Former Team Coast manager Bryan “Zyto” Ybanez allegedly owes four of the five former Coast Five lineup prize money from a LAN tournament.
Ybanez was paid $3,500 for the team’s first place finish at the Press Start LAN event at University of California, Irvine from May 9 to 10—money that he allegedly pocketed, according to several sources close to the players.
Austin “Gate” Yu is the only team member to be paid his earnings, but he was only given the money after departing from the roster on July 16. Ybanez still allegedly owes Cristian “Cris” Rosales, Stephane “SuperMetroid” Guillemot, Brandon “DontMashMe” Phan, and Kevin “KonKwon” Kwon their shares.
“When I approached Bryan about the Press Start winnings, he emphasized he wanted to handle it and would get it done,” Team Coast Business Relations Manager Nicole Manning said “Without any player coming forward, I had no idea that he had pocketed the money. It was only after he and I left—for completely different reasons—that a player came forward and said he was not paid.”
Ybanez did not respond to a request for comment on this story.
Team Coast merged with Challenger organization Final Five on March 13. After significant roster changes, including jungle and support swaps on both sides, the team was relegated from the League Championship Series. Final Five, for its part, failed to qualify for the 2015 Summer Promotion Tournament.
Prior to the summer split, the two teams temporarily formed a joint team, Coast Five. This team tried out players for both squads on the Ranked 5s ladder and attended the Press Start LAN. The team eventually disbanded before the beginning of the 2015 Summer Challenger Series.
Business Relations Manager Nicole Manning and Ybanez both left the organization on Aug. 21, with Ybanez saying he was owed payment and reimbursement for team expenditures. Manning has since settled her differences with the team’s owner, David Slan, but Ybanez has moved on.
Update 4:17pm CT, Oct. 30: Coast CEO David Slan says he plans to pay the players their missing money. “We tried to encourage Bryan to do that right thing and return the money he took from the players,” Slan wrote. “This has not happened. As a result, I will pay the players their prize money out of my own pocket, and deal with Bryan myself.”
Photo via Riot Games/Flickr
