𝕊𝕚𝕩𝕖. · @sixeluh
4th Apr 2019 from TwitLonger
My experience with the H1PL, as a girlfriend to a pro player.
Before I even start writing this, I'd like to say this is my own take on the situation. The actual players who were apart of this are the victims and I hope more than anything somewhere along the line they are able to receive good karma for the things they missed out on, life opportunities and monetarily. I hope we hear more stories from their POV. I don't think H1PL is alone in scamming players in the industry but I will do everything in my power to make sure it's the most publicized.
I'm going to start from the beginning
*Our first redflag*
Of course I was skeptical when they announced the H1PL as anyone would be because the game was going downhill. This part is the fuckery of the announcement of the rosters and the orgs.
*Our 2nd red flag*
Orgs broke contract with the H1PL and tried picking up players WAY before the allotted time they were given. Which screwed up months of work within teams, scrims and so on. From my personal experience many close friends of mine snaked rosters and positions on teams, used me for my knowledge on teams breaking up and used it to get their S/O a team. *sips tea* This not only messed up the structure of what was happening but it was almost every org doing it and if you played by the rules you were left out, people were panicking because they had been grinding this game for years without any significant income. My boyfriend's team was the best team in scrims so far, held the record for most scrim wins in a month. I couldn't imagine this team not being able to stick together because of some bullshit of managers and orgs not being able to follow the rules. But because of this they were forced to disband last minute after entire rosters had been announced and find separate teams they had never even played on before. I imagine if Prod, Hal, Tanner, Flowers and Huskers were able to stick together, the outcome of the first season would be significantly different. No shade there, because at the end of the day I think everyone is trying to move on and pick up the pieces BUT that's just my opinion and lends a hand to the fuckery of how ill managed the rules were.
The players/managers on the orgs were asked to move all the way to Las Vegas. Players with families, players will full time jobs they had been working at for years, players from Europe. Everyone picked up their life and moved to Las Vegas. I wasn't to attend anything of the briefing meetings. I will tell you though, Jace Hall promised these kids the world. Nothing short of what a scamming showman would. Don't for one second think I'm going to give this coward a break. In one of the meetings he said "We don't need a thriving player base for this pro league to thrive, we just need the 75 of you playing every week in order for this to work." On the surface Jace looks like a respectable business man and why wouldn't they believe him. So far he had already paid the orgs ahead of time what the salaries of the players would be for the first split (remember this) Not only that but he paid them for media fees and so on! Seems promising right? Or why else would 'higher caliber' orgs be joining forces with the H1PL? HEY @JaceHall WE'RE STILL WAITING FOR THE PUBLIC DOCUMENTS TO EXPLAIN HOW THE MONEY FOR H1PL WAS SPENT!!!!!!!!
*Our 3rd red flag*
Everything seemed normal, because we weren't to know a single thing. Payments were behind and I know for some teams they didn't receive their payments for MONTHS. Imagine living in a completely new city, with people you've only ever met once or twice WITH NO INCOME. Even though you're working. For Tanner it took about 3 months for him to receive his first real paycheck. I'm not sure if this was issues within the org he belonged to or the H1PL it's self. Some orgs paid on time, some orgs left their players lives in complete shambles. By this point I was living in the LG team house. I had my own money saved and for a bit of time I paid for a majority of the things Tanner and I needed. My PC wasn't yet in Las Vegas so I had no way of making money while I was there. I knew there was a split coming up and that I would have to go home before Tanner and I got an apartment. So a real job wouldn't do. So we had to rent a car with our own money, go to LA to be on a show ran by Twin Galaxies just in order to get money from a virtual skin code we got from appearing. Money was THAT tight for us. I can't speak for other people but my best friend @NessDies started becoming concerned because these red flags became more prominent, we would sit and think about outs and what it would come to if the PL ended. Most teams lived in team houses but some, left their players to stay in the Rio Hotel.
*Our 5th red flag*
At this point I was 100% convinced that after split one of the H1PL, we would not be returning, but knew that they had a contractual obligation to pay the rest of the salary NO MATTER WHAT. Every week they were PAYING people out of pocket to come and watch the boys perform. The marketing was off. They signed with Facebook streaming over twitch, which I can say is because Facebook pays SOOOOO much if you sign with them. Probably enough to cover the fare of what they owe the boys, that's simply speculation of what I know they pay orgs to stream on the platform. One day while at the LG house, I opened the door to get a delivery for Pixy, handed it to her and started to close the door. A piece of paper caught my eye and it was a FORECLOSURE NOTICE ON THE HOUSE WE WERE RENTING. Mind you, that they took directly out of the boys' salary for the amount of rent and utilities. So why would our house be getting foreclosed on?? Something I'm still to this day confused about. Also mind you that the house we were renting didn't have air conditioning for the 2 months I lived there and the wiring in the house was so bad that somewhere along the line every single PC in the house was fried either due to faulty wiring or not having adequate cooling. Our house was 5,000 USD a month....by the way.
Okay red flags are done and we knew this shit was wack, honestly. I don't know one person that was optimistic at this point. I think mostly we all knew leaving for split, that we wouldn't be back. Did we anticipate still getting paid? Yes because it was in the contract and who breaks contract? JACE HALL AND THE H1PL THAT'S WHO. Players were either not paid on time, not at all for the first split, or only paid for half of the time. These players moved children to Vegas, then out of no where....don't pay and Jace called it "force majeure" You left people homeless, families in distress and you can sleep at night with your nice cars, and snotty memes. Fuck you for making talented players experience in esports so shit. Fuck you for knowingly taking advantage of the hungriest communities and making them work and fight to make it out of the hole you left them. Thank god everyone involved is resilient and was able to overcome for the most part. I'm sure there are players who had to leave esports behind because of this. Had to pick up and leave their dreams behind because it just didn't pay the bills. I'm so sorry this happened to you guys. Now seemingly Z1 BR shuts down the day to the EXACT YEAR NDAs are up and they had a full calendar year to pay the remaining salary.
I'm also friends with people who used to work for Twin Galaxies (a sister company). There experience was the same, they were either not paid on time or at all. She stated she was surprised to even receive a W-2 after she was layed off after the company fell apart. Relative to the time H1PL fell apart.
-ORG OF THE YEAR- (lol not really)
The most fucked situation I've heard and realized, is that @noblegg left my friends HOMELESS. HOMELESS THIS ORG DEADASS LEFT PLAYERS IN VEGAS WITHOUT PAYING THEM OR THE RENT OF THE HOUSE THEY WERE LIVING IN. HOW????
As far as I know owners of Noble refused to pay the rest of the salary owned, PL had already given them the money for the salaries...so where is it? I'm sure there will be more on this as NDAs are up!
Here's the owner of Noblegg giving streamers money instead of paying his players back owed salary. Imagine sitting in a stream and watching someone who owes you thousands just throw money at streamers.
https://oi1249.photobucket.com/albums/hh510/lmaoyeahok/recon%20proof%202_zpsq70wozkk.jpg
https://oi1249.photobucket.com/albums/hh510/lmaoyeahok/recon%20proof%201_zpsm41ezhx8.jpg
I'd really like everyone to share their experiences of the PL and how it effected you. You may never get your money but we can use it as a cautionary tale for the future of esports. I could have written this better and honestly dug up more info but truly, I'm just hoping this story sees the light of day of a major publication within esports so everyone can be cautious of Jace Hall and anything he's ever involved in and hopefully there will be more transparency for people in Pro Leagues and those who dedicated thousands of hours to game moving forward.