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Braquage à l'anglaise ?
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Il y a peu, nous vous révélions en exclusivité le montant perçu par les équipes via la vente de stickers lors de l'ESL One Cologne. Des sommes atteignant 120 000 $ pour les formations présentes dans la capsule "Légendaires" et 50 000 $ pour celles dans la capsule "Challengers". Il est également de connaissance commune que cet argent est transféré sur le seul compte en banque de la personne ayant uploadé le logo sur le workshop. Alors quand une personne reçoit une telle somme d'argent d'un coup, il y a sûrement de quoi cogiter.

Qualifiée à l'ESL One Cologne grâce à sa performance dans le tournoi qualificatif européen, l'équipe danoise Copenhagen Wolves aurait donc dû théoriquement encaisser un joli chèque de 50 000 $. Cependant, trois mois après la fin de l'événement, le capitaine Lukas "gla1ve" Rossander accuse, par l'intermédiaire d'un communiqué sur HLTV.org, son manager de l'époque, l'Anglais Johnathan "Mini" Daniels d'avoir volé une partie du butin et d'avoir disparu de la circulation du jour au lendemain. 

Dans sa déclaration, gla1ve affirme que ce manager anciennement chez Reason mais également VeryGames, aurait délibérément rejoint l'organisation danoise avec l'objectif de voler une partie des revenus déjà en tête. Il aurait alors réussi à convaincre les joueurs d'être le lien entre Valve et l'organisation ainsi que d'être la personne uploadant ce fameux logo sur le workshop. Le manque de contrat encadrant la redistribution de cette somme aurait semble-t-il été une aubaine pour lui qui a ainsi coupé les ponts avec les joueurs et désactivé tout réseau social au moment de la réception du paiement en provenance de Valve. 

Toujours selon gla1ve,  Johnathan Daniels, en possession légale des 50 000 $, aurait néanmoins accepté de transférer une partie des revenus aux joueurs après moultes négociations. Les joueurs ont donc reçu 4 900 $ chacun, un peu plus de la moitié de ce qu'ils auraient visiblement pensé recevoir (8 500 $). Cela laisse 18 000 $ dans les mains du manager plus que jamais injoignable et dont la disparition soudaine ne laisse que peu de doute quant à sa motivation. 

Lukas "gla1ve" Rossander chez nos confrères de HLTV.org

When we joined up with Copenhagen Wolves we were in great needed of a manager who would take care of all the practical stuff during our travels and online tournaments. Johnathan "Mini" Daniels wanted to be a part of our organization, and having heard only good things about him combined with Finn “karrigan” Andersen knowing him as a solid and trustworthy person, from one of his former teams Reason Gaming, we decided to take Johnathan "Mini" Daniels in as our manager right before ESL Cologne.

This turned out to be a big mistake. Johnathan "Mini" Daniels seemed to be a nice person in real life, and I think I can easily say that we all got fooled by his two-faced personality, since everyone got along with him. When I look back now, it is pretty obvious to me that Johnathan "Mini" Daniels planned to steal our money from the start.

His first move was to make sure that he was the one who took care of all the communication with VALVE when it had anything to do with the stickers. Being a former Reason manager Johnathan "Mini" Daniels knew from being with Reason in Katowice that only the person who uploaded images of the logo for the stickers, could cash out the sticker money.

After ESL One Cologne, Copenhagen Wolves' team fell apart, and we remade it with a new lineup. While Pimp and I had our heads full with sorting everything out with the new lineup, Johnathan "Mini" Daniels wrote me that the money would be on his account soon. At this time no one on the team had much time to communicate with Johnathan "Mini" Daniels, since we had practice and had to prepare for ESWC so it came as a shock tp me when Pimp called me two hours before take-off to ESWC and told me that Johnathan "Mini" Daniels had disappeared. He had erased every one of Steam friends, closed his Facebook account and whenever anyone tried to call him he would block the numbers.

Knowing that Johnathan "Mini" Daniels had 50.000$ of my team's money, I did everything I could to get a hold on him, and at the airport I called him from my girlfriend's phone, and he picked up. When he heard my voice his phone “suddenly” stopped working, and he said “hello hello can’t hear you” and hung up. At this moment I realized that he had stolen our money, and I had no clue what to do.

I called Copenhagen Wolves' owne,  who contacted some guys in England, where Johnathan "Mini" Daniels lives. They called him and talked to him for around an hour, and then Johnathan "Mini" Daniels realized what he had done.

All of a sudden his phone worked perfectly and he called me when we landed in France. He told me that he was really sorry about wanting to take the money and that he was just angry that he didn’t get the chance to go to ESWC with the team which he had been looking forward to. Knowing that this guy had 50.000$ of mine I didn’t want to seem mad, but I was, I was very angry. But I told him that I was glad that he changed his mind and made the right decision.

At this point it was just important to me to get the 50.000$ transferred to the players' accounts. At this point mini owed all of us around 8500$ each and he promised to wire it all at the beginning of the following week. On Wednesday, me and everyone else had $4,900 in their accounts, which means min had kept $3,600 from every player, which means he stole $18,000 from the team.

I and a lot of other people have tried to call Johnathan "Mini" Daniels after this, but no one has had any luck getting in contact with him. We found his Facebook with his new alias “John Parsonson”, but this one  has since been erased again.

We have tried everything, from contacting his family to calling him on his home number, but without any luck. Last thing we heard was from his own mother, who told us that Johnathan "Mini" Daniels wasn’t available at the time since he was on a vacation.

At least we now know what he spent the money on, I guess. We have no idea how to take it from here, but we haven’t totally given up yet!"

Quelle suite à cette affaire ? Tout semble résider sur la bonne foi du principal intéressé. L'absence de contrat présumée le laisse dans la légalité. Ce scandale devrait ainsi servir de leçon pour les joueurs et organisations dans l'optique de prochains événements majeurs. Au début de l'ère de la professionalisation dans le sport électronique, ce genre d'erreurs ne sont pas suprenantes mais soulignent bien les lacunes qui résident encore dans les coulisses de la scène notamment au niveau de ces fameux contrats. 

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