Vireo.Pro, the North American organisation which has been making waves recently in the CS: GO circuit is in dire straits. The organisation’s main investor backed out leaving the organisation’s financials in disarray. Additionally, it also came to light that the organisation has a 16-year-old owner. This spells trouble for anyone having a contract with the owner. As he is a minor, any contract signed between him and the players/staff is not valid.
The Apology
Colin Chan, the owner and CEO of Vireo.Pro posted a blog post on Twitlonger yesterday. The post reveals details of the various problems within the organisation. The mishandling of the entire process, as well as the lack of knowledge by key personnel, was brought to the forefront.
I owe an apology, because I was under the impression that people were aware of our situation more than they were, and that is my fault. I was supposed to be the person who started all of this, the man in charge, but Carter and Myra interacted with almost everyone almost all of the time. There was resentment for the things I didn’t, or couldn’t do, and I knew it, but I didn’t do anything about it because I thought that things would be okay in the end. I should’ve known better; as soon as our shady investment vanished, they stopped being willing to deal with me for the moron I am, so they left to take care of themselves. No one can blame them for that, and I think that in saying the things that Myra did and putting some blame on me, she did the right thing. I wanted us to be the best, to be better than others and to last forever. I hated all those shady, disgusting Denials and Icebergs, I wanted to show the world, or maybe myself, that I could do better. I wanted to prove how ridiculous it was for those people to fail when an idiot like me could succeed. Sometimes, pride is a disgusting thing.
Everyone will get their dues.
The owner publicly stated that everyone will get everything that they are owed. The last-minute pullout by their backer left the team and the CEO scrambling for daily expenses. While their expenses would regularly run into the range of $10-20k; without funding, they just did not have the necessary money to operate the team.
Everyone’s going to get what they’re owed. No one has to worry about that, I’ll work myself dry until I’m a pile of bones if I have to. No one goes without what they were meant to have, absolutely no one. If I create a mess, it’s mine. No one gets punished except me. Talk to me if you have questions, spam me with messages every day if you want, make sure you get what you want from me. I promise I’ll do everything.
I wanted to be better, but I failed right from the start by trying to be something I’m not. I am sorry for that. But I swear on everything that I will fix the mess I made.
It appears to be a genuine apology by a minor, however, it does not change the fact that there are thousands of dollars owed to many employees. He has not laid out a roadmap for the same and there are sceptics who do not believe he can secure enough funding to pay out the dues.
Team COO takes to social media as well.
Following the release of this post by Colin Chan, Team COO Myra “pharos” Davis took to social media to post a number of statements. She was the one who revealed that the owner / CEO was an underage boy. It would be difficult for anyone who legally wants to extract money for their past dues.
I also spent over $1500 of my own money on the org including $1000 at Dreamhack. Ubers, food, covering travel for an analyst, and baggage costs. This put me at -$300 in my bank account for almost a month. I never did this for the money and I still don’t.
— Holiday Myra (@Myrapie_) January 4, 2019
If you want your funding, your pay, and your future to rest in the hands of a 16 year old and a non-registered company be my guest. I was lead to believe the company was legit, then I found out it wasn’t, then I continued hiding it in hopes me and carter could fix it. We couldn’t
— Holiday Myra (@Myrapie_) January 4, 2019
She hopes to reach out to everyone who is owed money and hope that they take precautions for the near future. There were a lot of lies spread around and she does not want to see anyone hurt in the near future.
The organisation to continue operations
The organisation will continue its operations under new management. There will be renewed contracts [ on good faith ] and they will pay all the players and employees their dues Dust2.us reports.
Final Thoughts.
This is a very unfortunate incident, however, precautions should have been taken to avoid such a situation. It is high time for a players union which can help young players to avoid such scenarios in the future. While in this case, most of the players have been paid their salaries and expenses; it could have been worse. The organisation can just call it quits without any implications whatsoever.
The process of going to legal lengths to secure their payments is very lengthy and time-consuming; something that the players seem averse to. With time, we hope that Vireo.Pro and Colin Chan are able to pay all their pending dues.
The post Vireo.Pro in financial distress, organisation to continue operations under a new management. appeared first on eSportsJunkie.