Singapore org BLEED Esports no longer has an active Counter-Strike 2 roster, following months of non-payments to both their own players and staff. Their last standing roster will continue to play together under a new tag.
As announced on Friday, by BLEED Esports' CS2 coach Aleksandar "kassad" Trifunović, the org is guilty of various non-payments.
He tweeted out this statement, featuring the name of every remaining player on the team's CS2 roster:
With no other options left, we are forced to do this.
— Aleksandar Trifunovic (@kassad) October 11, 2024
Sad , but had to be done. pic.twitter.com/qOEkdh1Bsf
This is a shocking development. Within a week after news circulating, that BLEED is in the process of assembling two academy rosters, in order to improve their CS2 division.
The org only entered CS2 last December, just falling short, recently, of qualifying for the Shanghai Major's RMRs.
In a tweet, kassad sent after the release of BLEED's official statement, he summed up what the org apparently owes its CS2 team as follows:
130k NOT PAID TO APEKS (from may 15th)
— Aleksandar Trifunovic (@kassad) October 11, 2024
42k NOT PAID TO G2 (From June)
100K IN PRIZE MONEY NOT PAID
15k NOT PAID TO FAVEN
15k+ NOT PAID TO CERQ
10k NOT PAID TO VLDN
20k+ NOT PAID TO ME
STOP LYING YOU CLOWNS https://t.co/bWkTx0T62b
These sums are not only missing salaries, but also include buyouts for players that had already joined the team!
Following kassad's tweet, BLEED Esports' Rainbow Six Siege player Taylor "Nerdsta" Ching stated, that the org owes him more than $35000 USD!
Where to start, I travelled abroad last year to live out my dream and play professional R6. Living in an expensive foreign country, while getting paid <$700 USD per month. We quickly became BLEED's most successful roster across all esports, qualifying to multiple international...
— Terd (@Terdsta) October 11, 2024
And just over a week ago, BLEED's Valorant division got kicked out of the VCT circuit, due to an apparent failure of compliments within the tour's requirements:
An update for VCT 2025 pic.twitter.com/p46AGL8iDv
— VALORANT Champions Tour (@ValorantEsports) October 4, 2024
Furthermore, whether related to all of this stuff or not, the org's CEO, who has been missing from the public for a while now, is scheduled for a court hearing next week:
UPDATE ON BLEED ESPORTS:
— BoDork (@Bo_Hoogland) October 12, 2024
CEO of Bleed Esports, Goh En Wei Mervyn has a court hearing scheduled for October 21st
The nature of the case is listed as Criminal
This explains the sudden disappearance of Mervyn pic.twitter.com/EJNjmEenNx
Players stick together under new name: UNPAID
The team's remaining four players, Joakim "jkaem" Myrbostad, Cai "CYPHER" Watson, Vladan "VLDN" Radević and Nemanja "nexa" Isaković will continue to play together for the time being.
They will be supported by Deyvid "h4rn" Benchev as the fifth player, as well as kassad, who will serve as coach. The tag under which they are now playing is "UNPAID", quite fittingly.
This roster's next event is due to start on Wednesday, at the RES Regional Champions 2024, in Belgrade.
CYPHER shared this hilarious tweet, following the team's arrival in Belgrade:
hahaha @RelogMedia legends pic.twitter.com/2WeKuid027
— cai (@cyphercsgo_) October 14, 2024
What do you think about this shocking development? Do you think we will ever see the BLEED org return to action?