RazielYou probably know FPS Lounge for their Deadlock team. The company acquired what was the former Hydranation team, consisting of prominent players such as hydration. Allegedly, the original players signed restrictive contracts and were put on salaries of upwards of $2,000 USD a month. Reportedly, the players have received their salaries to this point without issues. So what's the deal?
It all started when X user Cris_Snipes, a content director, accused FPS Lounge of not paying them and their team about $20,000 USD in owed wages for contract work.
Original post can be found here.
A few replies, such as this one from INFA, also echo that they are owed wages from FPS Lounge.
DEADLOCK PROJECT 8 on X states an anonymous source told them the following:
The owner of FPSL hired over 10 employees for various tasks and informed them that payment would be once every 30 days ($20,000 a month), after which he cut the pay down to $15,000. The team worked the first month and waited for their salary. Some were paid half, and some were paid nothing at all. At a certain point, everyone decided to quit. The owner simply said that he could hire new people in 3 days and start everything over. Ultimately, he paid most of the people. However, he still owes two workers $4,000, and the head admin over $6,000 (he was supposed to receive a % from course sales). He owes the designer $9,000, as well as a couple of SMM managers $5,000. In total, the debt is over $25.000The same post also had a quote from Furia Chase, a social media manager, who had this to say:
I am owed over $5,000 by Derek and FPSlounge for social media work I did over 18 months ago. He constantly dodged all attempts to pay me, using every excuse possible, and now he is ignoring others as well.Original post can be found here.
Newer FPS Lounge players, such as AVG, have stated they never signed a contract and have no optics or say in the ongoing controversy.
*Original post can be found here.
As a side note, AVG and other former FPS Lounge players formed a new team under Poppers Pupils.
So what has come of this?
Derek Taing, the CEO of FPS Lounge, is currently being sued for $100k USD by Cris_Snipes. We don't know the details of this, or if Derek Taing has been served papers, as there is a rumor that he has been moving across states to avoid said papers.Derek Taing did take to the FPS Lounge X to post the following however:
FPS Lounge has faced ridicule since they entered the Deadlock competitive scene. They came in guns blazing announcing that they were the best Deadlock team in the world, then proceeded to lose the next two Deadlock Night Shifts in a row.
For more information about the lawsuit and more, you can watch this video by Deathy:
Since this is an ongoing story with little definitive proof, everything said in this article should be looked at as allegations and accusations unless proven otherwise. Please do not go about harassing anyone mentioned in this article.