Axiom Disbands

On October 16 2015 08:11 TBone- wrote:
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On October 16 2015 19:58 olimoley wrote:

I don't believe he ever said that. We were almost to the point where they could break even, but not yet. We were seeking ways to keep the team going, but with his CT results it is now time for John to focus his time, money, and energy on his upcoming treatment and his family.

On October 16 2015 19:58 olimoley wrote:

I don't believe he ever said that. We were almost to the point where they could break even, but not yet. We were seeking ways to keep the team going, but with his CT results it is now time for John to focus his time, money, and energy on his upcoming treatment and his family.

On October 16 2015 21:33 Ovid wrote:


http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/483792-axiom-barely-exists?view=all

Post #33 he says next sponsor Axiom will be turning a profit and he has said it's self sustaining.
I just feel like the plug was pulled rather quickly, which is understandable if the majority of the money is coming out of his pocket/efforts but it's supposedly not.

Since you do read TL and respond what does this mean for the majority of the players then end of the road? Military? Back to education or other work?

On October 16 2015 22:09 sharkie wrote:


With this announcement it's pretty clear that TB lied to us, it's just how the world works. Managers always lie, no manager would say "my team is writing red numbers"

On October 16 2015 22:33 olimoley wrote:


There is really no reason for your comment. I'm actually the one who might be misrepresenting the facts because I never handled sponsors or money, John would know better than I. You know in order to keep our sponsors we need to push out content and attend tournaments, meaning we must put in the time for managerial work, content production, and recording. John is a very hands on team owner and running it can be pretty time consuming. So even if we are sustainable, in the red, or profiting it doesn't even matter. We shouldn't be his priority, family and recovery should be.

I'm sorry to see Axiom disband, but I hope each of our players and staff continue to do great things in the community.

On October 16 2015 21:13 sharkie wrote:


He always claimed that Axiom cost him no money and it was self sufficient. He even flamed other people who didn't believe him.

On October 16 2015 21:13 sharkie wrote:


He always claimed that Axiom cost him no money and it was self sufficient. He even flamed other people who didn't believe him.

On October 16 2015 22:09 sharkie wrote:


With this announcement it's pretty clear that TB lied to us, it's just how the world works. Managers always lie, no manager would say "my team is writing red numbers"

On October 17 2015 01:29 ClanWars wrote:


Ok let's nip the speculations of fantasy team-owners in the bud right now.

"He always claimed" Flagrant lie.

"Axiom cost him no money and was self sufficient". False.

One post was made 6 months ago that stated Axiom was self-sufficient. What that post does not tell you is what happened to make it that way and what self-sufficient actually meant.

1) The team only became self-sufficient after salaries were cut across the board
2) The team only became self-sufficient after losing Impact, on the very same day that post was made. It was not self-sufficient with a 5 man roster.
3) Self-sufficient meant we could pay house costs and team salaries with the sponsorship money we were receiving. The team would be self-sufficient if everybody remained in Korea. It did not include any incidental expenses such as flights and hotels, which still came out of my own pocket.

Now let's talk about how this obviously would not have been the case in 2016. The Proleague plan allowed us to cut flights/hotels out of the expenses. However very few players are willing to stay in Korea all year and not go to a foreign tournament, so that was unlikely to be viable to begin with. We offered bonus schemes for wins and a salary bump to compensate after it was clear that players would not join the team otherwise, but it didn't matter because KeSPA has all the players and doesnt look like they're letting any of them go anytime soon. Those that are likely to leave are going to do so to join a foreign team and play WCS, which we could not offer (athletes visas are expense to acquire and we could not provide housing in the US anyway), nor were we willing to. So in the fantasy scenario in which we somehow form a viable proleague lineup, we are now making a loss again and that's assuming we can hang onto all our sponsors at current rates in 2016, which after 2015s performance is unlikely. Our content production was doing the bulk of the work for the sponsors, not our results, but participation in foreign events is an important part of representing the sponsor, even if we're not winning tournaments. Going Proleague only would not provide that for the sponsor, it was likely at least one major sponsor would pull out in 2016 and our prospective sponsor fell through for various reasons, as they have a tendency to do.

So there you have it. Axiom WAS self-sustaining, on 4 members, with reduced salary and no tournament flights and hotels. Axiom would NOT have been self sustaining in 2016 regardless of any plan we came up with, unless somehow we acquired even more sponsors. Could we have acquired another sponsor that cared less about results and more about content production? Sure, but there are various downsides to that. Distracting the players and taking up valuable practice time with yet more non-SC2 related stuff would only hinder their progress and Olivia who is doing the vast majority of the editing work on those videos which includes pain-staking line by line subtitling, can only do so much. Anything I took on to bolster the team would also have a massive opportunity-cost to me and I'm already overworked as it is.

So y'know, just in-case you needed more reasons beyond "hey yeah I have terminal cancer and might drop dead relatively soon", there you have them. Gotta admit I just laughed at the absurdity of this discussion, it's impossible to be offended by it given the circumstances.

Oh and if you want to know how far we were in the hole on Axiom? Try $250,000+ of my own money. There comes a time, specifically when you have a life-threatening illness, that you have to say "enough". I felt I made that clear in my parting statement but apparently not, hopefully it is now. It is only natural to speculate but it is highly unlikely that any of you have enough information to do so accurately.