Earlier in the week, players of five of the seven teams that are signed up to the North American based Professional Esports Association (PEA) signed an open letter to the association, written by Scott “SirScoots” Smith, protesting the exclusivity of the league. This includes Team SoloMid, of which Sean “seang@res” Gares was a player.
The decision to sign the letter has received a negative response from his organisation, as he’s been singled out and cut from the team. This was revealed by Gares on Twitter, directly citing his signing of the letter as the reason why he was removed.
.@TSMReginald has told me that TSM is going to replace me due to my connection to the #playersrights letter.https://t.co/Lee3QzDos7
— Sean Gares (@seangares) December 23, 2016
Later on Andy “Reginald” Dinh, Founder of TSM, responded to what Gares had stated, by releasing a twitlonger from his perspective of what happened. In this, Dinh accuses the experienced IGL of “misleading” the team into signing the letter, using this as a reason for the decision to cut the contract was made. The indication that his brand was damaged due to this, and to release a letter potentially slating his organisation instead of coming to Dinh, was one of the main reasons why Dinh acted as he had.
Just as many thought this was it for the back-and-forth between Dinh and Gares, that was not to be the case. Skyler “Relyks” Weaver, one of Gares’ teammates, released a twitlonger from the team. In this, they categorically refute that they were manipulated or misled to sign the letter, and that they did know the main form of the letter. It also makes note of the feelings from each sides, reminding the community that they felt a similar feeling of being “blindsided” about the announcement due to them not being involved in the process.
It wasn’t over there. Gares responded once again to clarify the situation. In another twitlonger Gares states that, contrary to what Dinh said, they had conversed about the situation in person previously. Gares wrote: “I talked to him face to face for two hours and he expressed no issues about Scott representing us during that time.”
Esports Insider says: As always, there’s more than meets the eye with these things. With one side saying one thing, and the other side coming out with the opposite. But when the rest of the team comes out to defend Gares, then as an owner you have a problem. Expect more fallout from the PEA deal in the coming days.
