KaBuM’s player lineup has left the organization. Or did their org leave them? Turns out it was a little bit of both. In KaBuM’s official press release on their Facebook page found here, KaBuM stated that they and their players have parted ways.
Reddit user /u/BreafingBread has translated this from Portuguese, and this can be found here. In the sake of brevity, we’ve highlighted some main points below:
KaBuM is a technology retailer in Brazil. They began sponsoring eSports teams in Brazil starting with a League of Legends team, and then in 2013 began sponsoring a Brazilian CS:GO team largely centered around the Brazilian player “Fallen.”
In late 2013 after misconduct with one of their players, KaBuM sought to drop that player from their team. The players of the team did not wish for the player in question to be dropped, so KaBuM dropped the issue and allowed the team to continue playing with this player. Because of this incident, the KaBuM organization and its players lost close communication, and the players began to play under the name of “Games Academy”
Throughout all this, the KaBuM org did not fail in its contract and continued to pay each player their salary.
The team got invited to go to ESWC 2014 in France, and at that time, KaBuM met with their players and struck a new contract. This contract included “high end equipment, rent and maintenance of a Gaming House, also a help with costs for when tourneys out of São Paulo(SP) popped up and a extra sponsorship which could rise even more the monthly value received by the team.” Although after the signing of the contract, the players no longer wished to have a gaming house. This new contract also had language that made Fallen the distributor of all funds paid to the team by KaBuM. Therefore, KaBuM paid all money to Fallen who then distributed it as he saw fit.
KaBuM then paid approximately $5000 for plane tickets to and from France for ESWC 2014. After the team came back from ESWC 2014, Fallen stated that he would like to merge with another Brazilian team, Target Down and forming “KaBuM.TD.” The players would merge and form a stronger team and, according to Fallen, would provide more financial support to the team. The KaBuM org. agreed to this and continued to pay the same amount to the team as had been agreed to in their contract.
“KaBuM eSports, keeping its main objective of encouraging and pushing the national scene, accepted the fusion and a new team was created, called “KaBuM.TD.” It’s worth mentioning that even with another sponsor, KaBuM maintained the same contract, without any alteration or reduction of the money – this money, was kept being paid monthly to Fallen.”
After attending XGAMES Aspen and ClutchCon in Denver, the players were invited to go to the offline qualifier for ESL Katowice in Poland. Fallen then told Kabum that he would need an additional $9,000 USD in order to fly to the event. KaBuM responded and told Fallen that Target Down should pay for the trip because of the deal the players made with team Target Down.
Fallen then made a crowdfunding campaign in order to pay for the tickets to go to the event. This campaign was successful and the team attended the event. After returning, Fallen met with KaBuM, and said the contract needed to be revised because the amount they were being paid wasn’t enough to attend events they wanted to attend.
The KaBuM org stated that the amount paid by both themselves and the Target Down organization should be enough to attend any event. Fallen stated that they had not yet received any money from Target Down. According to the KaBuM release, Fallen was then quoted as having said he “had no involvement with the Target Down deal” despite the fact that he thought, planned, presented, and executed the fusion of the two organizations.
Fallen then announced that he and the rest of the team were already searching for a new sponsor, and not only were they attempting to drop Target Down but also attempting to drop KaBuM.
On February 23, KaBuM was informed by Fallen that the contract will not be renewed and that the players were already in talks with another organization.
In a statement approximately 9 hours after Kabum released their initial announcement, Fallen posted to his facebook page.
A rough summary of what he posted is as follows:
They [Fallen and team] haven’t in the past ever felt negatively toward KaBuM, in fact KaBuM found and sponsored them when they were not popular players from Brazil. Rather, they have always sought to defend KaBuM such as when KaBuM did not wish / was not able to sponsor the players and send them to the offline Katowice qualifiers.
However, they needed an organization that, when presented a unique opportunity such as this qualifier, will help them achieve going there and will believe in them and stay on their side. This major was an amazing opportunity to cement the investment that KaBuM has spent on the team and allow representation of Brazil at the major.
Originally, Fallen sent a proposal to KaBuM for approximately $9,300 USD to compete in the offline Katowice qualifiers. This amount was ? of the total cost to fly to Sweden, compete in a team training, and then go to the qualifiers in Poland. Their second organization, Target Down had already agreed to pay ? of the total cost of $13,800. Target Down pledged approximately $4500 to help the team go to and compete in the offline Katowice qualifiers. The amount of $9,300 was rejected by the Kabum board of directors.
The team then came back with a second total of $8300. The event organizers would help to pay $3800 and Kabum would pay $4500. The reduction in this second offer from $8300 to $9300 was because the team chose to drop their trip to Sweden for the pre-tournament boot camp. This amount too was rejected and so the players had to turn to crowdfunding to get the amount needed
Fallen mentions that “Reporting only part of the negotiation completely changes the context of the negotiations”
Fallen continues by mentioning the team house. The team did not decline the team house because it did not want it, but rather because the value of the team house would be better used in an account for future travels to events. Kabum gave them to the option to give up the benefit of the team house at their discretion so they choose to do so. The team continues to use Fallen’s house on occasion as a team house to scrim in a LAN-like environment. Additionally, the team waved their first two months of pay and put that in the same account to help pay for travel and expenses.
The trip to the XGAMES was not completely funded by MLG. Airfare and accommodations was covered, but food and transportation to and from the venue and around the site was not. The KaBuM players used their reserved money from the team house to help attend the XGAMES and ClutchCon. This meant that their reserves were completely depleted and they did not have the funds to attend the offline qualifiers in Poland. Fallen mentions that if Kabum had agreed to pay their food and travel expenses while in Colorado, that they would have had the funds to travel to the Katowice offline qualifier.
Fallen ends this post by saying that he must come to the defends of Target Down. Target Down gave Kabum 3 players for their team and agreed to pay the same amount in sponsorship as Kabum did. Fallen states that he is not sure why that did not happen. He says that he knows that there was negotiation between the organizations but it did not finish.
The team has been signed by another Brazilian organization known as Keyd Stars. Keyd Stars is a very strong organization with the backing of a multi-billion dollar Brazilian telecom company. The announcement of their new team came today through twitter
https://twitter.com/teamkstars/status/570405688150757376
Special credit and a big thank you to reddit user /u/BreafingBread for the translations from Portuguese to English.
What do you think about the current situation between Fallen and KaBuM? Tweet at us @ESNCS or leave a comment below.
