EPTOn November 09 2011 09:29 threehundred wrote:
it's 7am so if someone can please find the internet linkable evidence for me go for it. it exists, trust me. (i'll edit it later) i personally need closure on this matter (for the sake of moving on/getting justice done) and for the sake of people asking why i know/remember so much, it's pretty much because gus is the only person i've ever met in the field of 'esports' (or probably my 26 year existence for that matter) that never failed amaze me with stupidity and lack of common sense with each dealing with him since the beginning of the year.
SYNTHESIS: gus is either really stupid/noob at producing events, or just failed completely at conning (trust me he won't get away with it, and besides the money he may have taken (philippine pesos) is outstandingly laughable. like what 4-5k usd? 200k~ PHP? lollolol) no official statement though... he could just be looking for money right now to pay the proper parties their invoices (mine included) OR he could be THE MASTERMIND troll that won completely by forcing me to write all this (and maybe you for reading all this) ^_^)v for those that HATED MY ENDLESS CRITICISM OF AZK IRL or on STARCRAFTPH facebook group or elsewhere on the internet OR EVEN IN GUS LEDESMA'S face in person on several occasions weeks and months before this shitstorm happened, i told you so... and why i did the stream for him regardless btw if you actually read most/part of this TLDR rant? i wouldn't waste the opportunity to help try make esports grow, besides nobody else in the city does what i do, so i feel obliged to do what i can even at my current experience level to see tastetosis/the progamers and the amazing guys behind the scenes at work, the true heroes why the ppsl last day became actually QUITE FRANKLY awesome.
anyway here we go.
INTRO
my name is john, i'm the lead stream engineer (moderately experienced streamer by my standards), and the third-party guy hired to interface/livestream the 'hdmi game-feed, 2 hdmi cameras and 2 player booth cameras', with third-party mobile cams and the live audio/LED video billboard system. you can find my previous work (a week before for mineski.net pgf feat. dota/dota2/sc2 wcg philippines @enter link here, and for garena philippines league of legends wcg philippines @enter link here, and for pcxpressgamingexpo (a current project feat. dota/sc2/kos(a counter-strike variant)) at http://www.twitch.tv/ktgameone.
PART I: POINTS OF INTEREST
1. stream bitrate. in before anything else, we had 500-700kbps upload bandwidth to work with (the line that was given to the production desk at least). i was suppose to test the stream on-site with thegunrun the morning before (sunday 7am) by IGN's request directly to gus, but apparently the 'isp service provider fucked up and couldn't make it to allow for internet testing' thus 360p to 480p was pretty much it. MY TAKE: i badgered gus consistently about stream requirements for 720p (1.5-2.5 mbps up), he said the isp will provide it but provided no details such as contact numbers of their engineers or even assurance. FU MOMENT: i get up at 6am to get to the mall with my streaming equipment (50lbs of equipment) by 7am to call gus around 730am knowing it's way too quiet and sounds like he just woke up (he lives fucking 45mins-1hour away from the mall), then 2 1/2 hours after with thegunrun (just chilling out) 930-11am have gus say the isp guys fucked up. (gunrun covers ign btw by asking for a testing at 12nn, which again gets rescheduled to monday 1am (which the isp guys still aren't there for until 10am'sih) i go home to get rest because ima be moving shit into the mall at 11pm in the night.
-> unacceptable stream standards for IGN as i recall. i have been contracted by gus/azk in the past for PPSL qualifier 5 @enter link here (on the teamazk twitchtv archives) where azk closed down a net cafe to stream at 720p, to show IGN that 720p was possible in the philippines) MY TAKE: 720p (streaming) all the way up to 1080i realistically is possible in the philippines, you just need to know the isp to talk with and either pay them properly or choose a good location to ensure solid bandwidth. FU MOMENT: hahaha, so gus is like, 'we are streaming for IGN and we need to make sure it's 720p', i'm like ok, what will it involve? 'we are closing down a net cafe and you are streaming casted ppsl qualifier 5 games'. i'm like that's it? gus goes 'yeah'. when i arrive with my cameras/microphones mixers etc... he tells me, the casters aren't here, they are at home (farmboy) and one is in australia (cheekyduck) via skype. i'm like fuck you (to myself), aren't you suppose to tell me these things? brought 40lbs extra equipment across the city for nothing. RETROSPECT: requirements gathering failure on my part too. but logically speaking you'd expect these MAJOR details to be ironed out for someone providing a service that is more then bringing just a fucking xsplit/afmle computer around.
-> preparation. hmmm. we don't get a week to setup at the mall (it's not a convention center), we setup night before till mall opening. but more importantly we didn't practice our interfaces/the show program plan itself (if it existed) before the event. (something i now have vividly/emotionally experienced is A BAD THING). MY TAKE: it takes money to get the streamers/av guys/show producers, marshals together for a dry-run, something gus probably didn't have / OR conversely he was noob and thought things could run themselves. FU MOMENT: i had 4 major requirements (posted NOV 2, i have more on why i was hired a week+ before the event btw) for my prod at the ppsl -> my laptop sucks atm as my equipment is still in boxes but here is the basic copy/paste: 1. draft layout plan of the glorietta activity center for cabling/positioning <- CHECK 2. network requirements (1mbps UP for standard 480p, 2.5mbps UP for 720p) 3. contact number of logistics provider of the bigscreen/sound system (integration) 4. detailed daily plans for broadcasting eg. event stuff like introduction / sched for games 5. ingress procedure (bringing stuff into glorietta req permits or what not) 6. graphics production (c/o **azk member or what not). ZERO FUCKING REPLY from gus for any of these requirements except general text replys like yeah the isp has got it covered. i heard NOTHING about the general program plan except a 1-page document that ***azk member showed me that i said was fucked up as it was like general guide for what 'may' happen on the day itself and not a say ' per 15 minute guide' of who is up on stage or caster duties/runners/people running activities around the floor. i heard nothing since about a production plan until the unfolding at day one that one DIDN'T EXIST. RETROSPECT: i should have critically pushed to see a production plan out in the open as it reflects my productions personal preparedness to interface with their plans (if they existed)
-> DAY ONE. i'll be accountable for the graphic errors, and probably along the lines of scene switching 'professional cue'ing with casters/stage/av crew that we worked with for the first-time WITHOUT a floor director/production plan/executive director on the first day of the ppsl, before torch/justin/rachel/allyn++ and some dedicated members of azk that knew that something was wrong stepped-in to try to make things right. basically azk let them run the show (no joke as azk needed it (well you have to blame the guy assigning (or lack of assigning) the job to lead the show: gus) i was not contracted to run the show, nor in the personal/proper capacity to step-in and take-charge of 'content' per say, but just manage and execute the delivery system with what i had. on a personal note mega props to the guys mentioned above for taking it upon themselves to create content in absence of azk executive decision making. MY TAKE: i'm gona be honest that i wasn't expecting nor in the physical/mental capacity to even try to sort out the mess that morning. i was pretty much heavily yelling/suggesting to the azk marshals/submanagement wtf is going on and why the fuck nobody was directing shit for stuff to get up on stage. FU MOMENT: ok so basically we were running a stream without any planning / camera angles / preparation for this scenario. i felt really bad for azk (yes even gus) and of course allyn/rachel that were trying to buy time, as it reflected not just a lack of a contingency plan but it also created a massive migraine filled first 6-8 hours (with major internet hiccups included) on what the fuck we were suppose to be doing. it made everyone look like an ass from my desk, to the marshals, to registration booth, to the standby a/v guys to the players. FU MOMENT 2: i have friends in the HON community in the PH i personally invited and greeted and talked with during the event. til i found out that night that they've been waiting all day for a motherfucking decision whether or not the tournament is a go or for tomorrow. they were practically dodged by gus apparently and gus didn't even tell his marshals or 'lower in commands' what to do apparently. they are the main instigators of the teamazk facebook page badmouthing (lol if gus didn't just set it to admin only posting mode), primarily because all they wanted was an answer from their 10am call-time if the HoN tournament would push through or not. official statement on HoN S2 games funds 2k? have no clue about this if S2 actually did send funds over in the first place. the hon guys (duskbin/zek friends included) stayed til 9pm because they just wanted to confront the head-organizer. in talking with them personally, they only wanted gus to man-up so they wouldn't absurdly (in it's own right) try to prosecute him legally.... FU MOMENT 3: did you guys know gus got to the event that he's supposedly at the helm at 3pm in the motherfucking afternoon? nobody was able to contact him til he arrived (obviously he had a lot of phonecalls/texts that day), that's either irresponsibility, avoiding something, or just overall wtf did you even bother showing up are you stupid that you let your event start without manning the helm. gross mismanagement. FU MOMENT 4: cebu guys not able to fly-in. gus couldn't admit he didn't have funds to fly them in straight-up (cebu is just a different part of the philippines with a total of 4 players (Cube guys on the player list) that were also suppose to be flown-in. but weren't) alright that itself is MESSED UP. you already have the circus of foreigners (only looks like a circus because the event is called the PPSL (philippine pro-starleague) which I HAVE TONS MORE TO TALK ABOUT BTW, but really, you fly-in (no hard feelings zanooku you're cool in real life and i fly-in for free with accommodations if id was ignorant of the entire situation or some other guy that you just want to brand AZK under instead of going by the standards/rules you've set forth in 'online qualifiers (which should have been marketed as invitational qualifiers ZzZZZ noob shit etc... FU MOMENT 5: YoonYJ / Dox's post + i guess random articles read at 3am in the morning on tuesday (day 2) about what happened with dealings with some korean pro-gamers and how azk changed conditions around etc... Dox you're a great writer/reporter of what went down. it just solidified my next set of actions.
-> PRE-DAY TWO on the internet / ppsl production group (the ppsl prod group is the azk group + me as the third-party streamer only) i learned about what happened to the HON guys, SC2 cebu/australia/korea guys, then i go into the ppsl production group and post the following.
'sorry im holding your event hostage gus, im not doing shit tomorrow without 50% upfront and written contract to pay the 50% after the said amount of time. if the rest of you people FEEL in anyway that what i'm doing is WRONG, then fuck off.'
- no replys (well one reply (not from gus), but it didn't answer)
- i follow up with
'and if you think this is being greedy it's to protect myself from getting screwed over like my HoN friends i personally invited and couldn't for the sake of it say a thing when i realized what happened. FUCKING MAN THE FUCK UP'
- long story why i requested 50% upfront (also below in storyline mode)
at this point around 4am, clive (yes the guy with the hotel issues, and i guy also in the group), msgs me (translation) 'brotha, i feel you on this, where are you going to get contracts to file a 'case' against gus? if ever i'm with you on this with toot*, thinks are going sour' - i reply, well i can get some notary stuff done simply and what not, but i'm not completely serious about it yet...
i sleep-in intentionally, i get to the venue 1 hour after mall opening (justin calling me/texting when i come, i lie to him and tell him i'm leaving, but yeah sorry man, i was actually contemplating whether i should just come and pick-up my shit or what not as gus hasn't replied to my ppsl group post nor answer my texts).
oh that reminds me: here is something juicy, the only comm i have with gus after the event (actually during day 1, we shared zero words, as i felt he was avoiding me anyway) gus texts me : we need to talk about the stream. i reply - (paraphrased) 'talk demand shit from me, talk with the ISP, then talk with the imaginary floor director, then talk about the 50% we agreed upon upfront, we (dedicated azk members and the cast of foreigner friends that put themselves out there) want to make this work, just fucking pay some to plan for you or something, playing the finger pointing game won't get you points with your staff that you promised glory. he replied 'wtf are you talking about', RETROSPECT: it's either he's stupid or playing dumb (conning) or i used weird metaphors lol.
anyway when i wake up, i read IGN's post, and the rest of whatever on the teamazk page, personal groups etc...
-> DAY-2: when i get to the mall justin and my crewmate, and trevor has everything started up. i feel overwhelmed by their dedication to do the right thing, that deep down i'm feeling too, but on the outside am absolutely sour about (i was suppose to protest doing stream work (maybe i was pussy to protest, but whatever, doing what's right takes more courage). i'm re-motivated to work honestly, what we do is damage control, stage management, computer management, etc.. management and finish the tournament not for AZK definitely but rather for the players that have been frustrated and have walked out from DAY 1, but also for the fans that were not just excited to see tastetosis, thebeeduck (right about now <3) but the their hero progamer players that AZK actually did fly-over play in an actual, watchable tournament.. not much to say about this day except that one internet restart, but that the games were marvellous and the net was still as shitty as ever. one thing to note is that gus was there from the morning to the end of mall closing, no words exchanged except that he was waiting for the money when i confronted him with our agreement.
after mall ours we are cleaning our shit out, hey i'm sorry to spill this but like 5-15% of the peripherals that *** sponsored for use were missing? fucking hell. 39/50 headsets left?, mismanagement security or what? this was day 2, maybe disgruntled organizers cared less because of their leaders lack of 'leading'.... i confronted gus about my pay, he couldn't say anything concrete except i'll have it by the end of the week. wtf is that ... then i talk with some random people there, apparently gus also owes a six figure amount (in pesos) in plane fares, and yeah the nvidia guy needs solid convincing or what not about what happened.... i could only help but feel teary eyed for gus and what he's gotten himself into. DRAMA/CLICHE/IRONY incoming: if only he had listened to me months back, or only if he was smarter and actually wikipedia'ed or googled or fucking outsourced someone else to run his event.
-> AFTER party GOODBYES. well i got their with my friends late (brought my equipment home and all), i'm going to say this honestly, it was good vibes. i personally enjoyed the games, the casting and the crowd during day 2. it was almost our country's esports dream come true (albeit the terrible condition it has generated which i seek to rectify through this personal journal etc... damn to see oGsMC, marinekingprime and Sen (well sen's been here before hihihihi) live! (my bias) with TASTETOSIS casting was an amazing treat that i'd never expect be pulled off in realistically 5-10 years. i gave gus a firm handshake and semi-hugged him. no plastic involved it was genuine. if it wasn't for gus persistence and almost LOL SACRIFICE AT THE CROSS, we wouldn't have a chance to meet EVERYONE, and even come together at this very point in time as a community/sea/world wide to DIFFERENTIATE the good from the bad, and the ugly. it's insane how much i enjoyed 30minutes of just congratulating each other for the most awkward sentiment of 'job well done we pulled off a miracle by finishing the tournament and generating hardcore FUCKING AMAZING games with insanely genuine casting.
anyway, now it's time for the fun part of my post
PART II. TIMELINE MODE (WHY I AM THE NUMBER ONE TEAM AZK CRITIC)
1. AZKwitchdoc is born, H2H a filipino 1v1 casual chatroom invites him and his friends to play. gus is caught ghosting LOL, and still loses to some guy named kTGameOne (me) not kidding, former SEA gm (if that mattered then or now =)- feb/march
2. PCxpress launches a tournament called the powercup for sc2, azkwitchdoc asks us to meet him in person at a mall as he'd like to talk with us about his contacts and his vision to create an event similar but with better sponsors. I along with other members of the community, progamers, fans, and advocates a like meet at this mall at the specific date and time. we wait 2 hours, and call him like 10-20 times, he texts me sorry i don't have sleep. FUCKING ASSHOLE, we were like 10 people waiting there for you because you had an idea and wanted to meet. -march
3. AZKwitchdoc puts together a crappy website (teamazk.co.cc? or something like that) gus says he's going to organize a tournament back in march called the AZK Open Invitational that will feature foreigners / rachel, (duno how the fuck he thinks when he mentions logistics)
- LOL contradicting event title alone, OPEN INVITATIONAL? wtf, so what is it, open tournament that you register for or an invitational that you get invited to? or is the event just called azk open, but it's through invitations?
- LOL 'hey guys' ford is sponsoring us. alright goodjob (community goes wtf, is that legit), ford doesn't sponsor in the end.
- this is my 2nd official sc2 livestreamed on-site event, i did dota primarily for mineski at the time
- LOL 'we will invite online players aside from having people play at the internet cafe venue', wait wtf, where did your brain go? what happens when the all the local players lose, so we sit there and watch the invites you had from korea/abroad play through the stream? idiot...
- LOL btw rachel quirico will be there to co-cast... omg so that means i need to configure 2 mics and a skype window open so that there are 2 live casters and one over the internet? also how the hell are you suppose to cast a game at our high latency through skype webcam + the 2 live one? pretty revolutionary actually, tbh it's also pretty stupid to configure that much shit just to use rachel's name as hype (which gus never really mentioned anything about after he failed to deliver.
- 20k php prizepool was it? hmmm more like 2500 to the top place guy + 1k + something else to 2nd and third, razer products to follow about a month after right? sleazy stuff, -end of march? or early mid april
4. BSG tournament
- does offrace count as being gold? stfu, if you're in diamond zerg, then you shouldn't be allowed to play as gold terran right MutaKing? aka * hmmm this is a blind item, never did know what happened with the champion, but it doesn't matter because the sponsor backed out anyway (a school that offered a scholarship plus 10k cash) because not that many people joined anyway/especially those that actually needed the sponsorship
- let me be honest, in the philippines if you HAVE the money to afford to buy starcraft 2 much less play it with an internet connection and a good computer then chances are you don't need a scholarship, the intention was good but gus' brain must have been fried or something.
- iahgames (blizzard distributor) i HEARD paid off some of the expenses of the event
- no stream production for the event, he couldn't afford me making more money then him probably (5k php 100$~ USD), which was fine as it's not like it was needed or anything because sponsors only care about those 1-2 kids that joined in hopes of winning, but you can't if you play against an offraced asshole. (tbh bsg, no real way of telling what level you're at, it's an honesty system really, but it was verified that, that players account was once diamond on a linked account - june? yeah june
4. aside from gathering enough troupe and new allies (CV) it's time to plan for something big. the idea of the PPSL is introduced! lemme recall from memory. there was this video and he proclaimed his direct competitor in the video (american politics style where you can use commercials to talk about your opponent)
- LOL he said the *** event had 30+ participates and the AZK event had 56+ participants, first of all those numbers aren't even big nor worth talking about.... secondly the AZK event number of participants also talks about the 2v2 bracket and FFA bracket, bigggg lolllll, it's like he didn't even think any of it through
- LOL Philippine Pro STAR LEAGUE, ok i've been criticizing the NAME EVER SINCE IT'S MOTHER FUCKING INCEPTION, let me post the jist of why i hated it so much based on my post back in the PPSL production group from around august 29 around after the time after we did the stream for the PPSL qualifier 5 for IGN's eyes
'--- CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM --- if you think i'm hating then you're probably an idiot
marshals: simply get organized, get your head marshal to create a schedule that you guys may follow and who you report to.
casters++: watch and play more. @paul coming as a friend and now 'professional' workmate, i believe you can improve significantly as a caster by simply being yourself. for some reason or another my opinion tells me you were being overly nice while working with jessi that just lead to either weird conversations or a 'lost in translation' take of what you think happened in game. simply speaking, explain it in tagalog and let the audience/co-caster try to understand what you are getting at. tbhonest i think a lot of you already know im against the PPSL itself as a brand name because it's target market is somewhat 'non-existant' eg. 720p streams for the west but branding the name of show itself something specifically asian (after a country), thusly you lose out on A. local markets because of the intense quality stream (remedied by next 'session' with dual stream outputs (will talk with your twitch.tv account settings manager) and B. foreign markets: i'm thinking as a foreigner: 'wow these guys named an entire tournament after their country + they have foreigners winning their country's tournament' (it's exactly what i was thinking the entire time during the NASL (north-american starleague)
face it, the brand isn't local, nor is it international. (argue with me on this one, i'm not the kind that will defend my point if i know i've lost trust me)
my general remedies: 1. call the PPSL with foreigner upcoming event the grand inauguration with foreign invites and keep your marketing/social media consistent with that 'tag-line and brand' 2. change the brand name completely or sorta completely. you guys have marketing/pr firms that you know can do this. my current best attempt would be the 'AZK Starleague feat. South-East Asian IPL Qualifiers' <-- SEE THAT SHIT
5. ENDLESS NAME DROPPING, CLASS REMARKS, IN-HOUSE CRAP, EGO CRAP etc... (well alot of it probably did happen, but if you follow or read gus' message
- 'meeting up with GSL guys' (so what then what happened? we are excited to hear that but are more interested in the results of the meet-up then care about your personal gain
- 'at republiq (class A club) party'ing with team azk' (in direct response to mineski celebrating the philippine victory of dota/hon/sc2 at the tgx in singapore, at a lower class place that invited people to come and party/drink for free...
- progamer name dropping (well what if they don't fucking confirm? thoughts on LiquidHuk replacing someone at the PPSL? how about thoughts on GusLedesma using his brain when he posts?)
- '20k inhouse AZK only tournament, just a recruitment scheme... duh, nobody actually played or won anything, or maybe they did, we'd never know if they'd never publish anything about it beyond the headline
- 'first ever barcraft in the philippines'. lol me streaming from my house with drinks is a better barcraft then what you guys did, it was even closed to 'AZK'ish good standing members? like wtf?, branding yourself as the first then using the country's name? talk about grabbing hype attention. idiot crap that generators haters for sure.
- 'TL MULTIPLE ANNOUNCEMENT THREAD <3' if you guys saw it too, you'd be SHITTING YOURSELVES on how they marketed the tournament much less did people actually know who AZK is about
- CV/Gus Ledesma and I meet about doing a stream at 720p for IGN
- CV talks about how cutthroat he is about business and how he has lawyers and shit <-- amazingly turned off at this point it bites them fucking back in the throat
*maybe i missed a few things been typing for 5 hours now -> this happened from like july'ish toward last month
6. about 1 month before the PPSL i get 'fired' from being the guy producing the stream for a mixup in stream addresses when streaming for another event. (total damage i caused when i got fired, 3-5 stream viewers at 11am in the morning, because i (or my associate) accessed the wrong stream id on xsplit for 10-15minutes) i have a lengthy discussion with gus on how arrogantly he's playing this, and how much it's opened my eyes to see what kind of a person he's become. awesome text messages i remember
gus: 'you're fired for letting that happen'
john: 'LOL i didn't even know i could be fired for something i wasn't officially hired for in the first place'
gus: 'i even have the checked signed and everything'
john: 'it's not even about the money now but it's about a lost opportunity to stream for huge event that may make or break the country and i'd like to be sure that i'd be there myself and not some noob.
RETROSPECT: well i'm still not paid, he must have torn up the check =)
7. 2 weeks before the PPSL, gus messages me 'we need to talk'
- i knew it was going to be about the stream BUT
- i thought it was going to be a personal apology or something like that but i walk to the coffee bean area
- 10-15 of them are at the table and i slowly approach and this one guy is like 'let's make it happen'
- IM GRINNING MY ASS OFF
- i gather GUS + CLIVE + *** and *** i say my piece
paraphrased
gus: 'it's crunch time we gota make this happen'
john: WAIT WAIT. wtf so you bring me here and officially reinstate me
gus: yeah i did overreact but you have to understand, ign is watching us, this is important for everyone in the ph
john: what if i said no? what i do what CV said and be CUTTHROAT about my business, hey instead of paying me 50k php just flyin IGN guys and IGN equipment, you have the funds right? a backup plan?
(i get really emotional at this point as i feel it's almost imperative i have a part in this to OVERSEE that things go right)
so i give them 2 stipulations:
1. 50% upfront on or before the event (didn't happen)
2. my company's name KTS Game Media IS NOT on any of the pamphlets branding or stream credits or sponsor rolls or anything like that.
AT THIS POINT IN TIME ALONE, 2 WEEKS BEFORE THE PPSL, I'M ALREADY NOT CONFIDENT IN HOW WELL THE PPSL WILL GO.
btw did you know that the PPSL production group, comprising of me + AZK only guys was actually started by me then i was kicked after my 'HARSH' ppsl comments after the qualifier 5 production at the end of october, then reinvited back into it again as i re'joined' the crew 2 weeks back?
it's messed up, nobody ELSE AZK wanted to talk about things that were happening. I ASKED FOR PLANS AND EVERYTHING NEEDED TO ACTUALLY RUN THE PPSL. NOTHING WAS THERE OR COMMUNICATED TO ME. Probably because Gus maybe offered everyone their own little side cut, like myself, doing production, in exchange for doing as they're told. unfortunately i've got the balls to say TONS of shit was WAY too wrong, and my friend clive canlas is paying a 40kPHP or 800$ USD~ price tag for Gus Ledesma's mismanagement, hey don't forget there are probably over 40kPHP of sponsor parts missing, 500k PHP in unpaid for travel agent airfare, 50k to me for bring my equipment in, and the rest of the wages or rental fees for the other shit there.
@NVIDIA PH, and all sponsors, and those that have contributed, check your accounting records pls, that is all. I DON'T HAVE A SIGNED CONTRACT TO DO PRODUCTION WORK WITH GUS. whatever, as long he knows the everyone else knows that people have been cheated out which can EXTEND to the news and his co-workers, i'm more then happy to have helped contribute to his 'public reprimand', if he doesn't PAY UP and APOLOGIZE. and not just the mock APOLOGY EARLIER, or even the friendly apology to celebrate the miracle of an ending/closure to the PPSL, but a public apology addressing the way he's MISMANAGED THE EVENT, MISREPRESENTED THE FUNDING, GROSSLY SCREWED OVER HIS OWN TOURNAMENTS MECHANICS/RULES, and yeah in a sense, set back ph esports. (but not really, my take is you've opened the eyes of the blind following the blind ^_^)v
it's 7am so if someone can please find the internet linkable evidence for me go for it. it exists, trust me. (i'll edit it later) i personally need closure on this matter (for the sake of moving on/getting justice done) and for the sake of people asking why i know/remember so much, it's pretty much because gus is the only person i've ever met in the field of 'esports' (or probably my 26 year existence for that matter) that never failed amaze me with stupidity and lack of common sense with each dealing with him since the beginning of the year.
SYNTHESIS: gus is either really stupid/noob at producing events, or just failed completely at conning (trust me he won't get away with it, and besides the money he may have taken (philippine pesos) is outstandingly laughable. like what 4-5k usd? 200k~ PHP? lollolol) no official statement though... he could just be looking for money right now to pay the proper parties their invoices (mine included) OR he could be THE MASTERMIND troll that won completely by forcing me to write all this (and maybe you for reading all this) ^_^)v for those that HATED MY ENDLESS CRITICISM OF AZK IRL or on STARCRAFTPH facebook group or elsewhere on the internet OR EVEN IN GUS LEDESMA'S face in person on several occasions weeks and months before this shitstorm happened, i told you so... and why i did the stream for him regardless btw if you actually read most/part of this TLDR rant? i wouldn't waste the opportunity to help try make esports grow, besides nobody else in the city does what i do, so i feel obliged to do what i can even at my current experience level to see tastetosis/the progamers and the amazing guys behind the scenes at work, the true heroes why the ppsl last day became actually QUITE FRANKLY awesome.
anyway here we go.
INTRO
my name is john, i'm the lead stream engineer (moderately experienced streamer by my standards), and the third-party guy hired to interface/livestream the 'hdmi game-feed, 2 hdmi cameras and 2 player booth cameras', with third-party mobile cams and the live audio/LED video billboard system. you can find my previous work (a week before for mineski.net pgf feat. dota/dota2/sc2 wcg philippines @enter link here, and for garena philippines league of legends wcg philippines @enter link here, and for pcxpressgamingexpo (a current project feat. dota/sc2/kos(a counter-strike variant)) at http://www.twitch.tv/ktgameone.
PART I: POINTS OF INTEREST
1. stream bitrate. in before anything else, we had 500-700kbps upload bandwidth to work with (the line that was given to the production desk at least). i was suppose to test the stream on-site with thegunrun the morning before (sunday 7am) by IGN's request directly to gus, but apparently the 'isp service provider fucked up and couldn't make it to allow for internet testing' thus 360p to 480p was pretty much it. MY TAKE: i badgered gus consistently about stream requirements for 720p (1.5-2.5 mbps up), he said the isp will provide it but provided no details such as contact numbers of their engineers or even assurance. FU MOMENT: i get up at 6am to get to the mall with my streaming equipment (50lbs of equipment) by 7am to call gus around 730am knowing it's way too quiet and sounds like he just woke up (he lives fucking 45mins-1hour away from the mall), then 2 1/2 hours after with thegunrun (just chilling out) 930-11am have gus say the isp guys fucked up. (gunrun covers ign btw by asking for a testing at 12nn, which again gets rescheduled to monday 1am (which the isp guys still aren't there for until 10am'sih) i go home to get rest because ima be moving shit into the mall at 11pm in the night.
-> unacceptable stream standards for IGN as i recall. i have been contracted by gus/azk in the past for PPSL qualifier 5 @enter link here (on the teamazk twitchtv archives) where azk closed down a net cafe to stream at 720p, to show IGN that 720p was possible in the philippines) MY TAKE: 720p (streaming) all the way up to 1080i realistically is possible in the philippines, you just need to know the isp to talk with and either pay them properly or choose a good location to ensure solid bandwidth. FU MOMENT: hahaha, so gus is like, 'we are streaming for IGN and we need to make sure it's 720p', i'm like ok, what will it involve? 'we are closing down a net cafe and you are streaming casted ppsl qualifier 5 games'. i'm like that's it? gus goes 'yeah'. when i arrive with my cameras/microphones mixers etc... he tells me, the casters aren't here, they are at home (farmboy) and one is in australia (cheekyduck) via skype. i'm like fuck you (to myself), aren't you suppose to tell me these things? brought 40lbs extra equipment across the city for nothing. RETROSPECT: requirements gathering failure on my part too. but logically speaking you'd expect these MAJOR details to be ironed out for someone providing a service that is more then bringing just a fucking xsplit/afmle computer around.
-> preparation. hmmm. we don't get a week to setup at the mall (it's not a convention center), we setup night before till mall opening. but more importantly we didn't practice our interfaces/the show program plan itself (if it existed) before the event. (something i now have vividly/emotionally experienced is A BAD THING). MY TAKE: it takes money to get the streamers/av guys/show producers, marshals together for a dry-run, something gus probably didn't have / OR conversely he was noob and thought things could run themselves. FU MOMENT: i had 4 major requirements (posted NOV 2, i have more on why i was hired a week+ before the event btw) for my prod at the ppsl -> my laptop sucks atm as my equipment is still in boxes but here is the basic copy/paste: 1. draft layout plan of the glorietta activity center for cabling/positioning <- CHECK 2. network requirements (1mbps UP for standard 480p, 2.5mbps UP for 720p) 3. contact number of logistics provider of the bigscreen/sound system (integration) 4. detailed daily plans for broadcasting eg. event stuff like introduction / sched for games 5. ingress procedure (bringing stuff into glorietta req permits or what not) 6. graphics production (c/o **azk member or what not). ZERO FUCKING REPLY from gus for any of these requirements except general text replys like yeah the isp has got it covered. i heard NOTHING about the general program plan except a 1-page document that ***azk member showed me that i said was fucked up as it was like general guide for what 'may' happen on the day itself and not a say ' per 15 minute guide' of who is up on stage or caster duties/runners/people running activities around the floor. i heard nothing since about a production plan until the unfolding at day one that one DIDN'T EXIST. RETROSPECT: i should have critically pushed to see a production plan out in the open as it reflects my productions personal preparedness to interface with their plans (if they existed)
-> DAY ONE. i'll be accountable for the graphic errors, and probably along the lines of scene switching 'professional cue'ing with casters/stage/av crew that we worked with for the first-time WITHOUT a floor director/production plan/executive director on the first day of the ppsl, before torch/justin/rachel/allyn++ and some dedicated members of azk that knew that something was wrong stepped-in to try to make things right. basically azk let them run the show (no joke as azk needed it (well you have to blame the guy assigning (or lack of assigning) the job to lead the show: gus) i was not contracted to run the show, nor in the personal/proper capacity to step-in and take-charge of 'content' per say, but just manage and execute the delivery system with what i had. on a personal note mega props to the guys mentioned above for taking it upon themselves to create content in absence of azk executive decision making. MY TAKE: i'm gona be honest that i wasn't expecting nor in the physical/mental capacity to even try to sort out the mess that morning. i was pretty much heavily yelling/suggesting to the azk marshals/submanagement wtf is going on and why the fuck nobody was directing shit for stuff to get up on stage. FU MOMENT: ok so basically we were running a stream without any planning / camera angles / preparation for this scenario. i felt really bad for azk (yes even gus) and of course allyn/rachel that were trying to buy time, as it reflected not just a lack of a contingency plan but it also created a massive migraine filled first 6-8 hours (with major internet hiccups included) on what the fuck we were suppose to be doing. it made everyone look like an ass from my desk, to the marshals, to registration booth, to the standby a/v guys to the players. FU MOMENT 2: i have friends in the HON community in the PH i personally invited and greeted and talked with during the event. til i found out that night that they've been waiting all day for a motherfucking decision whether or not the tournament is a go or for tomorrow. they were practically dodged by gus apparently and gus didn't even tell his marshals or 'lower in commands' what to do apparently. they are the main instigators of the teamazk facebook page badmouthing (lol if gus didn't just set it to admin only posting mode), primarily because all they wanted was an answer from their 10am call-time if the HoN tournament would push through or not. official statement on HoN S2 games funds 2k? have no clue about this if S2 actually did send funds over in the first place. the hon guys (duskbin/zek friends included) stayed til 9pm because they just wanted to confront the head-organizer. in talking with them personally, they only wanted gus to man-up so they wouldn't absurdly (in it's own right) try to prosecute him legally.... FU MOMENT 3: did you guys know gus got to the event that he's supposedly at the helm at 3pm in the motherfucking afternoon? nobody was able to contact him til he arrived (obviously he had a lot of phonecalls/texts that day), that's either irresponsibility, avoiding something, or just overall wtf did you even bother showing up are you stupid that you let your event start without manning the helm. gross mismanagement. FU MOMENT 4: cebu guys not able to fly-in. gus couldn't admit he didn't have funds to fly them in straight-up (cebu is just a different part of the philippines with a total of 4 players (Cube guys on the player list) that were also suppose to be flown-in. but weren't) alright that itself is MESSED UP. you already have the circus of foreigners (only looks like a circus because the event is called the PPSL (philippine pro-starleague) which I HAVE TONS MORE TO TALK ABOUT BTW, but really, you fly-in (no hard feelings zanooku you're cool in real life and i fly-in for free with accommodations if id was ignorant of the entire situation or some other guy that you just want to brand AZK under instead of going by the standards/rules you've set forth in 'online qualifiers (which should have been marketed as invitational qualifiers ZzZZZ noob shit etc... FU MOMENT 5: YoonYJ / Dox's post + i guess random articles read at 3am in the morning on tuesday (day 2) about what happened with dealings with some korean pro-gamers and how azk changed conditions around etc... Dox you're a great writer/reporter of what went down. it just solidified my next set of actions.
-> PRE-DAY TWO on the internet / ppsl production group (the ppsl prod group is the azk group + me as the third-party streamer only) i learned about what happened to the HON guys, SC2 cebu/australia/korea guys, then i go into the ppsl production group and post the following.
'sorry im holding your event hostage gus, im not doing shit tomorrow without 50% upfront and written contract to pay the 50% after the said amount of time. if the rest of you people FEEL in anyway that what i'm doing is WRONG, then fuck off.'
- no replys (well one reply (not from gus), but it didn't answer)
- i follow up with
'and if you think this is being greedy it's to protect myself from getting screwed over like my HoN friends i personally invited and couldn't for the sake of it say a thing when i realized what happened. FUCKING MAN THE FUCK UP'
- long story why i requested 50% upfront (also below in storyline mode)
at this point around 4am, clive (yes the guy with the hotel issues, and i guy also in the group), msgs me (translation) 'brotha, i feel you on this, where are you going to get contracts to file a 'case' against gus? if ever i'm with you on this with toot*, thinks are going sour' - i reply, well i can get some notary stuff done simply and what not, but i'm not completely serious about it yet...
i sleep-in intentionally, i get to the venue 1 hour after mall opening (justin calling me/texting when i come, i lie to him and tell him i'm leaving, but yeah sorry man, i was actually contemplating whether i should just come and pick-up my shit or what not as gus hasn't replied to my ppsl group post nor answer my texts).
oh that reminds me: here is something juicy, the only comm i have with gus after the event (actually during day 1, we shared zero words, as i felt he was avoiding me anyway) gus texts me : we need to talk about the stream. i reply - (paraphrased) 'talk demand shit from me, talk with the ISP, then talk with the imaginary floor director, then talk about the 50% we agreed upon upfront, we (dedicated azk members and the cast of foreigner friends that put themselves out there) want to make this work, just fucking pay some to plan for you or something, playing the finger pointing game won't get you points with your staff that you promised glory. he replied 'wtf are you talking about', RETROSPECT: it's either he's stupid or playing dumb (conning) or i used weird metaphors lol.
anyway when i wake up, i read IGN's post, and the rest of whatever on the teamazk page, personal groups etc...
-> DAY-2: when i get to the mall justin and my crewmate, and trevor has everything started up. i feel overwhelmed by their dedication to do the right thing, that deep down i'm feeling too, but on the outside am absolutely sour about (i was suppose to protest doing stream work (maybe i was pussy to protest, but whatever, doing what's right takes more courage). i'm re-motivated to work honestly, what we do is damage control, stage management, computer management, etc.. management and finish the tournament not for AZK definitely but rather for the players that have been frustrated and have walked out from DAY 1, but also for the fans that were not just excited to see tastetosis, thebeeduck (right about now <3) but the their hero progamer players that AZK actually did fly-over play in an actual, watchable tournament.. not much to say about this day except that one internet restart, but that the games were marvellous and the net was still as shitty as ever. one thing to note is that gus was there from the morning to the end of mall closing, no words exchanged except that he was waiting for the money when i confronted him with our agreement.
after mall ours we are cleaning our shit out, hey i'm sorry to spill this but like 5-15% of the peripherals that *** sponsored for use were missing? fucking hell. 39/50 headsets left?, mismanagement security or what? this was day 2, maybe disgruntled organizers cared less because of their leaders lack of 'leading'.... i confronted gus about my pay, he couldn't say anything concrete except i'll have it by the end of the week. wtf is that ... then i talk with some random people there, apparently gus also owes a six figure amount (in pesos) in plane fares, and yeah the nvidia guy needs solid convincing or what not about what happened.... i could only help but feel teary eyed for gus and what he's gotten himself into. DRAMA/CLICHE/IRONY incoming: if only he had listened to me months back, or only if he was smarter and actually wikipedia'ed or googled or fucking outsourced someone else to run his event.
-> AFTER party GOODBYES. well i got their with my friends late (brought my equipment home and all), i'm going to say this honestly, it was good vibes. i personally enjoyed the games, the casting and the crowd during day 2. it was almost our country's esports dream come true (albeit the terrible condition it has generated which i seek to rectify through this personal journal etc... damn to see oGsMC, marinekingprime and Sen (well sen's been here before hihihihi) live! (my bias) with TASTETOSIS casting was an amazing treat that i'd never expect be pulled off in realistically 5-10 years. i gave gus a firm handshake and semi-hugged him. no plastic involved it was genuine. if it wasn't for gus persistence and almost LOL SACRIFICE AT THE CROSS, we wouldn't have a chance to meet EVERYONE, and even come together at this very point in time as a community/sea/world wide to DIFFERENTIATE the good from the bad, and the ugly. it's insane how much i enjoyed 30minutes of just congratulating each other for the most awkward sentiment of 'job well done we pulled off a miracle by finishing the tournament and generating hardcore FUCKING AMAZING games with insanely genuine casting.
anyway, now it's time for the fun part of my post
PART II. TIMELINE MODE (WHY I AM THE NUMBER ONE TEAM AZK CRITIC)
1. AZKwitchdoc is born, H2H a filipino 1v1 casual chatroom invites him and his friends to play. gus is caught ghosting LOL, and still loses to some guy named kTGameOne (me) not kidding, former SEA gm (if that mattered then or now =)- feb/march
2. PCxpress launches a tournament called the powercup for sc2, azkwitchdoc asks us to meet him in person at a mall as he'd like to talk with us about his contacts and his vision to create an event similar but with better sponsors. I along with other members of the community, progamers, fans, and advocates a like meet at this mall at the specific date and time. we wait 2 hours, and call him like 10-20 times, he texts me sorry i don't have sleep. FUCKING ASSHOLE, we were like 10 people waiting there for you because you had an idea and wanted to meet. -march
3. AZKwitchdoc puts together a crappy website (teamazk.co.cc? or something like that) gus says he's going to organize a tournament back in march called the AZK Open Invitational that will feature foreigners / rachel, (duno how the fuck he thinks when he mentions logistics)
- LOL contradicting event title alone, OPEN INVITATIONAL? wtf, so what is it, open tournament that you register for or an invitational that you get invited to? or is the event just called azk open, but it's through invitations?
- LOL 'hey guys' ford is sponsoring us. alright goodjob (community goes wtf, is that legit), ford doesn't sponsor in the end.
- this is my 2nd official sc2 livestreamed on-site event, i did dota primarily for mineski at the time
- LOL 'we will invite online players aside from having people play at the internet cafe venue', wait wtf, where did your brain go? what happens when the all the local players lose, so we sit there and watch the invites you had from korea/abroad play through the stream? idiot...
- LOL btw rachel quirico will be there to co-cast... omg so that means i need to configure 2 mics and a skype window open so that there are 2 live casters and one over the internet? also how the hell are you suppose to cast a game at our high latency through skype webcam + the 2 live one? pretty revolutionary actually, tbh it's also pretty stupid to configure that much shit just to use rachel's name as hype (which gus never really mentioned anything about after he failed to deliver.
- 20k php prizepool was it? hmmm more like 2500 to the top place guy + 1k + something else to 2nd and third, razer products to follow about a month after right? sleazy stuff, -end of march? or early mid april
4. BSG tournament
- does offrace count as being gold? stfu, if you're in diamond zerg, then you shouldn't be allowed to play as gold terran right MutaKing? aka * hmmm this is a blind item, never did know what happened with the champion, but it doesn't matter because the sponsor backed out anyway (a school that offered a scholarship plus 10k cash) because not that many people joined anyway/especially those that actually needed the sponsorship
- let me be honest, in the philippines if you HAVE the money to afford to buy starcraft 2 much less play it with an internet connection and a good computer then chances are you don't need a scholarship, the intention was good but gus' brain must have been fried or something.
- iahgames (blizzard distributor) i HEARD paid off some of the expenses of the event
- no stream production for the event, he couldn't afford me making more money then him probably (5k php 100$~ USD), which was fine as it's not like it was needed or anything because sponsors only care about those 1-2 kids that joined in hopes of winning, but you can't if you play against an offraced asshole. (tbh bsg, no real way of telling what level you're at, it's an honesty system really, but it was verified that, that players account was once diamond on a linked account - june? yeah june
4. aside from gathering enough troupe and new allies (CV) it's time to plan for something big. the idea of the PPSL is introduced! lemme recall from memory. there was this video and he proclaimed his direct competitor in the video (american politics style where you can use commercials to talk about your opponent)
- LOL he said the *** event had 30+ participates and the AZK event had 56+ participants, first of all those numbers aren't even big nor worth talking about.... secondly the AZK event number of participants also talks about the 2v2 bracket and FFA bracket, bigggg lolllll, it's like he didn't even think any of it through
- LOL Philippine Pro STAR LEAGUE, ok i've been criticizing the NAME EVER SINCE IT'S MOTHER FUCKING INCEPTION, let me post the jist of why i hated it so much based on my post back in the PPSL production group from around august 29 around after the time after we did the stream for the PPSL qualifier 5 for IGN's eyes
'--- CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM --- if you think i'm hating then you're probably an idiot
marshals: simply get organized, get your head marshal to create a schedule that you guys may follow and who you report to.
casters++: watch and play more. @paul coming as a friend and now 'professional' workmate, i believe you can improve significantly as a caster by simply being yourself. for some reason or another my opinion tells me you were being overly nice while working with jessi that just lead to either weird conversations or a 'lost in translation' take of what you think happened in game. simply speaking, explain it in tagalog and let the audience/co-caster try to understand what you are getting at. tbhonest i think a lot of you already know im against the PPSL itself as a brand name because it's target market is somewhat 'non-existant' eg. 720p streams for the west but branding the name of show itself something specifically asian (after a country), thusly you lose out on A. local markets because of the intense quality stream (remedied by next 'session' with dual stream outputs (will talk with your twitch.tv account settings manager) and B. foreign markets: i'm thinking as a foreigner: 'wow these guys named an entire tournament after their country + they have foreigners winning their country's tournament' (it's exactly what i was thinking the entire time during the NASL (north-american starleague)
face it, the brand isn't local, nor is it international. (argue with me on this one, i'm not the kind that will defend my point if i know i've lost trust me)
my general remedies: 1. call the PPSL with foreigner upcoming event the grand inauguration with foreign invites and keep your marketing/social media consistent with that 'tag-line and brand' 2. change the brand name completely or sorta completely. you guys have marketing/pr firms that you know can do this. my current best attempt would be the 'AZK Starleague feat. South-East Asian IPL Qualifiers' <-- SEE THAT SHIT
5. ENDLESS NAME DROPPING, CLASS REMARKS, IN-HOUSE CRAP, EGO CRAP etc... (well alot of it probably did happen, but if you follow or read gus' message
- 'meeting up with GSL guys' (so what then what happened? we are excited to hear that but are more interested in the results of the meet-up then care about your personal gain
- 'at republiq (class A club) party'ing with team azk' (in direct response to mineski celebrating the philippine victory of dota/hon/sc2 at the tgx in singapore, at a lower class place that invited people to come and party/drink for free...
- progamer name dropping (well what if they don't fucking confirm? thoughts on LiquidHuk replacing someone at the PPSL? how about thoughts on GusLedesma using his brain when he posts?)
- '20k inhouse AZK only tournament, just a recruitment scheme... duh, nobody actually played or won anything, or maybe they did, we'd never know if they'd never publish anything about it beyond the headline
- 'first ever barcraft in the philippines'. lol me streaming from my house with drinks is a better barcraft then what you guys did, it was even closed to 'AZK'ish good standing members? like wtf?, branding yourself as the first then using the country's name? talk about grabbing hype attention. idiot crap that generators haters for sure.
- 'TL MULTIPLE ANNOUNCEMENT THREAD <3' if you guys saw it too, you'd be SHITTING YOURSELVES on how they marketed the tournament much less did people actually know who AZK is about
- CV/Gus Ledesma and I meet about doing a stream at 720p for IGN
- CV talks about how cutthroat he is about business and how he has lawyers and shit <-- amazingly turned off at this point it bites them fucking back in the throat
*maybe i missed a few things been typing for 5 hours now -> this happened from like july'ish toward last month
6. about 1 month before the PPSL i get 'fired' from being the guy producing the stream for a mixup in stream addresses when streaming for another event. (total damage i caused when i got fired, 3-5 stream viewers at 11am in the morning, because i (or my associate) accessed the wrong stream id on xsplit for 10-15minutes) i have a lengthy discussion with gus on how arrogantly he's playing this, and how much it's opened my eyes to see what kind of a person he's become. awesome text messages i remember
gus: 'you're fired for letting that happen'
john: 'LOL i didn't even know i could be fired for something i wasn't officially hired for in the first place'
gus: 'i even have the checked signed and everything'
john: 'it's not even about the money now but it's about a lost opportunity to stream for huge event that may make or break the country and i'd like to be sure that i'd be there myself and not some noob.
RETROSPECT: well i'm still not paid, he must have torn up the check =)
7. 2 weeks before the PPSL, gus messages me 'we need to talk'
- i knew it was going to be about the stream BUT
- i thought it was going to be a personal apology or something like that but i walk to the coffee bean area
- 10-15 of them are at the table and i slowly approach and this one guy is like 'let's make it happen'
- IM GRINNING MY ASS OFF
- i gather GUS + CLIVE + *** and *** i say my piece
paraphrased
gus: 'it's crunch time we gota make this happen'
john: WAIT WAIT. wtf so you bring me here and officially reinstate me
gus: yeah i did overreact but you have to understand, ign is watching us, this is important for everyone in the ph
john: what if i said no? what i do what CV said and be CUTTHROAT about my business, hey instead of paying me 50k php just flyin IGN guys and IGN equipment, you have the funds right? a backup plan?
(i get really emotional at this point as i feel it's almost imperative i have a part in this to OVERSEE that things go right)
so i give them 2 stipulations:
1. 50% upfront on or before the event (didn't happen)
2. my company's name KTS Game Media IS NOT on any of the pamphlets branding or stream credits or sponsor rolls or anything like that.
AT THIS POINT IN TIME ALONE, 2 WEEKS BEFORE THE PPSL, I'M ALREADY NOT CONFIDENT IN HOW WELL THE PPSL WILL GO.
btw did you know that the PPSL production group, comprising of me + AZK only guys was actually started by me then i was kicked after my 'HARSH' ppsl comments after the qualifier 5 production at the end of october, then reinvited back into it again as i re'joined' the crew 2 weeks back?
it's messed up, nobody ELSE AZK wanted to talk about things that were happening. I ASKED FOR PLANS AND EVERYTHING NEEDED TO ACTUALLY RUN THE PPSL. NOTHING WAS THERE OR COMMUNICATED TO ME. Probably because Gus maybe offered everyone their own little side cut, like myself, doing production, in exchange for doing as they're told. unfortunately i've got the balls to say TONS of shit was WAY too wrong, and my friend clive canlas is paying a 40kPHP or 800$ USD~ price tag for Gus Ledesma's mismanagement, hey don't forget there are probably over 40kPHP of sponsor parts missing, 500k PHP in unpaid for travel agent airfare, 50k to me for bring my equipment in, and the rest of the wages or rental fees for the other shit there.
@NVIDIA PH, and all sponsors, and those that have contributed, check your accounting records pls, that is all. I DON'T HAVE A SIGNED CONTRACT TO DO PRODUCTION WORK WITH GUS. whatever, as long he knows the everyone else knows that people have been cheated out which can EXTEND to the news and his co-workers, i'm more then happy to have helped contribute to his 'public reprimand', if he doesn't PAY UP and APOLOGIZE. and not just the mock APOLOGY EARLIER, or even the friendly apology to celebrate the miracle of an ending/closure to the PPSL, but a public apology addressing the way he's MISMANAGED THE EVENT, MISREPRESENTED THE FUNDING, GROSSLY SCREWED OVER HIS OWN TOURNAMENTS MECHANICS/RULES, and yeah in a sense, set back ph esports. (but not really, my take is you've opened the eyes of the blind following the blind ^_^)v
Shit just gets more and more crazy/depressing :/..
