EPTSo by taking a look at their wikipedia.TL page here http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/User:NanoClouD/Core_Gaming
The first problem I have is what they claim the team is a subsidiary of. The line quoted from this page reads "Established on May 1st 2013, Core Gaming (Core) is owned by CorePro Design LLC, a software consulting company based in California.". Ok, they say they are owned by a software consulting company based in California. So I took a look at the California State Department website to look up this said "company" and this is what I found
http://gyazo.com/d126f4c8e9af608d3eb15f1a81a8ef66
There is no business license registered to a company of said name and of any variation of it either. You can even check for yourself here on their website http://kepler.sos.ca.gov/
The only company I could find with such a name was located in Pennsylvania via google search.
Alright so they claim they are owned by a non-existent company. That's problem #1
The second problem I have with this, I found a forum post from a member of this Core Gaming as they were beginning to look for players. The link to the post can be found here http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/9309301425
Now here's where I have a problem, quoted from this guy he said
- "That's a bit of a misnomer, you don't get paid actual money. If we were to get big enough, and our leader shows interest in making it an ESports business, that would be a different story. Unfortunately, we're not to that point yet, and I haven't heard of any plans to make it into a business organization. However, if we were to grow large enough that we make a significant enough impact on your play that you were to earn money at some sort of competitive event, then even though you aren't getting paid by the organization, if our stuff was key to helping you get that far, then in a way we helped you get money you wouldn't have had without us. Maybe that kind of counts? It's the best I can think of right now."
So his own words were no one gets paid on the team as they are not at a point of sponsorship support to be able to do so and he heard no plans at the time of turning the team into a professional organization. Based on their wiki.TL page however, they claim their players are being paid salary + offered gear and travel support. Now looking at their page, they claim to have two sponsors, CorePro Design, LLC (the non-existent company) and FundSponge, LLC which offers them 4% of items they sell in their store (based on the information on both Core Gaming's and FundSponge's website). So 1 sponsor is a made up company and the other is essentially an amazon store? How are they able to provide salary + gear + travel support off of making 4% from items bought out of their store and a made up software consulting firm?
My third problem is on their wiki.TL page where they claim all management figures are required to hold a 4 year degree in their respective field regarding the team while holding a full time job and undergoing a background check. Now even though there is no way I could 100% prove this is a lie, this sounds really fishy. A gaming organization that has a made up sponsor and amateur players (this is in no offense to any of the players on the team. I'm sure they are good players but none of them are at the professional level) would require all of their management to hold a 4 year degree already? Secondly back in the "sMi scammed thread" I believe someone posted a skype chat of NanoClouD claiming he would come back under a new name? Well his name now is "Cell". And third, he also claimed in that thread that he plays for his CSL team and compete at local LANs, however based on their team page and their website, he already completed a 4 year degree in neuroscience (how that even applies to being an Operations Director is beyond me) and he must have a full time job based on what he described on that team page.
Now I'm not going to accuse NanoClouD of being behind both this and sMi as that would require a bit more evidence however it seems really odd to me that a player who was just involved with a team that was scammed by a "fake sponsor" is now involved with another team that from what I just showed has a fake sponsor themselves. This along with some of the other accusations that people have made about him and what I provided above, I feel this team is not what they claim to be.
Now for some people who may post trying to say "no named team, who cares" this is still a big issue. For organizations in the North American scene that are working their ways up to becoming professional teams themselves, this reflects very negatively on the scene. Even though professional players may not be involved, guys such as Wannabecool and Sonic who are still familiar names in some areas to be involved in a situation like this really sucks to see. So when players "careers" are at stake and things like this are very apparent to be wrong, I feel people need to speak out against them to prevent another sMi situation from happening.
EDIT: The company located in Pennsylvania is NOT called CorePro Design. There is no existing company with the name CorePro Design with any business license
EDIT #2: Another thing I want to expand on. Management need 4 year degrees in their relating fields? Explain how based on their management page located here http://www.coreprogaming.com/management.html Their operations manager responsible of cashflow management and sponsorship management has a degree in neuroscience and why their communications director has a degree in Biochemistry...
Also take a look at this
Their manager who is in charge of video production and content and is supposed to have a degree in such a field made a promo video using "video co-pilot" templates. For someone who is supposed to be (claimed to be a graduate in content and marketing) why would you use video co-pilot templates for After Effects (in a way this is like taking someone else's work) and using it as your own...
You can actually find one of these templates here [http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorial/galactic_orb/]
And the second is a video used by another team using the same template as well [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVPeKQj4gsc]. Now this may not be as significant but this just piles on to everything else
EDIT #3:
On August 11 2013 22:05 Blisse wrote:
This this their site.
http://www.coreprogaming.com/
It says, "A subsidiary of CorePro Design LLC".
Google CorePro Design LLC
Most relevant result that's not the website.
They sell hats apparently. CorePro Design doesn't exist then.
Here's their Amazon Store.
http://fundsponge.com/index.php/clubs/Core_Gaming
It says, "Gaming Organization. Subsidiary of CoreTech Engineering LLC"
Google CoreTech Engineering LLC
No relevant results.
Closest result is
http://cortechpumps.com/
They sell pumps.
Neither of them are a software consulting company... And this consulting company doesn't seem to exist either. Really interesting.
This this their site.
http://www.coreprogaming.com/
It says, "A subsidiary of CorePro Design LLC".
Google CorePro Design LLC
Most relevant result that's not the website.
They sell hats apparently. CorePro Design doesn't exist then.
Here's their Amazon Store.
http://fundsponge.com/index.php/clubs/Core_Gaming
It says, "Gaming Organization. Subsidiary of CoreTech Engineering LLC"
Google CoreTech Engineering LLC
No relevant results.
Closest result is
http://cortechpumps.com/
They sell pumps.
Neither of them are a software consulting company... And this consulting company doesn't seem to exist either. Really interesting.
EDIT #4: Searched his gaming alias on google, came across this
http://aeonofstorms.wikia.com/wiki/Core_Professional_Gaming
http://aeonofstorms.wikia.com/wiki/Neurotic
By this, it claims he invested $10,000 into his team however the team was built on the arcade game Aeon of Storms. No mention of any CorePro Design LLC or CoreTech Engineering LLC. It also states he has a bit of a hated reputation within their comunity.
EDIT #5: Here's a bit more information I came to find out with some help from Quantic Dualan.
First and foremost, this is who nanocloud (now Cells) claims to be
https://www.facebook.com/solarhorizon
A bio engineering and neuroscience student at Purdue University. In also this letter he sent to ROOT.puCK he said this
"Nanocloud
Dear Puck,
We haven't met formally but my name is and I'm a student majoring in Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering at Purdue University. I'm a senior who will graduate with a 4.0 at the top of my class. I'm an entrepreneur, scientist, and a humanitarian. I own 2 start-up profitable companies and 1 501(c)3 non-profit working in rural Ethiopia. I've worked very hard in every part of my life and that includes my extracurricular. I'm one of the captains of the Purdue Men's Rugby team and well as a captain for our Starcraft team. I'm highly offended that you went on Tume's stream and talked about me.
at 8:30 of this link, you bring up anonymous.
Anonymous does belong to Neeb. I use to be a gm protoss in WOL. I switched to Terran towards the end of WOL and did fairly well. I made it to top 100 GM with Terran. I beat noteable people like pokebunny and eifersuchtig. (They have streamed games with me playing them). I then switched to zerg during HOTS trying to get to GM that way I could achieve GM with all 3 races.
Neeb is a dear friend of mine and I asked him to borrow his account to play games at the GM mmr using terran. Nanocloud account was made for 1 reason, and that is to play zerg. I've played on anonymous and people assumed it was me because I played several games on there.
I also use several other smurfs. Dont pretend like I'm not GM. To prove people like you wrong, I even streamed a fresh account and it took me less than 3 hours to hit gm mmr on it.
I compete at local lans, tournaments, and various other events. I dont dedicate my life to sc2 like you do, as I'm a full-time student but I try my best to play when I have some free-time. Your comments ruin not only my reputation, but the reputation of my team/school, and friends. I dont pay any of my friends to ladder for me. I've always been very good with terran. You can ask people like pokebunny, eifersuchtig, neeb, etc.
The one thing I do know, is that you have an attitude problem. You seem to BM a great deal in game and out of game. I dont know what your problem is but that behavior is quite unprofessional and inapporpriate.
Thus, I'm taking the necessary steps to report you for harassment. You have no right to make allegations like me paying people to ladder my account. That is quite BM. I'm also annoyed that you perma-banned me from Tume's stream.
Sincerely,
"
A couple of things I want to point out. First, he claims he's captain of Purdue's starcraft 2 team. Here is there wiki page http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/User:FosTA/Purdue_Starcraft_Club and their official website on Purdue's database http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~pscc/index.html
Not a single mention of him anywhere.
I also want to point out how is a college student that is studying nanotechnology, is an ambassador, owns 2 profitable companies, is captain of the Rugby team apparently and from what I've seen has traveled out of the country consistently. How is this guy able to commit time to playing starcraft? And a better question, why would he be so clueless as to getting caught up in situations such as this? Also if the accusations against him are true that people have been leveling his accounts, why would such an amazing and hard working individual try to scam people or lie about themselves playing starcraft? Interesting if you ask me
EDIT #6: Some players confirmed to have been paid
EDIT #7: Not all players were paid and team has made more suspicious offers confirmed by Days, a player on Core Gaming.
[12:25:08 PM] Carlos Grijalva: he literally puts me up there with no permission at all. and hes sounding alot like anderson to be honest. telling me hes going to help with my rent and all......
[12:27:56 PM] Hui Shen: so days got no money from core?
[12:28:00 PM] Hui Shen: and they put your name up there?
[12:28:10 PM] Carlos Grijalva: they offered me money, but the whole thing sounds sketchy
[12:28:34 PM] Hui Shen: tell them you will believe it when you get the rent mone
[12:28:38 PM] Hui Shen: money
[12:28:39 PM] Hui Shen:
[12:28:41 PM] Carlos Grijalva: they wouldnt be able to give me any money until novmber 1st.... idk
[12:28:48 PM] Carlos Grijalva: so yea sketch
Neurotic lied when he said all players were paid and received gear already. Days also claimed they told him they wanted to help him out with rent and other things, very suspicious.
EDIT #8: Link provided showing PM of NanoClouD admitting to stealing the identity of http://imgur.com/6YszI6b
Core Gaming's Executive Director and other management however defended him earlier in the post claiming they confirmed his identity and were even going to partner with executives from the 2 companies that owns and another confirming he supposedly met in real life from Purdue and claimed to have spoken with his professors regarding his projects however spoke as if he wasn't apart of Core Gaming. Confirmed by their website http://www.coreprogaming.com/management.html
http://gyazo.com/672d4e316ce89a940261dd45ce570096
http://gyazo.com/4aac8c9c0b110684f51f8e57085d8762
So the guy stole another person's identity and they defended him. I don't know if they were also lied to or in on the lie itself however they claimed to be partnering with said executives from companies that the real NanoClouD does not own. This should raise a major red flag for a lot of people.
