Overwatch veteran Baek “Fissure” Chan-hyung has called out his former organization Vancouver Titans, stating the team removed him from the roster “forcibly’ and are now abstaining from paying out his contract.
Fissure, who has spoke his mind on stream before, has again aired his grievances with his former employers on Twitch. In an off-the-cuff rant, he said that he “tried to play until the end of the season” and was even “prepared to learn English” to better fit in with the western English-speaking direction the team was taking.
He went on to say that the other Titans players were pushed into signing a release agreement that would be legally considered as a “mutual agreement” to part ways, and were then paid a sum of money not equal to their full contract. Fissure refused to sign this mutual agreement and was subsequently forced out of his contract with zero monetary compensation.
Fissure, visibly upset in the clip, laments that there is “no protection against something like this,” and that “there were a lot worse stories to tell” from his time with the Titans.
Earlier this year fans were left bewildered by a statement that was made in the official Vancouver Titans Discord server by Ryan Nicholas, the Senior Director of Content and Design for Canucks Sports and Entertainment that read:
“The players are all getting paid as per their contracts. The Titans will be playing again soon and the organization is committed to the long term success of the team. I know it’s hard to be patient but clarity will be coming soon”
At that point in time, no one questioned whether or not the players were being paid properly, and instead of providing clarity, it created more of general league-wide worry for the players on the team.
If there was indeed any breach of contract by the Titans than Fissure would be well within his rights to sue the company for his losses. However, it may be the case that he voided his entitlement to a contract payout by refusing to sign the NDAs in the mutual release agreement that was pushed on to him by the org.
It’s certainly a sad way to close the final chapter of the RunAway and Vancouver Titans legacy, but for most of the players on that team, they will be happy to have found a new home. For Fissure, however, who had returned from retirement to cement his legacy as a great playmaker, instead of a controversial personality, his second retirement could be not just the closing of a chapter, but the final entry in the story of his pro esports career altogether.
