Indian E-Sports Company Fires Entire Dota 2 Team Amidst Allegations of Unpaid Dues

Indian e-sports organisation Entity Gaming has fired its entire Dota 2 team amidst allegations of unpaid dues. The team had finished fourth in the TI8 SEA qualifier and followed it up with three lacklustre qualifiers. While trying to finalise a roster change, Entity's management decided to let go of its entire Dota 2 team altogether. According to Anthony 'Scantzor' Hodgson, Entity's former Dota 2 coach, this is due to poor results and that Entity was "spending a lot of money on the team". 

What's more is, allegedly the contracts both players and the coach were given imply a 30-day severance, to which Hodgson claims Entity denies any responsibility of paying in full. After some back and forth it agreed to a 15-day severance as goodwill. However one of Hodgson's statements highlights the issues faced by foreign talent working in India as well as how Entity is structured.

"Why is there no legal recourse? Because I'm a South African, 'working' in India on a tourist visa (as insisted by the employer), bound by a contract under Singaporean law," his Medium post reads. "I'm set to leave India in a few days, and can't afford heavy legal fees. What sort of steps could someone in my position reasonably take?"

For its part, Entity's manager Sid Joshi took to Reddit to refute these claims, alleging that Hodgson had an adverse impact on the team.

"I let him go because he sabotaged my roster and spoilt our relationship with a potential recruit," Joshi claims. "The contract never mentioned a severance package and we still gave him 15 days salary as goodwill."

To make matters worse, former Entity players have taken to Reddit to refute Joshi's statement

"I flew back to Singapore on 6th October as the team was taking a break," says former Entity player Yang 'Deth' Wu Heng.  "I was supposed to return on 15th October. Till this day, the management has not informed me that they are letting the team go. Not the manager, not the owner. For all I know, I could have flown back to India not knowing anything happened. It's just downright unprofessional of them to not have said anything to me since the break. All this to me is just Sid trying to salvage the situation by creating lies and spinning the narrative in a way that portrays them as the victim."

Following the debacle regarding Optic Gaming hosting a cheater on its roster, you'd think that Indian e-sports companies would govern themselves better. This doesn't seem to be the case just yet.

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