EPTEven though I have some experience(I've been CEO for Black Night Esports for 2 years and doing stuff in the scene since 2015) and thought I was doing something right, I still fell for a scam.
Around 2 or 3 months ago, a new team called TEAM GP posted in their social media that they were in need of new sponsors and donations from their viewers to keep their professional SC2 team. I talked with other players and team owners, and they all agreed that this situation was really hurting TEAM GP's image in the scene. I felt a lot of compassion for the team, as I know that having a team requires a lot of passion and a lot of troubles(not only financial) can appear, especially if you dont have good planning. I contacted the team and told them to delete the post to help their image, and also gave them tips on how to grow and how to look more professional. They started to request things and I told them that I could only help if I was inside the team, as I was focused on Black Night at the time. I thought that the things that they were asking deserved a payment of around 1~2k USD, but my girlfriend convinced me to do it for cheaper, as a way to help the team, so I joined them for 400USD. This money was used to pay for the hours of daily work that I did and also to pay a good image designer.
We agreed, in a verbal contract, the value of 400USD for 3 months, so that I would be able to create a visual identity and build a team structure for them. This way, the team would look solid for any sponsor, and we would start to get some.
For the first month I worked directly with TEAM GP CEO, Lee Goni. We talked constantly about the best players to get, and the wages that they would receive. We also created the new visual identity for the team, which was used in all of their social medias. I also got them a slot into the Chinese Team League, which would net the team at least 3k USD.
In the next month, I made a commercial introduction for them, and kept looking for events for the team to participate. The CEO, Lee Goni, wasnt answering me anymore(its been more than a month since she last answered me), so I was talking to her husband, TheBarTV(COO of Team GP). I got in contact with many people and investors to make them interested in the team, so that they could watch for it and its results(which would generate sponsors later). TheBar started to pressure me, saying that the team was in urgent need of sponsors, and that they had many financial needs. I started to study korean business(especially the ones that had sponsored sc2 before) that could sponsor the team, and made a list of more than 20 possible sponsors for the team. I also helped them set up a Patreon, and told them that the players had to stream for it to start growing. The players didnt stream a single time(probably because the owners didnt ask them to do it), and the owners started to ask me why we didnt get any patreon donor(even though they didnt send the patreon link to anyone and we had no streams). I also looked into new forms of making money(like selling the team uniform near the Afreeca studio in GSL days), but they didnt do anything that I suggested.
When the payday arrived(5 june), I didnt get paid. I sent messages to Lee Goni and TheBar, but I was ignored for 4 days. Today(9 june) I had a talk with TheBar about the payment, and he told me that he didnt want to pay me anymore because they thought that my work was not having the results that they wanted. I understood that, but told them that the fair thing to do was to pay me for 3 months of work(as we had agreed initially) and not only 2.
They also told me that they wouldnt even pay me for the second month(that I did work), as I didnt get them any sponsor(even though the responsability to talk with the korean businesses from the list I made was theirs, as they speak korean and I dont). I told them that they couldnt do that, as I had worked hard all month and deserved to get the money(especially because I also had to pay the designer). They told me that they would only pay me 100USD for the work that the designer had done, but wouldnt pay me anything, as they "could do everything that I had done alone".
In the end they told me that they are not going to pay me the $400 that we had initially agreed, and I will have to pay the designer out of my own pocket.
UPDATE: My problem with TEAM GP is fixed, they paid me in a mutual agreement and everything is fine now.
- André "Pereira".
