Last weekend’s LEc2 Convention in Fredericksburg, Virginia, was a chance for League of Legends enthusiasts on the East Coast to meet some of the game’s biggest streaming personalities and celebrities. Many of those were members of Team2G, a stable of popular YouTubers and streamers, which sent 17 people to the event. For eight of them, however, this would would be their last outing under the Team2G banner.
Team2G made news in April after it trademarked the term “sub wars”—which refers to a popular promotional activity on Twitch—and demanding a fee for anyone wanting to use it. Now, it’s dropped a large portion of its roster following what’s been described as “excessive partying” during the LEc2 Convention.
Team manager Cher Gambino made the decision after the players were allegedly late for appearances at the organization’s promotional booth. But several of those cut by the organization paint a different picture of events, saying that the hours Gambino expected them to work were “unreasonable.” They say they were required to be available for the entire 14 hours that the convention was open, from 9am until 11pm. The team members said they never agreed to this.
“We’ve never been to a convention before” one of the streamers, who asked to remain anonymous due to financial reasons, said. “So we had no idea we needed to be there at 9am. We were told by Cher our [autograph signing] was at 1pm, so that’s what we were expecting. Most of us were there for 11:30am, well in advance of the signing time.”
The organization, however, says it has good reason to be upset with the behavior of some of its representatives. On the first night, they held a party in their hotel room that quickly became raucous. Following two noise complaints from other residents, the clerk called the room only to be met with the greeting “hello, Buffalo Chicken Wings how can we help you?” according to sources in attendance. Then the person on the other end hung up. The clerk, later claiming he had also been threatened, called the police. The police managed to negotiate with the hotel in allowing the Team2G representatives to stay.
While the cut team members agree that this version of events is partially true, they deny any threats were made. They also added that Gambino had encouraged the party. They say the noise complaints happened because the manager had purchased a karaoke machine.
The team were woken up by frantic phone calls the second day of the event. Gambino was incensed that no one was at the booth once more and demanded that everyone wake up ahead of what our sources say was the agreed time—11am.
“She made it sound like an emergency,” one of the streamers said. “So a member even ran down to the lobby with no shoes on. She yelled at everyone, giving us the speech of ‘I am quitting Team2G, I am not babysitting anymore. You can now do whatever you want, you will not damage my reputation anymore.’ After this speech she up and left to go home.”
Later that day, Gambino left a message in their Skype group.
“I have never been more embarrassed and humiliated in my life and this team is not worth losing my reputation over. I have cancelled coming down to the boat and the party for tomorrow and I have left the convention center.
My word is important to me, my signature is important to me. I will not damage it and make it a laughing stock in this business. In order for me to help and work with [Team2g founding member] Trick and some others my word and name needs to be in tact.
This was so easy for you, everything that gets done for you by admin you do not deserve. If Chris would like to continue with this team it is up to him. I will help him and only him. I refuse to let any of you hurt, humiliate, disrespect or ignore me. You do not deserve me.
I have enjoyed making a team from nothing and thought I could help you all treat your streams as a business but I see that I was wrong.
Good luck to all of you and I still love each and every one of you but no longer want to waste my time with children who just don’t give a fuck”
By the time all the Team2G members had returned to their hotel for the evening, they were greeted with another series of messages from Gambino. She’d changed her mind about leaving.
“Trick would like me to keep the team, he feels that we have helped so many people. I have decided to remove those that i feel do nothing for the team, that do NOT take this team serious, that do NOT put the time in, that do NOT understand what it is to be a team. The ones that do not treat this as a business. I realize I am going to hurt your feelings but I will not allow this team to do this anymore and Trick feels without me there is NO TEAM. The names I will put below have either done NOTHING with the team or do not take this team as a business in which it is. This is not open for discussion. I am sorry but it is either you or me. This weekend showed me what some of you are really all about and it is not about professionalism that is for sure.”
The streamers dropped from Team2G include Shadowila, Cemantics, Obezianka, SoSleepyy, Luuap, QMG Saint, Aplatypuss and JenaUrfLord. Conspicuously, some of the people who’d attended that party and were allegedly responsible for the noise complaints weren’t on the list. None of the organization’s biggest names were cut, leading some to theorize that this was all an excuse to cut some of the organization’s smaller contributors. According to Gambino, however, alleged contract violations also played a part in the decision. Team2G’s former members dispute this too.
“There was no contract to join Team2G as far as I remember,” one of the released streamers said. “I got told verbally that we need to stream 100 hours a month to stay on the team. When she dropped ‘I signed contracts and put my signature for you’ that was news to everyone…
“We have yet to see any contracts. We never signed anything. She did that for us and expected us to just know what a contract entails without showing them to us.”
One of the cut streamers described a changing environment in the team, saying it had been promoted as “a community for streamers to be able to stream without having extra responsibilities” and felt “like a family where everyone is helping each other out.” But that has since changed. Gambino has become “money hungry,” this person alleged.
Gambino declined to comment on this article.
