A Unified Reply

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First of all, we'd like to say that none of us expected (and certainly none of us wanted) this to turn out the way it did. None of us foresaw some of the possible ramifications of the player letter, and in no way were we trying to undermine TSM or all that Andy has worked for. It was also in no way intended as a personal attack. We were just making the choice that we thought was best to build a better foundation for players rights and the future of our scene.

Secondly, we would like to clarify that TSM has not mistreated us or anything of the sort but, everything in the letter was factual. Regarding Sean "manipulating" us to sign the letter, this isn't true. We all had a call with Scott (SirScoots) where he outlined the tone and messaging of the letter, and also it's intentions (that it wasn't meant to be antagonistic or a personal attack on any specific owner). Although several of us didn't get to read the letter, we all consented to having our names on it showing our support. In retrospect, we can understand how the hashtag #playersrights could carry negative connotation towards how we were being treated (that our rights were being infringed upon, etc.) The purpose of it was only to help build support and unite everyone's messages regarding the letter.

We also acknowledge that in hindsight, we should have reached out to Andy to at least raise some questions about what was going on with the PEA. This works both ways though, and prior to the leak from DeKay we had not even the slightest inclination to what was about to transpire regarding the PEA. It was only after we received some context through our conversations with Scott that we'd been made aware of the circumstances.

To address some of the statements made in Andy's post, in no way were we manipulated by Sean. Some of us may have had more information than others or been more involved in this endeavor, but we all understood what we were doing when we gave the okay to put our names on the letter. Also, the conversation logs with ShahZaM were before Sean was 'released'. We just want to make it clear that we weren't throwing him under the bus.

How Andy felt blindsided by the letter once it was published on Reddit, we felt the same way upon learning of the PEA's plans. We felt pressured to take action and make a response, which we did in uniting in the player letter. We just wanted to write this to clarify any misconceptions and bring everything into the light. There are two sides to every story, and we just wanted to make sure our narrative wasn't skewed and was clear.

Respectfully,

The TSM CSGO team:
Skyler "Relyks" Weaver
Shahzeb "ShahZaM" Khan
Russel "Twistzz" VanDulken
Hunter "SicK" Mims

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