Valve files lawsuit against Dota 2 tournament organizer GESC over outstanding payments worth over $750,000

Dec 21, 2019

The Global Electronic Sports Championship (GESC) is facing a lawsuit, filed by game developer Valve. The tournament organizer, who hosted several Dota 2 minors in the Asia Pacific region in 2018, has failed to pay many involved with those events. The victims include players, talents and several agencies, with a total bill of approximately $750,000 to be paid.

As reported by Dot Esports, Valve took action against GESC in April this year. In a statement provided to the outlet Doug Lombardi, Vice President of Marketing at Valve, said: “Our agreements with tournament operators require timely payment to participants. We feel this is vital to the success of these events long term. When operators fail to meet those requirements, we follow up.”

In October 2018, an open letter was published by those affected, revealing how discussions with GESC's CEO, Oskar Feng, had had no effect: "Several of the group have attempted to obtain payment by issuing late notice for payment invoices and through several conversations with Mr Feng over the last six months and despite continued assurances that all debts would be settled in September, they were not. Several of our collective gave Mr Feng and GESC a final deadline of October 31st 2018 for full and final settlement. With the deadline now almost upon us, no further communication has been received from GESC or Mr Feng in order to resolve all of the issues and payment looks increasingly unlikely to settle our issues."

▲ Evil Geniuses won the 2018 Dota 2 Minor in Indonesia, but their $110,000 first
prize still hasn't been paid. *Image via Metaco.*

Dota 2 isn't the only Valve game of which the esports scene is held under the microscope for late payments this year. Multiple casters, analysts and other talent revealed to Dexerto—some on record, some anonimously—that StarLadder was also stretching payment periods unreasonably long.

By the start of December this year, the Ukranian company, active in CS:GO, Dota 2 and other esports like PUBG, Hearthstone and StarCraft, still hadn't paid its contractors for work done at the Berlin Major in August. When StarLadder denied the accusations, more talent went on record to speak out against the company. As of writing this article, no lawsuit has been filed against StarLadder.

Header image via GESC.