Team Admiral, the now-defunct Filipino Dota 2 squad that was absorbed by fellow Filipino organization Clutch Gamers in May, has fired back at its former player Jimmy “DeMoN” Ho for his allegations of “poor living conditions” in its team house and “mistreatment” by its management.
The controversy was first brought to light around three days ago by DeMoN, through a six-and-a-half minute stream clip where he describes the supposedly suboptimal living conditions in the Admiral team house in the Philippines.
In the video, DeMoN tells the story of an incident that took place during the ANGGAME China vs. Southeast Asia online tournament in March, which Admiral reached the grand finals of. DeMoN says he asked the manager (named Martin) to get him some water from the first floor of their team house as they were going over the draft screen. Martin supposedly responded sarcastically.
When the squad eventually lost the match, Martin apparently sent DeMoN a long message the day after about how he expects respect out of his players and coworkers.
Team Admiral’s management has refuted DeMoN’s claims through a blog post published on Xysticus, which is presumably a personal blog belonging to one of the members of the management team. The post contains chat logs between the management and DeMoN himself, as well as explanations from their side regarding the whole issue.
The management claims that the conditions in the team house were far from what DeMoN had described as “horrible,” saying that the property itself was a three-story, three-bedroom unit, complete with a maid’s quarters. DeMoN apparently had a whole bedroom to himself, while the management team slept together in one room with the rest of the playing roster in the other. He also had access to the in-house chef and helper, according to the organization.
The management goes on to fill in a few more details, which were not addressed by DeMoN in his original video. They claim that DeMoN was demanding even more out of both the management and the househelp, beyond the incident wherein he asked the manager (later clarified by Team Admiral as the actual team owner and not merely the manager) to get him some water.
Admiral’s management team says he exhibited undesirable behavior when asking for services from the househelp, such as when he allegedly told an unpaid member of the organization’s staff to pick up his laundry for him. They also state that DeMoN accused the housemaid of stealing his wristwatch, suspecting her of taking it after cleaning his bedroom.
Further down the post, however, the management team points to a much bigger issue. Apparently DeMoN refused to sign his contract with the organization, even after he was flown to the Philippines to play for the team. It would seem that he was unsatisfied with the contract itself, particularly with the cut of the prize money that the organization was to receive if they had qualified for The International 8.
Both parties had agreed to a 70-30 split of the winnings, but the management team claims that DeMoN changed his mind regarding the clause. Eventually, he revealed that he had been in talks with players from Echo International, in order to discuss a possible contract with them. With nothing in writing, Admiral’s management was supposedly unable to keep DeMoN from leaving. In the end, the team was forced to disband and merge with Clutch Gamers.
DeMoN responded to the counter-allegations from Admiral earlier today via his Twitter account, calling the claims “exaggerated” and “fabricated.” In the same tweet, he reached out to community podcast hosts, in an effort to clear things up further.
It would seem that this whole debacle is not yet over, and there may be even more developments ahead.
