Sumail vs Evil Geniuses Court Case Looks Set To Proceed To Jury Trial

After months of legal wrangling a date has been set for the lawsuit between the former EG player and the North American esports organisation.

In March this publication revealed that Dota 2 prodigy Syed “SumaiL” Hassan had been involved in legal proceedings against the Evil Geniuses organisation. After much legal maneuvering by both parties a date has been set for a jury trial on the 6^th November this year.

Hassan’s complaint revolved around what happened to his equity in Evil Geniuses at the time of the brands acquirement by the Peak6 Strategic Capital Group. At that time Hassan’s stock was converted into 265,338 units of common stock and 106,667 units of restricted common stock. His counsel’s lawsuit alleges that at this time no-one but Peak6 members received preferred units of stock, which grants its owner superior rights to common stock such as higher dividend payments and more robust claims to assets in case of liquidation. A further allegation in the suit states that no-one from the Peak6 group explained the nature of these changes as the merger took place. These occurrences, among others listed in the filings, were characterised as “breach of contract” and “fraud and deceit.”

Another key aspect of the lawsuit involves Hassan’s departure from the organisation. In November 2019 Hassan was then presented with a mutual release clause that would free him from any remaining contractual obligations. The suit alleges that this mutual termination agreement jeopardised his ownership stake within EG. They say that it “imposed harsh, unwarranted and draconian obligations and forfeitures” that later in the suit they deem to be unconscionable. They also state that the agreement “contained numerous irregularities, discrepancies, and inconsistencies, as well as a number of ambiguous and/or unenforceable terms and conditions” and “sought to use the imbalance of bargaining power” in a bid to force Hassan to forfeit his stock.

Since then it has been a busy Summer for the two respective legal teams. As is expected ahead of any trial several witnesses have been approached for deposition testimony. By the same token the Evil Geniuses legal team attempted to exclude any “late-disclosed witnesses” but this request was denied. Although it’s not clear whether or not the depositions have been entirely completed at this time the witness list submitted includes a number of familiar names, including past Evil Geniuses management, staff and players. These include former COO Philip Aram, another former CEO Peter Dager and former players Saahil "Universe" Arora, Clinton "Fear" Loomis, Artour "Arteezy" Babaev, Andreas "Cr1t-" Nielsen and the most recent CEO departure Nicole Lapointe Jameson as well.

At this time Evil Geniuses also made a number of “requests for admission” that wanted Hassan to address several claims in their version of events. The first was that they asked him to admit that in a meeting with then CEO Nicole Lapointe Jameson he was advised to consult an attorney before signing anything, a claim which was denied on the basis that “the terms advised and consult are vague, ambiguous and therefore overly broad.” Several other requests for admission relate to rules around playing for other teams while having an ownership stake in EG, which were again denied on the basis that the “request calls for an expert opinion and/or legal conclusions” and again that the terminology is “vague, ambiguous and overly broad.” In total there were twenty-six requests for admission the majority of which were denied either flat-out or on the grounds that as discovery is being conducted it wasn’t possible to provide an accurate assessment at the time of the request.

The next few months will be spent with both legal teams gathering testimony that substantiate their respective cases and a final status conference will be held in late October to ensure that both parties are comfortable proceeding to trial. Included among the documents is a ninety page set of jury instructions that outline the particulars of the case and explain some of the esports specific components. Assuming the suit proceeds the trial will be a fascinating look into some of the behind the scenes handling of the Evil Geniuses sale and could become an important case for future action of this nature in the world of esports.