BLEED roster cuts ties with organization over alleged non-payment, BLEED respond*

A statement from the team details issues with delayed payment of salaries and non-payment of bootcamp expenses, player buyouts and prizemoney.

Update 16:55 : BLEED issue response, kassad replies

The BLEED organization has issued a statement on X saying its roster "has been paid through August with September in processing," and denying the team's claims of communicational issues between them an the organization. "BLEED has been in constant conversation directly with the team on all outstanding matters brought forward."

The statement however did not address claims of missing prizemoney payments, bootcamp expenses or player buyouts. Meanwhile, Apeks in part confirmed the latter claim to HLTV, saying the Norwegian organization did not receive any money from BLEED for the transfers of Tim "⁠nawwk⁠" Jonasson and Joakim "⁠jkaem⁠" Myrbostad in May, while G2 also admitted they have "unresolved matters with BLEED," suggesting Nemanja "⁠nexa⁠" Isaković's buyout was also not paid for.

Aleksandar "⁠kassad⁠" Trifunović has since replied to the response detailing around $300,000 of outstanding payments to the aforementioned two organizations and the team.

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BLEED's Counter-Strike roster has cut ties with the Singaporean organization over claims of delayed payment of salaries and non-payment of bootcamp expenses, player buyouts and prizemoney.

In a statement, signed by kassad and the remaining players still tied to the organization, jkaem, Cai "⁠CYPHER⁠" Watson, Vladan "⁠VLDN⁠" Radević and nexa, claimed that the team continuously faced these issues from when the organization first entered Counter-Strike last December.

"From the outset, we've grappled with delayed salary (up to four months at a time), buyout, bootcamp, and other payments," the statement said. "For reference, most of the players got their first salary in April even though they signed contracts in December."

"Before the CQ for RMR, a bootcamp was organized and paid 50% by Kassad and the other 50% by players. Other organizations have confirmed that they have failed to pay buyouts for several players [...] and about 60% of tournament prizemoney is still outstanding."

"Multiple players from other divisions (Dota2, Valorant, and R6) reached out to us with similar concerns, not to mention employees regularly giving notices about breaches of contract and delayed salaries," it went on.

The team further claims that raising these issues internally was often left without a response from the management, or "lies about payments" and "empty promises," and that they're consulting with their legal team to determine their next steps.

For the time being, the following team will compete under the moniker UNPAID in their upcoming campaigns in RES Regional Champions and Thunderpick World Championship later this month. nexa will return to play for the team despite getting benched last month and Deyvid "⁠h4rn⁠" Benchev will complete the roster.

Joakim "⁠jkaem⁠" Myrbostad
Cai "⁠CYPHER⁠" Watson
Vladan "⁠VLDN⁠" Radević
Nemanja "⁠nexa⁠" Isaković
Deyvid "⁠h4rn⁠" Benchev

Aleksandar "⁠kassad⁠" Trifunović (coach)

The Counter-Strike team's statement comes less than a week after BLEED's VALORANT division was removed from the Champions Tour and VCT Pacific circuits due to "failing to comply with critical reporting requirements and other obligations under the Team Participation Agreement" and "persistent operational failures of the team."

In a response to the removal, the organization admitted it was "unable to rectify these issues in a satisfactory manner."

HLTV has reached out to BLEED for comment as well as to representatives of Ninjas in Pyjamas, TSM, Apeks, G2 and Falcons, with whom BLEED negotiated buyouts or loans of their players, to enquire whether the agreed-upon payments were made.

In a reply to HLTV, Apeks confirmed that they have not received any money from BLEED, who acquired nawwk and jkaem from the Norwegian organization in May.

Falcons said they were paid in full for their loan of Laurențiu "⁠lauNX⁠" Țârlea to BLEED for a two-month period at the beginning of the year.

G2 general manager Petar "peca" Marković said on X that G2 have "unresolved matters with Bleed that, for legal reasons, we can't discuss in detail at the moment."

In their deal for Hampus "⁠hampus⁠" Poser last December, NIP said to HLTV they "got paid in the end, but it was not an easy cooperation, it was delayed and took a long time."