Norwegian esports organisation Bifrost have been accused of not paying some of their League of Legends (LoL) players and staff.
Bifrost, who were playing in the Northern League of Legends Championship (NLC) this year, the EMEA Regional League for the UK, Ireland, Malta and Nordics, have seen their former jungler Diamondprox and coach D2k take to Twitter to complain about the situation.
The Russian veteran jungler Danil ‘Diamondprox’ Reshetnikov joined Bifrost back in May 2022 before leaving in October.
He published a lengthy statement on Twitter claiming Bifrost scammed him for six months of his salary.
And the NLC said Bifrost have been removed from the league ‘due to financial issues’.
Diamondprox detailed the situation, saying he had to chase Bifrost management regularly to try and get paid, and on December 6th said he and his teammates received the following email from Bifrost management:
Diamondprox said: “They fucked with me for months, wasting my time, making me go in-debt because of stacked bills instead of looking for some other income, to just scam like that in the end (while also knowing well that they dont have money to pay).
“I’m so stressed from this whole situation for the past few months and very afraid to join any LoL team in EUM/EMEA/whatever in the future, especially since my closest esports bro Edward was hugely scammed in another EUM region this summer too.
‘It didn’t matter what we signed, contracts in this industry feel like a piece of toilet paper that org owners can wipe their ass with and suffer losing a spot in whatever League they scammed their employees in.’
Diamondprox
“By my calculations I provided Bifrost with 1,000+ hours of work, plus whatever time I practiced for the NLC Aurora Open. I’m not sure I want to work my ass off 12+ hours a day for months again to get paid ZERO and betray my family by not supporting them.
“I truly hope that karma exists in this world and it will hurt badly when it will strike.”
Diamondprox added that he still wants to work in League of Legends due to his love of the game but will take more precautions when joining another org, or he may stream or find another job instead.
‘Bifrost owe €45,000 to players and staff’ – coach D2k
Russian coach Roman ‘D2k’ Lanskoy, who left Bifrost in November after a year with the organisation, also said that some players haven’t been paid for the last three months.
“We got a confirmation that Bifrost wouldn’t have any money to pay us and they’re getting out from esports,” D2k said.
“They owe around €45,000 to players and staff members. We got promised til the very end that payment would come and we shouldn’t worry about it. They even lied to us a couple of times that they actually sent a salary but nothing has been received.
“They also explained us that they never had money that they promised us and they expected to get sponsors in the future to cover it up. Probably it doesnt need to be told that they didn’t find any sponsors.
“I highly hope one day these things in esports will come to an end and it will get Riot’s attention because players and staff are the ones who are getting affected by it and those guys failing their businesses are just getting out without any problems.”
D2k
Former Bifrost deputy CEO Michel Klepper also said he is owed a ‘high four-digit amount’ for his services.
“We got consistently told that new money will come into the club through investors/partnerships and that our open payments would be covered, which led to me and my whole management leaving,” Michel said on Twitter.
“By today Bifrost owes me a high four-digit amount for my service as deputy CEO. This, I will probably never see again, or just a few percent of it, but what hurts even more is seeing people who are really in need of the money coming into an existential crisis because of this.”
It’s understood Bifrost will try to use their assets to pay their creditors, and that a follow-up meeting is happening in January to see how much more money they could collect.
Bifrost senior management did not respond to Esports News UK’s request for comment.
Former Bifrost player Furuy retweeted the Twitlongers and said:
The news comes after Bifrost announced they had let go of their esports team earlier this month:
It also comes as fellow NLC organisation X7 Esports announced they are ceasing operations, as well as Cowana, Rix and Lucent, with orgs in general citing a lack of revenues and investment/sustainability.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
