Efrag shuts down with no word on the money it owes players and staff
Counter-Strike has a long history of tournament organisers not paying their dues to players and talent. CS: GO in its nativity was a breeding ground for scam agents and tricksters. However, the rapid growth of CS: GO and esports, in general, led to several big names entering the scene. The transformative years saw many companies attempt to enter the market and then fizzle out.
One such company was Efrag, an organisation that started out as a tournament organisers. They hosted several tournaments mostly pertaining to Counter-Strike Global Offensive. While most of the initial tournaments were successful, problems started to creep in.
The World Championships 2016
This was the first edition of the tournament format and had a prize pool of $100,000. The tournament would see national teams compete against each other. It gave off an Olympics vibe and players would play for the national pride. It was telecast on Azubu, a new live streaming website. Azubu aimed to provide competition to Twitch and hopefully attain a growth path. But Azubu failed and with it, Efrag was unable to pay its players. At least, this is what Efrag wants us to believe. In a series of tweets, Efrag CEO mentioned that they would be unable to pay the players. He blames Azubu and their inability to put forth the promised money as being the principal reason.
1/3 After the ESG Tour happened last year in Mykonos, Greece, I was left alone to manage the entire company, with a lot of hard work involved to provide as much work as possible for Efrag.
- efrag mak1 (@efragovic) September 3, 2018
2/3 , so we could find a way out of this really hard situation we found ourselves in after illegal breach of partnership contract agreement by Azubu. Which doesn’t only owe the players that participated in the The World Championships 2016. a considerable amount of money,
- efrag mak1 (@efragovic) September 3, 2018
3/4 but us as a company Efrag as well. Unfortunately after this battle that lasted around a year now, Efrag will be no more, I was not able to bring Efrag back to what it was before the money issues happened concerning Azubu.
- efrag mak1 (@efragovic) September 3, 2018
4/4 To everyone that was involved with the work of our company I wish all the best and apologize if Efrag failed to deliver on what was agreed upon.
- efrag mak1 (@efragovic) September 3, 2018
What is the next step for the players? Efrag owes the following amount of money to the teams :
The biggest amount of money will go to the first place, Team Turkey. The team included a majority of players from Space Soldiers, along with Maj3r and Calyx ( who are now current members of the team). They were an emerging team and this prize money could have helped the players tremendously. We still don’t know what is the exact communication between the tournament organisers and the players. The series of tweets are not clear on whether the company has filed for bankruptcy or it simply shut down without clearing the debts. Either way, the players do have the option of taking legal recourse for any sort of compensation. The legal fees would, however, put a dent in their earnings and there is still no guarantee of them ever seeing their prize money. I wish that no other player will have to go through this or have the same issue,” Kupeli said. “There’s no need to be angry or mad. Can I do or say anything to make it different? No. It’s time to move on. Maj3r, Former Team Turkey player But it seems that the players have given up on the money. After waiting for more than two years, they don’t expect to see the money again.