Start: So to begin, let's start about me making the team. The original 5 for the LCS qualifiers were obviously, MegaZero/ClakeyD/Heartbeat/Atomic/Me. After long days of trying to qualify, and actually getting into that spot for the tournament, Heartbeat was like "Real talk Marn, we need a better player". I said if we do that, we're still going to split the money evenly 7 ways (this includes djWheat getting a cut by the way). Everyone agreed. And to be fair, I'm not going to lie (Sorry Wheat if you're reading this), I was shady in the fact that I was going to use djWheat's cut for team expenses. How else would we pay for what we needed? I recall telling him that too. He helped me get my organization turned into a LLC with eSports Management Group. Riot wanted all organizations to be real, to be a LLC, to be legitimate, so that's what I did. So in a way, MegaZero was right. I got more than the players, and I won't even deny that.
The House: Riot gives a certain amount to the teams for housing subsidy for three months. What they didn't include was 1. Security Deposit, and 2. May's Rent (Relegation month) and 3. Utilities. It was way above our means for a new team and in actuality, Clakey wanted to live near the beach, and everyone else said screw it, let's do it. BUT I do recall MegaZero not agreeing/liking it because I did give the option of doing what complexity did and getting 2 apartments for way cheaper. In the end, everyone loved the house and no one complained. Clakey and I split the extra money ($800) for the house because we had the two biggest rooms so no one had to pay anything extra.
What happened: Keep in mind, that my name is not on the lease. A majority of the team did though and our website designer. MegaZero/Heartbeat/Atomic/Inflame/ClakeyD signed the lease. Why? Because for a nice house like that I wasn't even sure I had the credit necessary because I've never used a credit card before only debit. When we first got the house before even the lease was completely signed, I had my brother front us the money to get the security deposit and first month's rent. Obviously, he wanted to be paid back when Riot gave us the monthly salary. But we wanted to move in earlier, so he sent the money to me. When Riot gave us the money, my brother was still owed $5000. So I talked to the team and I said, hey team, we need $800 each from you guys to pay for the security deposit. We obviously get it back when the lease ends. They didn't say anything, they understood we needed it. So May rolls around and we're in relegations, and I go, "Hey guys, we need $800 each again to pay for May's rent. I talked to Riot and they'll advance us the money for May's rent if we qualify again." "Sure go ahead, so we get our money back when we qualify right?" "Yeah but if you guys lose..." "Yeah right." Ok. So Riot's problem is that I have no written confirmation of this. Nothing. I lived with them. Why would I Skype them over something so small? So yeah, I did take $1600 from their salaries.
Breakdown: Players received $12,500 from Riot and Riot does give an extra $25,000. Which went to me, and I salaried myself $12,500 like the players with $12,500 that was supposed to be djWheats (but I used it for expenses). So I would say that I made it so that I made as much as the players did but $12,500 went to the MRN stuff.
This is a typical month of JUST electricity. Gas ~$100-200 and so is Water. On top of that is $100 for the Internet. I did edit this to get rid of personal info and the first number is the amount I paid and the second number is my balance after that.
Where did the money go?: So we were in the house for FIVE months. Two months not even in the house, and the new tenants didn't move in til July 1st. So from February - June, I was paying all the bills with the $12,500 that was put to the side. It was about $1500-$1700 a month, and if you guys want to see, I have the bills for May and June also and NO ONE WAS IN THE HOUSE and it was about the same. Even in the MINIMUM of the $1500 a month, it turned out to be $7500~. On top of that, who has to pay for June's rent? All of them, but not me, cause I'm not on the lease. So could I have afforded to pay the rent/security deposit myself? No. I paid myself the same as the players. "Oh you should have just used your cut for all of this instead of them." No. I got paid the same for benching myself and I created the team from scratch, and we all agreed to it. There was ONE time I asked them for $10? or $20 each so we could get a maid to clean the house. We're all boys, we don't like to clean!
Where do we go from here: I was the only one who stayed behind after everyone left about a week after relegation. I cleaned up the house, I did everything I could, and Clakey came and helped. Everyone else left the house just took their things and left it a mess. There were scratches on the wall from when they decided to take Heartbeat's bunk bed and split it in 2 to make Ecco's room with a bed. There were broken chairs. The couch was almost falling apart. The stove didn't work right. Just everything was left and I had to stay behind and fix and talk to the realtor about everything. We had to pay to get people to help us move the bed BACK UP the stairs. Scratches on the floor from the tables moving back and forth with the computers on them. Scratches from the computers. I could keep going and going but I'm not.
What's been going on: Eventually about a month after we got relegated out of the league. Riot decides to email me saying that I owe money to the players. In my mind, I thought it was a mistake. There's no way, I took $1600 from them that we all agreed upon for the HOUSE that THEIR names are on. I'm supposed to pay that myself? No thanks. Not my problem. But I did decide stay behind and fix everything that needed to be fixed. I paid for new chairs. I did everything I SHOULDN'T have. Everyone else went back home, didn't care about the house anymore, and left it up to ME to do it. So instead of MegaZero talking to me HIMSELF, he decides to turn the whole team against me. Not Atomic / Clakey though because they have morals. So after a long back and forth with Riot, I told them that since the team wants $7000 from me, I will pay them back at the end of the month. The Realtor is accessing all the damages that the people on the lease will have to pay which is well over $7000 including June's rent, etc. so I would be PROFITING from THEM if they continue to pursue this. So in my mind, why doesn't everyone just walk away and just be done with this?
What's left: So these are texts from my players (except MegaZero since apparently I'm like the evil guy in all of this so I will just not talk to him as he chooses to ignore me and go to reddit for some reason). However, now he's claiming the whole team is against me but even if they are, why would I receive these texts? The situation here is: I did take away $300 from each member from the team, NOT FOR MY SELF GAIN, BUT because the bank didn't have all the cash they wanted since everyone wanted cash on the team except MegaZero (who got his wired to him) but I didn't take $300 from MegaZero afaik that time. But I did take $1100 away total from that last check. $300 from everyone til the next day which I lagged on is my bad. And $800 for the rent. But why would they only ask for $300 when I took $1100 from them? And EVEN WHEN I took $800 from them EACH, that = $4000. Guess who paid the extra $1800? Yeah, I did. Guess who paid the extra $1000 with the security deposit? Yep. I did. I always chipped in when I needed to.
This is Heartbeat. May 15th almost a week after we got relegated. Tells me he needs to take care of all payment stuff of $300. Now he's asking for $1900. Yep.
Here's Ecco. May 19th. He only wants $300 from the last check. But again, I took $1100, and now he's wanting $1600. I left $300 on his desk when he came back. It was gone when I went to the house to clean up.
Nien is a different case. He thinks I owe him $1900 from his first check when he came into the team in Mid-March I believe. But the $1900 was given to Atomic because he played like a couple of games in March and the salaries from what I'm told by Riot is based on number of games played, NOT monthly. But I'll figure that out with Nien later, we still talk on a consistent basis.
What now: I told them I would get them back the money by the end of the month but they will have to deal with what the Realtor wants. I could go with both sides, because I want to just get this over with and walk away. But they want to combine forces to try to get more money from me that I don't think they should get back. To be honest, I feel everyone knew what was going down when I asked for both those payments of security deposit / rent. For now it seems MegaZero has convinced them to be on his side and ask for the money back claiming they thought it was a short term loan and they would get the money back. DUDE YOUR NAMES ARE ON THE LEASE NOT MINE.
SPONSORS: Other than MadCatz, we had Origin. Both PRODUCT sponsors. Mobafire signed us up and the team refused to make one guide a week. That's all we needed to do. One guide a week. And no one did it. MegaZero started on one and didn't finish it and Ecco did it instead. I had to TELL THEM that MOBAFIRE would give them $100 for each guide when I would be paying out of my own pocket because that's how lazy my players were. How would we get new sponsors if we couldn't even please our existing sponsors and get our name out there? I had to give them $10 each to wear the MadCatz headset around their necks when they played at LCS. I tried to use my name good or bad to expose my brand and to get the players out there so we could make more money. I realized how hard it was to get a sponsor throughout all this, and to be honest, I thought it would be easy being in the LCS. It wasn't, and it came at a price.
TL:DR: It's my team, we all agreed to what I did. They aren't keeping their word. It's my fault I decided to take the $12,500 for expenses, utilities, etc. I can account for every penny I used with that if that's what it takes. I take full responsibility for taking the $12,500 extra, however if I had just split it within the team, it all would've gone back to the house anyways because then we would've had to split all the utilities / rent / etc. Their names are on the lease, they are responsible for the house, but all left after we got kicked out of LCS and basically made me do all the house work. I might be a little off on the math, but the rest of the money + some of my money was used to pay the rent of June before the new tenants moved in on the 1st of July. Everyone but Atomic/Clakey is pursuing me for money. I never asked them for money for utilities, it was all paid for by the money I put on the side. I did pay myself the same as the team because I saw myself an equal, people might not see it that way, but I put a lot of work in creating the team, benching myself, etc. We lost relegation and now the team wants money back from me for having to pay rent for the month of May after we lost. I'm supposed to give them money back for their responsibilities. Riot said I should have had written consent, I lived with them, don't need to Skype if I'm there. So basically Riot wanted me to withdraw the money and then ask for $800 after handing them the money instead of just taking it so I could pay the Realtor with it straight from my bank account. I wired her the rent money through the team account every month. They did not say anything until we lost and were completely out. Everyone had a part to play in all of this and unfortunately, it went down the wrong path. Security deposit was used mostly for all the damage that went to the house, I paid for June's rent even though I didn't need to. I take full responsibility for my actions, but they won't take theirs. They broke their word, and now we're in this big crap fest that we shouldn't be in because of money. More money, more problems. They can claim that they are young and blind, but they knew about everything they agreed to.
Cool story bro.
ReplyDeleteI stopped reading as soon as I saw you refused to sign the lease, anyone living in a apartment/house who refuses to sign the lease is doing so in order to shirk responsibilities, EOS.
ReplyDeletelol you dont deserve this crap. I feel for you bro and I can't believe how megazero is being a little whiny kid about this when you guys all agreed to it.
ReplyDeletethere is a reason your name is shunned in the FGC and now people in the LoL scene have to learn it first hand. you have been and always will be a sneaky underhanded and unscrupulous player/manager/whatever. dont try to get people on your side by saying you are poor too, poor people dont have a brand and sponsors and throw down $1000 on ft10 cash games. nice try MRN. and remember, BIONIC ARRRMMMMM
ReplyDeleteA sad read.. I hope you can work stuff out between you lot : /
ReplyDeleteSmart idea, not signing that lease.
ReplyDeleteThis is exactly why you need to defer to written agreements in all business decisions/operations. Verbal agreements can be easily denied. Always put business agreements/arrangements on paper. Always.
ReplyDeleteCool Story... so how much did you steal??
ReplyDeleteDang, that was a rough read. I would love to say logic and reasoning will prevail in the end if you just put out all the numbers and explain everything out thoroughly, but there's always going to be missing information and exaggerations somewhere. Although its sad that you might be leaving things on bad terms, you did your best at the time and you learned a lot from it. If it's money, just put out all the numbers in a spreadsheet and explain where it all came from and where it went, how much was from your pocket, how much was from the money you took as a salary and spent.
ReplyDeleteHopefully everything will work out in the end.
Megazero needed the money to send his step sister bischu to college, this dude is an ass their other half sister boxbox needed breast reduction surgeory the same day. Its tough for everyone involved.
ReplyDeleteI dont see why anything needs to be written down here, this is a dispute over where money went and surely there is bank records of every utility/rent payment. The one screenshot of a bank statement in this post seems very lacking detail.
ReplyDeleteKeep your head above the water bro. My respect for you only skyrocketed - you're doing everything in your power to just show the facts.
ReplyDeleteIf you'd like to talk or want advice, feel free to pester me.
Yo dude, I never rooted for MRN, not your fault or anything, I just casually watch LCS, but i'm sorry to hear about your trouble.
ReplyDeleteIf you ever decide to do something like work with a pro team for a game, or really anything, or are in a situation where you are running a team, remember to learn from this. No matter how much you like and trust people and how friendly they are, when they leave situations can always turn bad. Just get things in writing and have people sign, it clears headaches. Also keep clear and concise reports on all spending, public and private so you can dispute anything they feel they are owed if they are not. Meticulous record keeping, even if it can't end the bad blood, can at least keep you safe.
I know these guys were your friends and you trusted them, but they just lost a big game and left feeling disappointed with little to personally show for it other than memories, which might not be positive for them at that moment. I don't think you did anything wrong, and I don't think they all got what you were doing and what you had to do for them. They probably didn't understand how much you did cleaning, because it likely didn't seem like much really needed cleaning if you kept up with it, but cleaning for 5+ people is actually a lot of work. They also probably never had to deal with leases and security deposits and didn't think them big deals. So from their perspectives they likely should still have money coming back.
Anyway, just keep your head up and if you are honest and can account for everything it will work out in the end.
Just remember you're young and any setbacks from this won't last so don't think its much to get worked up over.
"I was shady..." is right. This makes you all look like a bunch of children recieving a bunch of money for the very first time with no real world experience... Yeah you're gonna have a bad time.
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So Marn, lemme get this straight.
ReplyDeleteRiot paid you $75k total. 12.5k of that is supposed to go to each player or a pro rata sum for subs and roster changes. That is the contract each of them signed with Riot. Where do you get off claiming to be the victim here, honestly? You squandered the team pool funds to the point where you couldn't meet the contractually obligated minimum payout. From the looks of things, you took a full share for yourself without spending a dime of it on your team while taking out of their shares and the entirety of what DJ Wheat was supposed to get to cover unforseen expenses on the house, which you didn't sign a lease on for whatever reason. 'I was shady...' applies here, mang.
I can respect that you stayed there and pay for all the broken shit , but you had money to pay that tbh .
ReplyDeleteI dont quite remember cuz this vlog is hella long , but the crew had the house for 5 months and for 3 months you got the salary from which you marn took 25k$ which multiplied by 3 is 75k $ .
That is a sh*t load of money and u cant tell us that you were poor or that you couldnt pay the bills
I MEAN CMON 75000 $ ???
Although I do not live in the US , I think that money should be way enough to pay bills not to mention that you also payed the bills together with the guys ( I dont know anything about that girl living there ) .
So 75k $ all for you Marn , did all that money really go to bills?
If I missed something or I'm wrong at some point ,someone please correct me.
Your blog is really nice about missing money. You describe it very well. Thank you.
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