Remember back when Mark Dolven, General Manager of the Carolina Core, drafted his former team? I think you do. It’s hard to forget how outraged everybody in the Source community was. It’s probably one of the only times when the community stopped flaming each other to focus on a temporarily larger issue.
If you thought that was bad, look at what the Singapore GM, Chris Soh, has been up to.
Summary:
This is just the basic summary, and as bad as it sounds, it’s even worse when you read the full account. The player stories are way too similar to be a coincidence, a misunderstanding, or incompetence on the part of the GM. Even the contracted players think (anonymously) that something is wrong. There have been some shady organizations, unscrupulous people, and terrible business deals. But I don’t think I’ve ever heard of something that’s so obviously ridiculous and under-handed.
So, how do we fix it?
First of all, it’s hard to gauge things from the CGS’ perspective. Did they know about the SGGA before the combine, and if so, how much about the contract were they aware of? Did they not look into it enough? Were there concerns raised beforehand, from the community or within the CGS, about Soh’s character? There are too many questions and not enough answers to assign blame. Personally, it’s hard to imagine a situation where they’re completely innocent, but we also don’t know what they’re guilty of, if anything. It could be negligence in checking his background, it could be incompetence from dismissing the issue out-of-hand, or it really could be nothing. We just don’t know.
And that’s fine. To be honest, even if this specific incident could have been prevented, they won’t be able to catch everything. The NBA didn’t weed out Donaghy, and they didn’t prevent an under-the-table deal with the Minnesota Timberwolves and Joe Smith. They found out, but they didn’t know ahead of time. The MLB had collusion, and you can be sure there are college recruiters across the country breaking, or bending, recruiting rules. When a person is truly committed to doing something like that, it’s hard to stop them, no matter how much power the league has.
Luckily, in this case, there is a solution to preventing the problem. The issue here is that the players don’t have any leverage. This is, obviously, more than a CGS problem – it’s something you see everywhere. Check-Six had a big scandal, there are more shady GSPs than I can even remember, and even whole tournaments have refused or been unable to pay the players what they “won”.
You hear all the usual comments from players about suing, threats of physical harm, and warnings to the community, but somebody is always going to fall for the same tricks, even from the same people. The scammers will work on their sales pitch, somebody won’t read the CAL forum thread, and the whole process repeats itself over and over. The problem is that once we get to the “oh my god, we got screwed” stage, nobody really knows where to go from there. And if they do know where to go, I’m not sure if anybody feels like getting a lawyer and taking an entity to court for your cut of $1,000 is worth it in terms of time, effort, or even money.
Contrast this with other professional leagues, where every suspension and fine gets appealed. If somebody even thinks about treating the players unfairly in baseball, I think the MLB Player’s Association knows about it and files a protest. I’m convinced that they’ve got pre-cogs working there. And they're so dedicated to the players, I think they’d protest a suspension for genocide if they thought they could the penalty reduced from “infinity” to “infinity minus one game.”
eSports needs a player’s association.
Right now, nobody is looking out for the players. It’s a free-for-all, even in the CGS. Don’t get me wrong, it’s in their best interest that the players are taken care of and treated fairly, just like in any other professional organization. But at the same time, their first priority is the health of the league, and the players are only part of that equation – along with sponsors, the franchises, partners, etc. If players think they’ve been unfairly punished or mistreated, do they have any way to contest what’s happening?
I don’t know everything (read: anything) that’s in the CGS contracts, but if we look at Singapore, I’m not sure that they do. Or at least, it’s not enough. Supposedly, players talked to the CGS representative there, and got a cold shoulder. Steven Yong was at the draft on behalf of the CGS, and here’s another quote from the GGL piece:
“[Yong] had a hands off approach saying he has no idea about this, that its [sic] none of his business,” says The Titans captain, “and that it was up to the GM to run the team. I felt that was really unprofessional considering the integrity of a CGS franchise was at stake.”
It’s clear that the players needed more leverage. They were completely at the mercy of Soh, and the problem wasn’t that he was incompetent. He didn’t draft the runners-up because he didn’t know any better, he drafted them because it was a better situation for him and his company. It was simple; play ball or go home.
A player’s association could have brought this to the league’s attention or even prevented it just by being there. And that would have been a very good thing for everybody, including the CGS.
