Team DK recently pulled out of Season 5 of the Netolic Pro League, amidst the rumours that the prize money has not been paid up accordingly.
Fearing another scandal in similar fashion of The Premier League, Team DK has pulled out of the Netolic Pro League, now into it's fifth season. This appears to be essentially unnecessary as ACE, a major Chinese sponsor of tournaments and teams, had misinterpreted the statement regarding if prize money had been paid or not. In fact, they have sent a statement to all Chinese teams:
Statement by ACE (Translated by Netolic):
As for NPL tournament, ACE teams can choose to participate of their own will. Since the tournament organizer has a poor record and after looking into it we find that they have been holding the prize money.
Therefore, we don’t recommend teams to participate this tournament, but if any team would like to take it as an opportunity for practice, you are free to make the decision. ACE will not be able to guarantee that there is no confliction between their schedule and the current tournaments, and we cannot ensure that you’ll get your prize money.
However, the case is different in reality, as money has been paid on time by the organisation. Professional gamers from various teams and organisations such as SSD, Fnatic, and RoX.KIS have stepped forward to side with Netolic in this fiasco, showing their support. This then brings up the issue of 'why did ACE issue that statement?'
@NetolicTV Due to rumors,we oficially claim that all the money our team won in #NPL4 we have recieved! Thank you, @NetolicTV for being quick
— RoX.KIS Team (@RoXKISTeam) February 25, 2014
how comes team DK claims netolic havent payed the prizepools from their touranments whne they never played them ? My team got the cash lol
— ComeWithMe (@leCEWEME) February 25, 2014
We got paid by @NetolicTV for the past season. To clear the rumours, money came in last week.
— Danijel Remus (@fnaticStreeT) February 25, 2014
This relates to the scandal a while ago which featured Speed Gaming's (Now Cloud 9's) manager, Marco, not releasing his former team's winnings. As Marco is the founder of Netolic, ACE's fears are not unfounded due to past misgivings. Netolic, on the other hand expresses their hope that such misunderstanding can be avoided in the future, as they are under new management.
Statement by DK Manager 'FarSeer' (Translated):
There have been issues with Netolic in previous sessions, and we understand that there have been problems with the prize money payouts. From what I know, the previous edition's prize money has not been paid out even now, so we decided not to participate.
Apparently the issue lies with the international banking system, which has held up the prize money for between 10 to 15 days, causing the delay. ACE has issued a statement on Weibo, which is summed up in Netolic's statement below.
Statement by Netolic:
After reaching to ACE for explanation of this accusations, they admitted they asked some European team ( no names were given ) few weeks ago regarding their prize money from our last Season. The team confirmed their money was already in transfer but not at their ending yet as it usually takes between 10 to 15 days for a wire transfer from the US to EU ( depends on the banks in most cases ) but ACE misunderstood this and they took it as they didn't get it when all the teams already got their prize money long ago, on top of this they forgot to ask again and this was the main reason of the miscommunication.
Also prizes of this magnitude takes between 30 to 60 days to be received form the sponsors we heard of cases that take up to 90 days
Currently, Team DK's slot in the Netolic Pro League Season 6's Main Event has been taken up by Team CnB. As they have pulled out of the tournament, Team DK will not be able to opt-in again as their decision is irreversible.
Although they have since cleared the air, ACE has not made any apologies for their statement regarding the Netolic Pro League. DK has received their prize money since, with ACE having acknowledged that international transfers might take time.
Source: SGamer, Netolic.TV
Headline photo: Dreamtime
