With the very first CDL season now in the rearview mirror, all 12 organizations have been shaken up in a big way. With the transition back to a 4v4 format, every team has been forced into making drastic roster shuffles. On the back of a top-six finish during the 2020 playoffs, Toronto Ultra was quick to make its moves.
The Canadian organization allowed six players to become free agents on Sep. 4, while a few key members were kept on for the 2021 season. Ben ‘Bance’ Bance, Cameron ‘Cammy’ McKilligan, Tobias ‘CleanX’ Jonsson, and Anthony ‘Methodz’ Zinni will all be sticking together moving forward.
However, allegations the organization may be trying to “underpay” their players have come to light, according to veteran player Crimsix.
“Pissed off” on September 24, Crim unloaded on the CDL org on Twitter. The CDL champion exposed ‘threats’ made to the original lineup, along with accusations of extreme prize pool splits for those remaining.
This just pissed me off
1. @Loony makes the people around him better. An often ignored attribute in COD because it cannot be quantified.2. Ultra forced their full roster of 10 to stay in Toronto in the middle of a pandemic. Threatening to not pay non-starters if they went home. pic.twitter.com/ePMGbt07nx
— Empire C6 (@Crimsix) September 25, 2020
The 2020 world champion first took issue with a clip from the ‘Canadian Esports Podcast’ that looked to discredit Daniel ‘Loony’ Loza.” However, the thread quickly expanded and took aim at the Toronto CDL organization as a whole. “Ultra forced their full roster of 10 to stay in Toronto in the middle of a pandemic,” he said. “Threatening to not pay non-starters if they went home.”
Substitutes weren’t allowed to head back home if they wanted pay that was promised in their contracts. Moreover, Carson ‘Brack’ Newberry “had to fight” for permission to “return home for his grandpa’s open-heart surgery. Having not played a single map for the organization all year, “there was absolutely no chance he would’ve been subbed in,” Crimsix confirmed. “A full months worth of salary they aren’t paying me [because] I was with my grandpa during a high-risk open-heart surgery,” Brack soon followed up.
Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates on Esports, Gaming and more.
With teams down-scaling for the coming Black Ops Cold War season, it appears as though Ultra is looking to make more money than ever from its player contracts. There are rumors floating behind the scenes that “these clowns are wanting a 50/50 prize split” from the new roster. All while “underpaying” those that sign, according to Crimsix.
“If the prize split goes up, so must the salary. This is the exact opposite of what they’re doing. One of the most anti-player organizations I’ve seen.”
While the CoD community came out in full force to support Loony – as was the original focus of the thread – few others spoke up on the broader situation at Ultra after Crimsix.
We’ll be sure to keep you posted if anyone from the organization issues a comment in response to the accusations.