Mineski to take legal action against former players

In a Facebook post made last week, the biggest e-Sports organization in the Philippines made public its intention to take legal action against the players who allegedly breached their contractual obligations.

With little clarification in the post on who Mineski is referring to, all that can be speculated at this point is that the message is addressed to their Dota players. This assumption is mainly based on the fact the announcement was made exclusively on the Dota 2 Facebook account and hasn’t been shared or posted on the LoL page.

In a move to further professionalize the Electronic Sports scene in the Philippines, the Mski-Professional Gaming Teams Management headed by RJ has come to a decision to shed light and to file legal cases against the players who have breached their contractual obligations. We are saddened to resort to this option but as the leading professional eSports advocate in the country, we have to make an action to stop these things from happening in the future. ” - extract from the official announcement

After a good run at the Frankfurt Major, Mineski saw a real decline in both online and offline competition results, which first triggered the decision of temporarily adding their coach, Mark 'Cast' Pilar to the active roster. At the beginning of February this year Cast began playing with the stand-in tag for the team, replacing the Pinoy veteran Ryo 'ryOyr' Hasegawa.

A few weeks after this change, ryOyr announced that he was ready to reunite with his old friends from Rave, and signed with them during the Spring Shuffle on the majors registration list. At the end of the same Spring Shuffle, Mineski locked their roster with a new name added, with Carlo 'Kuku' Palad missing from the new lineup. Instead, a fresh talent from the Filipino scene was granted the chance to make it on the big scene under the Mineski banner, namely Benhur 'Benhur' Lawis.

A week before the regional qualifiers for the Manila Major were set to commence, Mineski underwent yet another roster change, which saw their coach being promoted from the substitute role to a primary member. This time it was the position five support, Cristy 'JessieVash' Cuyco who was replaced.

Apart from the last week’s detailed announcement about the most recent roster change, Mineski has kept quiet on the actual reasons for the previous rosters shuffles. The new post regarding their intention of taking legal action against their former players reveals that the problem is much more serious than anyone could have anticipated.

The management has always been blamed for the departure of the team’s members but most of the time, it is not the management’s decision but rather, the player’s decision to leave the team.[…] The public do not know what is happening behind-the-scenes nor how the players act in private. We have dealt with a lot of issues like members not playing tournament matches and absence or being late in the team practices due to fights with girlfriends, personal conflicts, and other unacceptable reasons.” - extract from the official announcement

If Mineski decides to take the legal route, they will set a precedent in the professional Dota 2 scene as the first team to sue their own players.