to go to the next level and got the funds to be able to hire high quality players. We are also in talking to be able to make them come in Europe. Our structure is based as an organisation with 1 president and 5 board members. Those people take all the decisions concerning the pro roaster, recruitment, budget and sponsors. We are now 12 people working for this organisation (7 players and 5 staffs). The board and the staff is working for now 4 months (holidays were there so during summer not much work was done). Our designers are working on the logo, the new website, clothes, while others are taking care of the players (looking for their needs, tournaments, booking flights, accommodation, gears, etc) and one is responsible to write future articles and is responsible of the communication of the team. We opened a have a facebook page https://www.facebook.com/invasionesport and a twitter https://twitter.com/InvEsport.
Maybe revise that post and add it to the op? Clears some things up, but not too many. "family funded for tax reasons" - can you explain that a bit further?
Azubu style tax dodging? or wait, was that money laundering they were suspected of?
Ya, that line is pretty sketchy since "family funded" has always been code for "no real backers" in the past.
Deimos didn't have real backers throughout its entire existence, but it was managed properly, didn't scam anyone, and made great content for the community before it disbanded under completely understandable circumstances. Invasion appears to be pretty much the same thing, just in French.
On September 26 2014 01:22 Invasion-eSport wrote: As we said earlier we are a brand new team on the pro scene, as we can see there is a lot of question about our funding which we find it interesting people are more preoccupied by our funding than our project in the esport. So due to the high demand i'm going to answer (if there is more questions we will be happy to talk about it) we are currently and for the past 4 months funded by a family office. You are going to ask us what is their interest in investing in esport, there is first of all the taxes reason and there is also the fact that they found compatible one of the brand they are managing with esport. The team is created in 2 division one is the community made to have fun to meet nice people, the second part is the pro section where only pros are recruited. After long negotiations, we have reached an agreement to go to the next level and got the funds to be able to hire high quality players. We are also in talking to be able to make them come in Europe. Our structure is based as an organisation with 1 president and 5 board members. Those people take all the decisions concerning the pro roaster, recruitment, budget and sponsors. We are now 12 people working for this organisation (7 players and 5 staffs). The board and the staff is working for now 4 months (holidays were there so during summer not much work was done). Our designers are working on the logo, the new website, clothes, while others are taking care of the players (looking for their needs, tournaments, booking flights, accommodation, gears, etc) and one is responsible to write future articles and is responsible of the communication of the team. We opened a have a facebook page https://www.facebook.com/invasionesport and a twitter https://twitter.com/InvEsport.
Maybe revise that post and add it to the op? Clears some things up, but not too many. "family funded for tax reasons" - can you explain that a bit further?
Azubu style tax dodging? or wait, was that money laundering they were suspected of?
Ya, that line is pretty sketchy since "family funded" has always been code for "no real backers" in the past.
Deimos didn't have real backers throughout its entire existence, but it was managed properly, didn't scam anyone, and made great content for the community before it disbanded under completely understandable circumstances. Invasion appears to be pretty much the same thing, just in French.
I think most people are perfectly happy to hope that's the case. Like I said, people just want to be sure, given how history has treated this kind of startup.
I'd like to be optimistic, but considering past experiences I wouldn't bet my life on this team lasting more than 6 months. I would love to be wrong though. Also, go TOP!
Who joins a team like this that Noone has heard of and doesnt have it's website or mgmt in place yet? After the other fiascos recently? And since when is top alive ? So many questions..
On September 26 2014 01:22 Invasion-eSport wrote: As we said earlier we are a brand new team on the pro scene, as we can see there is a lot of question about our funding which we find it interesting people are more preoccupied by our funding than our project in the esport. So due to the high demand i'm going to answer (if there is more questions we will be happy to talk about it) we are currently and for the past 4 months funded by a family office. You are going to ask us what is their interest in investing in esport, there is first of all the taxes reason and there is also the fact that they found compatible one of the brand they are managing with esport. The team is created in 2 division one is the community made to have fun to meet nice people, the second part is the pro section where only pros are recruited. After long negotiations, we have reached an agreement to go to the next level and got the funds to be able to hire high quality players. We are also in talking to be able to make them come in Europe. Our structure is based as an organisation with 1 president and 5 board members. Those people take all the decisions concerning the pro roaster, recruitment, budget and sponsors. We are now 12 people working for this organisation (7 players and 5 staffs). The board and the staff is working for now 4 months (holidays were there so during summer not much work was done). Our designers are working on the logo, the new website, clothes, while others are taking care of the players (looking for their needs, tournaments, booking flights, accommodation, gears, etc) and one is responsible to write future articles and is responsible of the communication of the team. We opened a have a facebook page https://www.facebook.com/invasionesport and a twitter https://twitter.com/InvEsport.
We don't want to know your company structure, business plan, staff, or inner workings.
We want to know that the investors are not "private investors that wish to stay anonymous". In the past, we've witnessed many players get burned by teams whose private investors/owners have simply vanished without a goodbye, or teams mismanaged into the grave.
You must understand the ecosystem of this industry. We do not have a big organization monitoring the inner workings of the teams and players (i.e. NHL and NHLPA), so the community and fans need to do this ourselves.
When we hear of another team popping under the premise of a rich private investor that wants to invest into e-sports, but wishes to stay anonymous, well we put our guard up. The last thing we want in this budding industry is another team screwing over the progamers we have grown to love and appreciate.
This is a unique situation. We, the fans, have to be the watch dogs to ensure the SC2 community thrives. If we are not cautious, another shark will come and bite a chunk off, hoping to feed off this young industry.
What we want to know is, who are your investors? The brand you mentioned, in what way does it relate to this industry?
What are your long term goals? How large of a team are you willing to create? Are you going to invest into non-Korean players?
What specifically are the "tax reasons"? To be frank, I can interpret that as "money laundering".
I don't care so much how the company is run, I care about how legitimate are you, your team, and your investors.
On September 26 2014 01:22 Invasion-eSport wrote: As we said earlier we are a brand new team on the pro scene, as we can see there is a lot of question about our funding which we find it interesting people are more preoccupied by our funding than our project in the esport. So due to the high demand i'm going to answer (if there is more questions we will be happy to talk about it) we are currently and for the past 4 months funded by a family office. You are going to ask us what is their interest in investing in esport, there is first of all the taxes reason and there is also the fact that they found compatible one of the brand they are managing with esport. The team is created in 2 division one is the community made to have fun to meet nice people, the second part is the pro section where only pros are recruited. After long negotiations, we have reached an agreement to go to the next level and got the funds to be able to hire high quality players. We are also in talking to be able to make them come in Europe. Our structure is based as an organisation with 1 president and 5 board members. Those people take all the decisions concerning the pro roaster, recruitment, budget and sponsors. We are now 12 people working for this organisation (7 players and 5 staffs). The board and the staff is working for now 4 months (holidays were there so during summer not much work was done). Our designers are working on the logo, the new website, clothes, while others are taking care of the players (looking for their needs, tournaments, booking flights, accommodation, gears, etc) and one is responsible to write future articles and is responsible of the communication of the team. We opened a have a facebook page https://www.facebook.com/invasionesport and a twitter https://twitter.com/InvEsport.
Maybe revise that post and add it to the op? Clears some things up, but not too many. "family funded for tax reasons" - can you explain that a bit further?
Azubu style tax dodging? or wait, was that money laundering they were suspected of?
Ya, that line is pretty sketchy since "family funded" has always been code for "no real backers" in the past.
Deimos didn't have real backers throughout its entire existence, but it was managed properly, didn't scam anyone, and made great content for the community before it disbanded under completely understandable circumstances. Invasion appears to be pretty much the same thing, just in French.
That has been a bit more true of the NA scene in general, the teams that we have that are based on the NA server are a bit more, at least seemingly so, organically grown. I can't think of an example off the cuff of an NA team, I say team to imply sponsored and would use clan otherwise, that just sprouted up and started recruiting Koreans like other European organizations have.
A french organization recruiting big players out of nowhere...that never goes wrong am i right ?
Edit : My bad they seem to have a solid community background. Hopefully they do well and dont tarnish the already bleak reputation of french teams T__T
On September 26 2014 06:36 Marou wrote: A french organization recruiting big players out of nowhere...that never goes wrong am i right ?
Why don't we wait and see how they do before we pull out the guns. Haha, be supportive they haven't done or said anything that should draw negative feedback. As long as players are being paid through, and the team is a positive source of energy then all we should do is be supportive of the fact there is a new upcoming team giving deserving players a backing.
While I am rather concerned for the Koreans, as everyone else is, I do find it funny that they're immediately thought of as being the victim in this case. From my knowledge, there are a TON of B team/retired korean players who join these foreign teams for a short time before moving to another team just to absorb some money. In fact, as it has been pointed out, Noblesse has been on like 3 different teams in the past year doing just this... same with sC and others..
Honestly, I'm not even sure if it's worth being worried over their "safety" due to the fact that they'll probably never be playing seriously, never be attempting to do anything in relation to e-sports and more than likely be doing as little "work" for money as possible. If anything, it's terrible for the team who is trying to jump start their organization by investing in them to play again without the possible knowledge this is what the players are looking to do.
That's just my experience with them, and nonetheless, they're really nice doods but well... Unless this team is going to give them serious funding to travel/live as I think I saw them say... I wouldn't be too surprised to just see the korean's move teams again/disappear for a while... Certainly, this isn't the same as scamming but I do not think it is them being very honest especially considering they have a lot of fans who want to actually see them come back and try ~
Also, in relation to that post with all the scam teams.. how did you forget Blight gaming and blackfoger? loooooooooool I will never forget the hilarious threads that were created here and all the people that thought they were legit for a time. I still couldn't believe All4One joined up with them and then go figure what happened haha
Does anyone have the means to actually CONTACT Tails/TOP? There has to be someone (hint TL admins) with contacts enough to get in contact with them to see what they have been promised. Hell, give me a means to contact them and I will check with them (even with my limited korean skills). Someone has to make sure that they haven't been promised ridiculously unrealistic things or misunderstood this French team or how much of a risk this is. I really really hope the best, but simply asking TOP what he has been promised could hint towards whether the Koreans are being misled or whether they actually haven't been promised much and this is actually legit.
On September 26 2014 01:22 Invasion-eSport wrote: As we said earlier we are a brand new team on the pro scene, as we can see there is a lot of question about our funding which we find it interesting people are more preoccupied by our funding than our project in the esport. So due to the high demand i'm going to answer (if there is more questions we will be happy to talk about it) we are currently and for the past 4 months funded by a family office. You are going to ask us what is their interest in investing in esport, there is first of all the taxes reason and there is also the fact that they found compatible one of the brand they are managing with esport. The team is created in 2 division one is the community made to have fun to meet nice people, the second part is the pro section where only pros are recruited. After long negotiations, we have reached an agreement to go to the next level and got the funds to be able to hire high quality players. We are also in talking to be able to make them come in Europe. Our structure is based as an organisation with 1 president and 5 board members. Those people take all the decisions concerning the pro roaster, recruitment, budget and sponsors. We are now 12 people working for this organisation (7 players and 5 staffs). The board and the staff is working for now 4 months (holidays were there so during summer not much work was done). Our designers are working on the logo, the new website, clothes, while others are taking care of the players (looking for their needs, tournaments, booking flights, accommodation, gears, etc) and one is responsible to write future articles and is responsible of the communication of the team. We opened a have a facebook page https://www.facebook.com/invasionesport and a twitter https://twitter.com/InvEsport.
Maybe revise that post and add it to the op? Clears some things up, but not too many. "family funded for tax reasons" - can you explain that a bit further?
Azubu style tax dodging? or wait, was that money laundering they were suspected of?
Ya, that line is pretty sketchy since "family funded" has always been code for "no real backers" in the past.
Anyways, given how little Top / Noblelesse have been playing lately I don't think this is all that much risk for them anyways (not sure how active Tails has been / how long he's been off MVP).
They've been around long enough, I hope they did a bit of shopping about with this. For all we know they could be on the team as a, "hey look who we have on our roster," kind of thing. Start up teams always come with their own caveats, especially when they are claiming to be paying players.
I was actually thinking that these guys these guys would come cheaper than we'd (Western perspective) would expect due to their age and general price differences with Asia. It also does remind me a little of that team Nada 'formed' that never did anything. He was just a name they used to attract attention.
On September 26 2014 01:22 Invasion-eSport wrote: As we said earlier we are a brand new team on the pro scene, as we can see there is a lot of question about our funding which we find it interesting people are more preoccupied by our funding than our project in the esport. So due to the high demand i'm going to answer (if there is more questions we will be happy to talk about it) we are currently and for the past 4 months funded by a family office. You are going to ask us what is their interest in investing in esport, there is first of all the taxes reason and there is also the fact that they found compatible one of the brand they are managing with esport. The team is created in 2 division one is the community made to have fun to meet nice people, the second part is the pro section where only pros are recruited. After long negotiations, we have reached an agreement to go to the next level and got the funds to be able to hire high quality players. We are also in talking to be able to make them come in Europe. Our structure is based as an organisation with 1 president and 5 board members. Those people take all the decisions concerning the pro roaster, recruitment, budget and sponsors. We are now 12 people working for this organisation (7 players and 5 staffs). The board and the staff is working for now 4 months (holidays were there so during summer not much work was done). Our designers are working on the logo, the new website, clothes, while others are taking care of the players (looking for their needs, tournaments, booking flights, accommodation, gears, etc) and one is responsible to write future articles and is responsible of the communication of the team. We opened a have a facebook page https://www.facebook.com/invasionesport and a twitter https://twitter.com/InvEsport.
Maybe revise that post and add it to the op? Clears some things up, but not too many. "family funded for tax reasons" - can you explain that a bit further?
Azubu style tax dodging? or wait, was that money laundering they were suspected of?
Ya, that line is pretty sketchy since "family funded" has always been code for "no real backers" in the past.
Deimos didn't have real backers throughout its entire existence, but it was managed properly, didn't scam anyone, and made great content for the community before it disbanded under completely understandable circumstances. Invasion appears to be pretty much the same thing, just in French.
Good to hear there are success stories. I prefer to give the benefit of a doubt, which is why I wrote 'no real backers' instead of my original reaction of 'scam' =p.
Whoa is this OGS Top from back in the day?!?!?! I will always have cherished memory of him, since his loss to fruitdealer in season 1 made fruitdealer's eventual victory all the sweeter
On September 25 2014 22:14 Yonnua wrote: Probably worth mentioning that this guy was a GSL finalist and responsible for the best game in the history of sc2 on Daybreak. :p
ty for remembering.
also people are forgetting TOP was the only terran for like 3 season to take a map of parting (gsl code A ro48 i believe) before parting was a name(he became a huge name shortly after)
Man it's been a LONG time since seeing Top play.. So long that I actually was surprised to hear he played Terran (The taiwanese Top guy - is the responsible reason for that miss-information ofc..)
GL HF to both.. Invasion eSports team, and the players playing
Sounds like you guys are funding players by running a charity though, rofl, that would be funny if working
Anyways - GL HF to you all, and GL HF to the eSports scene :D
On September 26 2014 01:22 Invasion-eSport wrote: As we said earlier we are a brand new team on the pro scene, as we can see there is a lot of question about our funding which we find it interesting people are more preoccupied by our funding than our project in the esport. So due to the high demand i'm going to answer (if there is more questions we will be happy to talk about it) we are currently and for the past 4 months funded by a family office. You are going to ask us what is their interest in investing in esport, there is first of all the taxes reason and there is also the fact that they found compatible one of the brand they are managing with esport. The team is created in 2 division one is the community made to have fun to meet nice people, the second part is the pro section where only pros are recruited. After long negotiations, we have reached an agreement to go to the next level and got the funds to be able to hire high quality players. We are also in talking to be able to make them come in Europe. Our structure is based as an organisation with 1 president and 5 board members. Those people take all the decisions concerning the pro roaster, recruitment, budget and sponsors. We are now 12 people working for this organisation (7 players and 5 staffs). The board and the staff is working for now 4 months (holidays were there so during summer not much work was done). Our designers are working on the logo, the new website, clothes, while others are taking care of the players (looking for their needs, tournaments, booking flights, accommodation, gears, etc) and one is responsible to write future articles and is responsible of the communication of the team. We opened a have a facebook page https://www.facebook.com/invasionesport and a twitter https://twitter.com/InvEsport.
I hope you understand why we have been asking questions about your finances. The SC2 scene has seen many of our favorite players get screwed over by up and coming teams who promise their players benefits but don't ever deliver.
On September 25 2014 21:52 Invasion-eSport wrote: ogsTOP has officially joined the team Invasion-eSport !!!!!
It's hilarious how they still call him oGsTOP even though hes not part of oGs since oGs is long dead. It's like a team recruiting Polt, and going PoltPrime has joined our team!
On September 26 2014 01:49 Circumstance wrote: Is it even possible for a team to make a splash anymore in SC2? Are we so paranoid about new people coming in to involve themselves with the scene (which is kind of important, guys) that if someone dares to sign, and give money to, one of our oh-so-precious Korean gods (read as: Any Korean we have ever heard of), we will consistently call scam until they give us a photostat of their private accounting ledger? FFS, guys.
Maybe it could be fact that SC players are kinda older and looking for alot of detailedtransparent stuffs and fact that alot of team have been created by 16 y/o kids without any previous experience (hello riot games) so it's not paranoism !
On September 25 2014 21:52 Invasion-eSport wrote: ogsTOP has officially joined the team Invasion-eSport !!!!!
It's hilarious how they still call him oGsTOP even though hes not part of oGs since oGs is long dead. It's like a team recruiting Polt, and going PoltPrime has joined our team!
There is a good Chinese player that goes by "Top", so saying "oGsTop" allows everyone to know who they mean. Yet, it's still funny.
On September 26 2014 04:27 Boucot wrote: Oh boy... another weird french team.
Germany and France taking turns creating shady teams. Are you even trying, rest of the world?
Dude Canadians have Quantic, that quite notably seriously fucked over Hyun. France may have more failed teams, but Canada has one of the worst failures so far in history.
Name another team that went away with a bigger bang than Quantic.
edit: However, if I am not mistaken, Quantic was being run by a French Canadian, so maybe we can take 50/50 credit for Quantic
On September 26 2014 04:27 Boucot wrote: Oh boy... another weird french team.
Germany and France taking turns creating shady teams. Are you even trying, rest of the world?
Dude Canadians have Quantic, that quite notably seriously fucked over Hyun. France may have more failed teams, but Canada has one of the worst failures so far in history.
Name another team that went away with a bigger bang than Quantic.
edit: However, if I am not mistaken, Quantic was being run by a French Canadian, so maybe we can take 50/50 credit for Quantic
On September 26 2014 01:49 Circumstance wrote: Is it even possible for a team to make a splash anymore in SC2? Are we so paranoid about new people coming in to involve themselves with the scene (which is kind of important, guys) that if someone dares to sign, and give money to, one of our oh-so-precious Korean gods (read as: Any Korean we have ever heard of), we will consistently call scam until they give us a photostat of their private accounting ledger? FFS, guys.
It is possible to make a splash, but they should have credentials to back it up immediately. Use a bank for example, where someone wants to take a mortgage or large loan. The bank will immediately ask for credentials. Well, when a team introduces itself to the community, we want to know everything about them immediately. We don't need to know the intimate details of the team, but at least a quick introduction.
Instead Invasion decides to enter the scene in similar ways to many other dead teams. This is the first time I heard of them, and I had to look for the thread about TAiLS. So on this first thread, questions already popped up about the team with no response. We were forced to do the research on them and even yourself, Circumstance, did a bit of sleuthing on the team.
So it's not about paranoia, or even Korean players. It's about the community jaded by dozens of teams popping up, trying to rake in a quick buck from the SC2 exposure to the audience, only to fizzle due to various reasons.
And when they fizzle, they leave a large mess behind; a mess that the community has cleaned up once before (Hyun). How many times are we going to ask the community, the audience, us, to rescue players like Hyun?
I know we should give Invasion the benefit of the doubt, but its hard to do when we know nothing about them. They promised more information, which is great, but they should have started with the introduction first, and than announce TAiLS and TOP being signed.
On September 26 2014 04:27 Boucot wrote: Oh boy... another weird french team.
Germany and France taking turns creating shady teams. Are you even trying, rest of the world?
Dude Canadians have Quantic, that quite notably seriously fucked over Hyun. France may have more failed teams, but Canada has one of the worst failures so far in history.
Name another team that went away with a bigger bang than Quantic.
edit: However, if I am not mistaken, Quantic was being run by a French Canadian, so maybe we can take 50/50 credit for Quantic
Slayers ? And god I loved this team....
Slayers? I loved them also, but how can you compare Quantic and Slayers?
I know esport invasion was an amateur team a few years ago with a roster playing in the low division of Pandaria (i think they had a higher division one too). Is that the same team ?
If it's them i'm surprised they got that big but hey. If you work hard you can go high. Hope it's for the best.
I don't wanna be that guy, but I might start leaving some cash packed if the "HyuN scenario" appears again. No offense or hate, but it is just again the same scenario. But since you said you will answer the questions here are mines.
Now your "Family office" is okay n estabilished after new fiscal year. Do you have any reserve plan if things goes bad?
They need to pay, rent, food, pc parts (if needed),travelling,tickets etc. Can you secure this regarding to my 1st question?
Is your "Family office" secured when you accidently go bankrupt CAN you save players for at least some time? Is there a paper deal between you and players? (If yes I wanna see the copy)
It looks like we are mean, but if you will just keep hiring expensive players and be expeting we will be saying (OMG OMG NEW TEAM HYPE) than the answer is FCK NO.. all you u will reacieve is just constant hate and 0 support from community
On September 26 2014 19:58 nkr wrote: Sometimes, new teams are legit. Not many had heard about mYi 18 months ago ;p
Ppl behind mYi can be legit bussiness mans.. I wish I will tell the same thing about those guys ! But still TotalBiscuit is my idol when it comes to business model and "how to run a proper team thing" ! Not even mentioning that his own brand is strong as hell )
On September 25 2014 22:14 Yonnua wrote: Probably worth mentioning that this guy was a GSL finalist and responsible for the best game in the history of sc2 on Daybreak. :p
On September 25 2014 22:14 Yonnua wrote: Probably worth mentioning that this guy was a GSL finalist and responsible for the best game in the history of sc2 on Daybreak. :p
Is that the game where MVP went: "FUCK IT I'M GONNA MASS NUKE YOUR BASE AND DOOM DROP YOU TO DEATH" ?
On September 25 2014 22:14 Yonnua wrote: Probably worth mentioning that this guy was a GSL finalist and responsible for the best game in the history of sc2 on Daybreak. :p
Is that the game where MVP went: "FUCK IT I'M GONNA MASS NUKE YOUR BASE AND DOOM DROP YOU TO DEATH" ?
That's the game I immediately thought of but I don't remember it being on daybreak. I thought it was crevasse?
On September 26 2014 22:26 FFW_Rude wrote: So this was it ? Can't watch at work
It was an hour long so I couldn't watch the entire thing to confirm, but it certainly looked familiar in the parts I went through. And I saw a nuke or two
On September 26 2014 04:27 Boucot wrote: Oh boy... another weird french team.
Germany and France taking turns creating shady teams. Are you even trying, rest of the world?
Dude Canadians have Quantic, that quite notably seriously fucked over Hyun. France may have more failed teams, but Canada has one of the worst failures so far in history.
Name another team that went away with a bigger bang than Quantic.
edit: However, if I am not mistaken, Quantic was being run by a French Canadian, so maybe we can take 50/50 credit for Quantic
Slayers ? And god I loved this team....
Slayers? I loved them also, but how can you compare Quantic and Slayers?
Well, the original question was "Which team went away with a bigger bang than Quantic?", and Slayers came to mind. Depends on what you call a big bang, but the one Slayers made was pretty damn big I'd say.
On September 26 2014 22:26 FFW_Rude wrote: So this was it ? Can't watch at work
It was an hour long so I couldn't watch the entire thing to confirm, but it certainly looked familiar in the parts I went through. And I saw a nuke or two
From this point the next few minutes are the ones that everyone remembers the game for.
If we want new teams and investment in sc2 we have to accept that the investors (and sponsors) will be taking a bet that might not work out. That this team has investors rather than sponsors behjnd it atm is not shady in and of itself; it just means some people are betting money they can make it work. If their bet fails, they didn't do the community wrong; in fact we should thank them. If anyone gets mad if their bet fails, the only issue is that you had false hopes as to the viability of SC2 business ventures. Considering the long term trend of sc2 viewership numbers, we should be kissing the feet of anyone willing to invest money and try to make their business sustainable. And having a couple Joe Schmoes on the forum grill them about their finances is not going to accomplish anything productive other than hopefully harden them to the ungrateful nature of the community.
On September 26 2014 04:27 Boucot wrote: Oh boy... another weird french team.
Germany and France taking turns creating shady teams. Are you even trying, rest of the world?
Dude Canadians have Quantic, that quite notably seriously fucked over Hyun. France may have more failed teams, but Canada has one of the worst failures so far in history.
Name another team that went away with a bigger bang than Quantic.
edit: However, if I am not mistaken, Quantic was being run by a French Canadian, so maybe we can take 50/50 credit for Quantic
Slayers ? And god I loved this team....
Slayers? I loved them also, but how can you compare Quantic and Slayers?
Well, the original question was "Which team went away with a bigger bang than Quantic?", and Slayers came to mind. Depends on what you call a big bang, but the one Slayers made was pretty damn big I'd say.
Ah, I guess its just a matter of interpretation.
I should have used another term than "bigger bang", maybe "bigger mess".
On September 26 2014 22:26 FFW_Rude wrote: So this was it ? Can't watch at work
It was an hour long so I couldn't watch the entire thing to confirm, but it certainly looked familiar in the parts I went through. And I saw a nuke or two
From this point the next few minutes are the ones that everyone remembers the game for.
On September 27 2014 03:10 Doodsmack wrote: If we want new teams and investment in sc2 we have to accept that the investors (and sponsors) will be taking a bet that might not work out. That this team has investors rather than sponsors behjnd it atm is not shady in and of itself; it just means some people are betting money they can make it work. If their bet fails, they didn't do the community wrong; in fact we should thank them. If anyone gets mad if their bet fails, the only issue is that you had false hopes as to the viability of SC2 business ventures. Considering the long term trend of sc2 viewership numbers, we should be kissing the feet of anyone willing to invest money and try to make their business sustainable. And having a couple Joe Schmoes on the forum grill them about their finances is not going to accomplish anything productive other than hopefully harden them to the ungrateful nature of the community.
I agree its a gamble to invest into an SC2 team, and I don't want to see them fail. Far from it, I want to see every team achieve success, but Invasion's success is not a blind gamble dependant on random factors. Their success is dependant on themselves. Did they sign the right players? Is the team efficiently managed? Is the expectations of the board members reasonable?
And if they failed, I would show appreciation only if they tried earnestly, honestly, and with transparency. If they failed because they followed in the footsteps of Quantic and Alloy, well fuck them.
But I will not be "kissing the feet of anyone willing to invest money". Just because an organization throws some money at a few players, we need to grovel at them and thank them like beggars? Are we, the audience, that desperate to resort to grovelling appreciation? Fuck no! Sure the viewership is dismal, but that is no excuse to debase oneself.
And yes, giving them the 20 questions is counter-productive, but is asking a few questions about the company unreasonable? All I asked was to give us an introduction to who they are. I don't want to know their finances; see their ledgers; or speak to their accountants. I don't want to know who are the board members.
As well, perhaps before they forayed into the wild west SC2 esports scene, they should have done some research as to the state of this niche industry.
I will give them the benefit of the doubt, but I will not give them my trust. I will remain jaded and suspicious, until Invasion can prove otherwise.
edit: Will this thread, and the community's approach to new teams, harden Invasion? I don't care. If they can't take our questions, they don't deserve our attention. They should use this thread as feedback on how to approach the community, not as an indication of how we are ungrateful.
And please don't use the word "ungrateful". I am full of grate for people like TotalBiscuit and Alexander Garfield. These are the guys that know how to run a team and company.
I am confused, your team is funded by family for 'tax reasons'... but companies are only taxed on profits. Your company is taking a loss right now, so you would owe 0 taxes. Kind of ridiculous logic if you ask me