Evil Geniuses In Dispute With Their World Championship Winning Valorant Team

The North American esports organisation is requesting its world champions take a pay cut while having a disproportionate influence in the players future.

Photo: Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games

Beleaguered North American esports organistion Evil Geniuses have found themselves embroiled in another dispute with their players, this time in Valorant. Sources close to the players and management have informed this publication that the organisation told its players around September 11^th that they would have to cut their existing salary in order to keep them at the organisation. The existing contracts weren’t set to expire until 2024 making the duration of the reduced salary substantial. A source familiar with the negotiations explained that the proposed pay cut was nearly half of the original number with an increase in the percentage of in-game cosmetic sales to offset.

As the players are under no legal obligation to accept a reduction in salary Evil Geniuses have allowed players to “explore their options” as first reported by Max Katz. This however might not be as benevolent a move as it first appears. The sources who contacted this publication stated that the organisation may still elect to ask for buyouts for each of the players, potentially as a tactic to ensure that they don’t find suitable teams ahead of the Valorant season.

“The moves are time sensitive as the transfer window [for Valorant players] has started already” one of the sources explained. “This means EG could wait, ask for buyouts and block the players moving basically. Then if the players don’t want to accept the paycut they could even terminate them without cause. EG have a franchise spot so they have a lot of leverage to force players to stay if they had blocked their opportunities elsewhere.”

In addition to this the source explained that as the buyouts aren’t specifically stipulated in the contracts it the organisation can propose the amount they believe to be appropriate and this has made organisations that have expressed some interest reluctant to formalise negotiations. They added that while the start of the Valorant season is months away organisations are looking to build rosters now so they have time to practice and make changes if necessary.

While the players themselves haven’t confirmed the reports public posts on X.com tell their own story. Ethan "Ethan" Arnold wrote “I miss old esports Where if you were good, you were on a good team Where there was something to grind for, and if you did it successfully, you got to reap the benefits Where winning was everything.” His colleague Kelden "Boostio" Pupello wrote simply “Wow just fucking wow.”

The dealings will come as a slap in the face to the players who had only won Valorant Champions 2023 last month. That victory was heavily promoted by the organisation as proof their non-traditional methodology works and the players were heralded by the organisation as “pretty special” in a video made after the event. Departing CEO Nicole Lapointe Jameson also pointed to the victory in her letter to the community. It took only close to two weeks as world champions and a lengthy off season for the organisation to propose the players take a paycut.

Evil Geniuses aren’t the only esports organisation that has attempted to make “market corrections” on player’s salary in Valorant. It is something of an open secret one this publication can confirm to be accurate, that star player Jaccob "yay" Whiteaker’s departure from Cloud9 related to salary issues as opposed to the “role issues” that was touted by the organisation. Similarly it was reported that Sentinels were in financial difficulty and were paying out close to $700,000 in monthly salaries for players and content creators although their CEO Rob Moore downplayed fears around their future in an interview with journalist George Geddes.

For Evil Geniuses though there is the appearance of an organisation in freefall. Currently under investigation by Riot Games for allegations of player neglect, a series of humiliating exposés, ongoing lawsuits with former players, growing rumours that they may sell their LCS slot and now pay disputes with their highest achieving players don’t suggest all is well internally and that this isn’t just an issue with the Valorant ecosystem.