Astroo · @AstrooCSGO
13th Oct 2018 from TwitLonger
Our time in Diabolus Esports *MUST READ*
I’d like to start this statement by saying that I do believe Diabolus are a good organisation with some fantastic ideas, however, I do not believe they were in the position to execute them to the best of their ability and to our expectations. During our time, we did encounter several issues which we firmly believe are unacceptable and feel that some of these matters must be brought into light to help the organisation improve moving forward, as well as to protect anyone else from making the same assumptions and mistakes that we have.
We had been in prolonged talks with the organisation for several months and staying in the gaming house until the end of its lease in December was something that organisation had strongly suggested. This was perfect for our goals as a new team, and like anyone moving into a new property, we had requested several times for pictures of the interior house which were never sent despite asking on several occasions, only to be met with excuses, as well as a link to the exterior on google maps. Myself, Ardis and link moved in early and were greeted with scenes of open / mouldy food scattered around the floor, as well as general dirt/uncleanliness (Pubes on the floor, Potentially bed bugs, Dirty/lack off bed sheets and a horrible smell) – as well as none of the PC’s being setup. To be fair to the org, the house was in the process of being cleaned whilst we arrived, however, this is not something that a new tenant should be greeted with.
Unfortunately, the hygiene issues did not stop here and we were shocked to find bed sheets with human bodily fluids (of several variety’s which I’m sure you can take a guess at) – to make matters worse there was nowhere near enough linen for each of the beds so we were forced to sleep without any duvet covers or sheets, which quite frankly we were happy with anyway due to the disgusting nature of the ones which were provided. New sheets were promised imminently, however they arrived on the day in which we decided to leave the property & organisation almost 3 weeks later – totally unacceptable.
We were also promised meals for each player which turned out to be a total fabrication and instead of being provided with 3 meals per day, we were offered £20 per player a week - and only foods in which were considered “healthy”. Upon arrival, we were informed that there was food in the house which would last us a couple of days, however, upon inspection – we were disgusted to find flies and mouldy food in the cupboards, as well as chicken in the freezer which was more than a month out of date with flies congregating inside the wrapping.
The issues with the cleanliness of the house and the food situation had obviously left the guys in a foul mood, and when the time came to start practising we were greeted with our next obstacle – the PC’s that were provided. The systems that were given were nowhere near optimal enough for playing counter-strike or even streaming which obviously made our job extremely difficult and added to the frustration of the entire situation. All these issues eventually led to the players being unhappy, Ardis at this point also decided to make the decision to return home due to family issues, and a few of the reasons stated here, even though Hectoz was turning up at the house that weekend. However after he arrived fleav received an offer from another team – we were unable to persuade him to stay due to the dire accommodation and situation that he’d be playing in.
With everything that had happened, Ardis saying hes not coming back to the house and needing either one or two players who would move in, we asked if we could return home so we could sort everything out and then come back once everything is sorted. A big deciding factor of this was that two nights ago i had come up in a bad rash which we thought may be bed bugs. I sent pictures of small black things in my bed which were moving and also sent a picture of my rash which was extremely bad. They told me to sleep in another bed for the night and we can sort it tomorrow. The next day we had almost no response about anything being sorted so i decided i'm not sleeping on a mattress on the floor another night with all these rashes that may need to be checked i decided i was going to go home that night and informed them and got a rather unjustified response.
As me and L1NK were planning on going home that night as he was home sick and wanted to see his family and lives near me so i said i'm going so offered him a lift we just needed to sort out Hectoz. We had then been informed that the costs of transporting hectoz back home would not be covered by the organisation due to the amount of money they “wasted” in bring him over for a short period. This is totally unacceptable and no player, especially one in a foreign country, should be stranded without any means of returning to their initial destination. Hectoz was told ''Hector there's a flight from Stansted tomorrow to billund got around £40. My suggestion is you go to London with Astro and L1nk. We won't be covering that so feel free to sort that out yourself as we've already wasted over £300 on getting you here for a week for you to go home''. Unfortunately, Stansted is a 4-hour drive from the team house in Manchester and is nowhere near where myself and Link were going so this was not an option, and essentially expected Hectoz to make his own way to the airport. I of course decided to drive hector to the airport in Manchester, however he was now forced to ask his parents for over £400 to fund his flight and hotel stay for his journey home (the only hotel room being the Mariott at £180 a night) or opt to sleep on the airport floor for the entire night.
The 3 weeks were an adventure for sure, and not all of our time with the organisation was negative, however, I feel that the way we were treated, especially in times of need – were totally unacceptable.