fancy1: "We didn't damage TyLoo"

The Chinese team fired their coach QiFang "⁠Karsa⁠" Su and ousted two of its players, YuanZhang "⁠Attacker⁠" Sheng and YuLun "⁠Summer⁠" Cai, on Monday. The organization also suspended HaoWen "⁠somebody⁠" Xu who was later pardoned and joined the team for the WESG 2016 World Finals.

The TyLoo organization claimed Karsa and Summer got in contact with other organizations and persuaded teammates to join them. Consequently Summer and Attacker supposedly received bans from various tournaments, including ESL, WESG, Pro Gamer League, and WCA.

Two days after the news, Summer gave a comprehensive account of how this matter developed:

"I am willing to accept legal responsibility if anything I said is not the truth," stated Summer in the beginning.

"This is fancy1, professional CS:GO player for TyLoo Gaming. The announcement by TyLoo about banning us from attending future tournaments has been made public to the Chinese CS:GO scene. However, I am feeling the absolute necessity to clear up this whole thing to you, since all four of us (fancy1, somebody, AttackeR, and Karsa) have been the biggest victims. We have been under unfair treatment by the TyLoo organization. More seriously, we have been threatened and menaced, and banned by TyLoo and other tournament organizers. All these measures have been taken only because we planned to not extend our contract with TyLoo. This is the Chinese esports scene. I clearly know that what I'm saying will probably affect my future career, but I'm feeling the responsability of letting all Chinese CS:GO fans and industry people know the truth and facts.

The whole thing, I think, originated from the loss we had at the end of 2015 at the SL i-League China qualifier. Before that, TyLoo had not been champions in a long time. The vital tournament to be at SL i-League. After that loss big internal issues occurred among the team. However, unlike what happened now, we (players) didn't have contracts with TyLoo back then. The night of the loss I had a long talk with AttackeR (when he wasn't in TyLoo yet) about the possibility of forming a new team because we had the same dream, which was not motivated by making money. Only when we achieve our dream will we have a clear conscience about the money we make. We did make a lot of effort to climb to the top of China from the bottom. The night after the loss, Kindy (TyLoo's manager) found us and talked about the future of our team. I said: "If we still can't become champions, our team will part ways". Kindy said with tears in his eyes and appearing sad: "Please stay, even if I need to invest on team personally. No matter what happens, I won't let TyLoo break up. We will stay on for one more year." I was feeling bad, seeing him in tears, and I really wanted to help him. After that talk we got a one-week break. Meanwhile, one other interested organization contacted me about forming a team built around me. "We will give you a nice treatment and you can pick anyone you want to be teamed with. I'll give you 20 times salary as you have now," they said. I was shocked and even talked about it with my family and friends. All of them recommended me to have a go at it, but I wasn't convinced. Finally, when I considered how Kindy looked when we had that talk and what he said, I refused the offer because I didn't want to hurt a friend (Kindy) who I had been with for a long time. In addition, I did feel there was potential in Kindy and TyLoo. I thought he would help us pursue our dream. So I just refused the offer from the other organization.

After i-League, we had our first contact with JasonP (shareholder of 5EPlay.com and 5Ewin.com), who later became the biggest shareholder in TyLoo. I thought he would just help make a plan for our future development. At that time, JasonP appeared to be a very smooth talker. What he said made good sense. And what he offered us seemed to be much better than what it had been before. (However, everything he promised was just talk, and it only seemed to be good. In the end most promises have not come to fruition even by now). So we struck a deal. After that, I introduced Karsa and AttackeR to the team. Since then the TyLoo team have achieved much.

At the beginning of 2016 the team did a great job and we were moving along step by step. After that, we achieved many goals and TyLoo was satisfied with our achievement. More importantly we felt the distance to our dream was closing. During this pursuit we didn't ask more from the TyLoo organization while making every effort to work hard and improve. Before we signed the contract, TyLoo management promised us a lot, but it was never in any in contract. Still, most promises haven't been realized. We had trust in TyLoo so we didn't consider a possible dispute. We signed contracts. Later when we reached our bottleneck, specifically at the time when we were about to go to the US for the Major Qualifier, we talked to management a little about changing the roster. After the Major Qualifier Kindy said to me he was disappointed in Mo and may have to replace him. The new roster would include Karsa instead of Mo. This decision was made by all of TyLoo's management and team. At that point everyone was satisfied with this and promised to keep working.

After returning from the US our contracts were about to end so we started a talk with TyLoo about salaries and other treatments to see whether there would be a chance to increase it. But unexpectedly, the talk, which I think is absolutely normal, led to many disputes and unhappiness from the TyLoo management. Probably the TyLoo management started to feel the possibility that we will leave TyLoo if they didn't increase our salary. They planned on other ways to make us stay, like by buying someone or a couple of us. Previously we were a whole entity, and that was why we won a lot. However, after many wins, we became divided somehow. Now it finally ended with three of us being banned. I'm absolutely sure that this guy, who was offered money like me, used to stand beside us. The reason he betrayed us was that JasonP had a talk with us and he promised both of us a better treatment than the rest of the teammates if we kept it from them. JasonP knew if we (DD and I) stayed, the whole team would stay. We were a brotherhood and that is how we would keep improving. However, I was feeling disgusting about keeping this from my teammates. I didn't want to hurt my brothers by accepting a higher salary. We have been a team and brothers for a long time, inside and outside the game. I can't live with keeping such a dirty secret while getting more money. If the secret leaked, our team would be hurt way more seriously. At that point I stood to lose five friends. So I told others about the talk, and asked JasonP to offer us money evenly. JasonP refused my request. Since then, things started to spiral downards. Since JasonP failed to deal with me, he turned to somebody, and he failed again because he was on my side. What AttackeR posted on Weibo is what we are holding on to, "we just want to play with brothers."

JasonP told us "the salaries can't be even, this is an esport club." During the last meeting he said "if you guys want to stay and pursue your dream, I'll cooperate with you guys fully. If you want more, it's okay to form a team by yourselves or head to other organizations. We can part ways without bad words. I won't stay in your way and will wish you guys my best." After this, we began to rethink our decision. But considering the way JasonP conducted business we were afraid of what he might do, "kidnapping us by contract." We asked if a few clauses in the contract could be modified, and JasonP agreed. Considering all the things he promised at the start of the year, which never panned out, we decided to start an org and form a team on our own.

After that day we didn't ask for more but planned on how we can play our best in the next tournaments until our contracts end, so that we will finish our duty. A few days later, JasonP talked to Karsa, somebody, and AttackeR to persuade them to stay by promising to keep the current roster unchanged. After a long discuss among us, again, we changed our minds. However, surprisingly, only one night later, we got to know that TyLoo was going to sign HZ (previously playing for AG), which meant JasonP lied to us again. We decided we wouldn't trust him anymore. One day he said the roster would stay the same and the next day he would change it. We couldn't take this anymore.

During the last meeting we had with JasonP at 5E, everything turned black. They decided to ban us claiming that we contacted other organizations under our contracts, damaging TyLoo's business. I'm certain we didn't break any rules. We just lost trust in our org. Our shareholders were just turning us into a profit-earning machine. We were drifting away from our dream and our goals. What I am certainly sure about is the reason we decided to leave TyLoo—because we are feeling hopeless here. And we informed our shareholders and management about our decision. We didn't sign any contract with other orgs during the time contracted to TyLoo. We didn't leave. What we were thinking was to keep playing our best for TyLoo. Moreover, we promised to play the tournament after our contracts expired (DreamHack Masters Las Vegas) and do our best to make the leaving process amicable. However, TyLoo banded with Chinese tournament organizers to ban us from attending their matches, even after our contracts expire. This is absolutely ridiculous! The reason they banned us, TyLoo claimed, is that we'll damage their profit by leaving the team while TyLoo has other contracts, which are longer than ours, with sponsors. This makes no sense. Relations between org and sponsors have nothing to do with relations between players and orgs. We are feeling really wronged. We have been victims for no reason. We really look forward to being freed. It is absolutely unfair that an esports club colluded with tournaments to ban players. This is bullying.

Lastly, I heard JasonP's abuse directed at me during our last meeting. I was very upset. TyLoo's achievement throughout the whole year all came from our tireless efforts. We did nothing to damage TyLoo. What we were thinking was to get a deal, be it staying or leaving amicable, and a peaceful agreement. TyLoo banned us from CS:GO for leaving their organization, they wanted the only way to play CS:GO for us to have been staying in TyLoo. In the announcement by TyLoo, they claimed that I personally tried to persuade other teammates to leave TyLoo. I have to respond that I never did this. Now everything has made me lose faith in TyLoo. Nice words and promises are just means to cosy up to players. Within the contract, they can and will do everything unfair to us.

I just want to go back to our original dream and find how Chinese CS:GO can give us more passion."

This statement was written in Chinese and translated into English.

BenjaCS is a staff writer at HLTV.org and can be found on Twitter.