Singularity & North in gade dispute

The 22-year-old joined North last month as part of the Danish organisation's academy team, who have since placed 5th-8th at Copenhagen Games and secured a spot in the ESL One Cologne closed qualifier. 

gade is at the heart of a dispute between North and Singularity

However, Singularity, whose own team wowed the Counter-Strike community by winning Copenhagen Games, claim that Nicklas "⁠gade⁠" Gade is contracted to the organisation until July 1 and that no agreement over the player's transfer has been reached. 

"We made the player aware from the beginning that he had a buyout equal to the monthly salary he was on until the number of months left on his contract," Singularity owner Atle Stehouwer told Dust2.dk.

"As such, his buyout gets cheaper each month that passes. The easiest solution would be for North to simply transfer the amount that matches the number of months gade has on his contract.

"I have been in dialogue with [North Chief Gaming Officer] Jacob "Maelk" Toft-Andersen, who was supposed to get back to me with an answer, but I am still awaiting clarification after two weeks."

Before joining North, gade played for FUAH for a brief period while remaining contracted to Singularity. Stehouwer explained that he gave his consent as he wished to find a new team for the player.

"When he played for FUAH, a good and clear communication was established between the two organisations beforehand, and we tried to help FUAH to find a home that could comply with their player requirements and then we could maybe get some of the money we invested in the player back.

"At that time, I also had a lot of dialogue with gade to help him because he is from Aarhus, too, and even lives in the same area as me.

"If I were trying to just profit from him, I believe I would have asked for more than just three months' salary, equivalent to less than 20,000 DKK, which, from what I have heard, is less than what the North Academy players make per month.

"This is about the principle that an agreement is an agreement and that, if the bigger teams treat the smaller ones like in this situation, they will have to account for their lack of willingness to dialogue."

Dust2.dk reached out to North CGO Jacob "Maelk" Toft-Andersen, who gave the following statement:

"I do not comment on staff and contractual matters and always comply with the applicable rules."