StarLadder is reportedly the tournament organizer that's failed to pay CS:GO casters

Following complaints from people in the CS:GO community about a major event host failing to pay its casters, esports reporter Richard Lewis revealed that StarLadder is that unnamed tournament organizer on his podcast with Duncan “Thorin” Shields.

“And then you have to deal with the TOs and chase fucking payments,” Lewis said. “When they talk about the TO that isn’t paying—StarLadder. There you go. Fucking run with that.”

Lewis was visibly upset when he ranted about how the company “has a backlog of months” and that it should start paying people what they’re owed. Many other casters were talking about the situation but couldn’t disclose the company’s name. Lewis, however, was tired of keeping things under wraps.

Last month, popular CS:GO caster James Banks revealed that he had been waiting several months for TOs to pay him for work. But he said he wouldn’t call out the company that failed to pay him. Instead, he wanted to “create something to solve this with the other talent” since he knew that they also experienced this. Thorin also talked a bit about the situation on the CS:GO subreddit.

“Short version for now is: no, I do not have similar issues, likely due to being a bigger name, and known to speak my mind when I am fucked over,” Thorin said. “It isn’t all on TOs though, as far as I know. Some of them legitimately have liquidity issues. I think they need to do a better job admitting as much, even if it means behind the scenes they lose a little face.”