It has been alleged that Turkish esports organization Beşiktaş Esports has not been paying the players of their esports rosters, according to one of their former League of Legends players.
According to a post from League of Legends player Natalie ‘Stratospanda” Kristiansen, formerly of Beşiktaş Esports, the organization has neglected to pay its players properly across its multiple esports rosters. Beşiktaş Esports is the pro gaming division of the Turkish football club, Beşiktaş J.K.
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Natalie ‘Stratospanda” Kristiansen joined the Turkish club’s women’s LoL roster in October 2018, and according to her, there were problems from day one. Their first salary payment was allegedly delayed for multiple weeks.
The players allegedly went five months without receiving on-time payments, despite alleged promises to the contrary.
According to Stratospanda’s Twitlonger, this was also the case for other rosters in the organization, as well as many members of staff.
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Beşiktaş reportedly went so far as to instruct players not to go public about the salary problems, threatening to withhold payment altogether if they did.
According to Stratospanda, BJK was allegedly trying to get all of their present and past players to sign non-disclosure agreements in an attempt to keep the problems from going public.
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Stratospanda left the organization in June and has been trying out for other teams since then.
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One of her former teammates, Olimpia ‘Komedyja’ Cichosz replied to the original post, adding some extra fuel to the fire. She alleges that BJK were promising things like boot camps and media days, all while being unable to pay for any of it on time.
She also alleged that the team shut the players’ Discord server down when players from the other rosters got wind of what was going on. According to another source that spoke to Dexerto, the Discord was shut down immediately after players on different rosters started asking each other if they were paid while the organization experienced major problems on its football side.
Huzurlarınızda Kadın League of Legends takımımız, Beşiktaş'a hoşgeldiniz. Sırada ne var?We're very proud to announce our female League of Legends roster! Ladies welcome to Beşiktaş! What's next?@Nutteper @komedyja @BesiktasTifa @Stratospanda @KyannaLoL#CometoBeşiktaş pic.twitter.com/oafhFGvXUR
— Beşiktaş Esports (@bjkesports) October 10, 2018
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Beşiktaş J.K. as a football club has had its own problems with money. The club announced in February 2018 that it owed nearly $450 million dollars, with a big portion of that coming from their newly completed stadium. In January of this year it was reported that between BJK and three other Turkish clubs, they collectively owed $2.6 billion.
Beşiktaş Esports fields teams in men and women’s League of Legends, women’s CS:GO, and Zula (a Counter-Strike clone.)
As a result, BJK has had trouble paying its football players as well, and the organization is reported to be on the brink of financial collapse.
