UK-based esports organisation eMasters have suddenly removed their social media channels and seemingly shut down.
The news came last week when a few in the community were quick to notice their Twitter page no longer existed.
Some also alleged they were unpaid by eMasters, who competed in Valorant and CSGO.
Kieran Robertson, who was previously working with eMasters, said in a Twitter thread that he was no longer working with them ‘due to a multitude of reasons including unpaid wages’.
UK/Vietnamese Valorant player ReQz, who played for eMasters, added in the below tweet:
Valorant coach Vixie said they’re currently pursuing legal action.
Vixie said: “Disappointed in this whole situation. They hired us, worked with us, and didn’t pay us. Then they got real quiet, and all associated accounts have been deleted.
“They owe the team thousands, and we were told we won’t see a penny. We are currently pursuing legal action.”
Coach Vixie
“We just wanted honest, clear communication. They were very polite at first, very good to us. We worked on content together, and it seemed so promising. Then, it all went downhill. This happens so much in esports. I hate it.”
BoDork, team manager for free agent side Who Cars? commented:
eMasters had been competing over the past year in tournaments including the Valorant Beacon series, Insomnia Gaming Festivals, Epic.LAN and more.
They most recently finished third in the Valorant Insomnia 70 iSeries Challenge. This i70 esports tournament was won by Skål Esports and the runner-up was The Goose House.
We’ve reached out to the founder of eMasters offering a right of reply and will update this article if we receive comment.
eMasters owner responds: ‘They can seek legal action all they like, I’ll happily go to court with them as they breached their contracts’
Ben Masters, founder of eMasters, told Esports News UK that his first Valorant team and his Game Changers team breached their contracts.
He also said the second Valorant team are owed money and ‘will be paid at the end of the month’, and that he had no problem with his CS team.
“The CS boys were as good as gold, but the Valorant scene is a very bitchy industry, like a big school playground,” he said. “I was never appreciated. Valorant is full of bratty kids that don’t give a shit about anything other than themselves. I’m thick skinned, I don’t give a shit what people say.
“It’s not right for some people, but the Valorant boys are owed a bit of money. They’ll get paid at the end of the month, they haven’t done anything to me. But the first Valorant team breached their contracts.”
Ben Masters
When asked how, he claimed they weren’t turning up to meetings or training on time.
Ben also claimed that a screenshot of him making racist comments was photoshopped to try and cancel him.
“Some clever twat managed to put up a fake account of me – it was my picture but they photoshopped the text. Instead of me arguing with everyone, I just did the right thing and walked away, deleted all socials and moved on,” he added.
He said eMasters was set up last year as a passion project, funded by his separate business Masters Communications. Ben enlisted WolverBean to run the org, but the working relationship between the two soured. And Ben said he wasn’t happy with team performances.
WolverBean recently posted DMs between him and Ben in this Twitter thread, going into more detail:
When his first Valorant team left, Ben said he continued to invest in the org and brought Kieran Robertson in to work with eMasters.
“I got the team a house that cost £1,200 each, they had a pool table and dartboard. They didn’t appreciate what I was doing. I wanted to make the experience as good as I could for them, I flew two or three over from abroad, picked them up from the airport, done everything I possibly could,” Ben said. “I wanted to make them feel comfortable, that was my choice. When I went to the lans everyone can vouch for me – I spent £200-300 drinks on the first day, and got them any drinks and snacks they wanted.
“And then people started saying to me: ‘why are you doing this for them?’
“Then I realised they were having me on. So at that point it had to come to an end. It happened gradually and they breached their contracts, so that done me a favour.”
On the Game Changers team, Ben said: “They had to finish in a certain position and their contract would carry on. They got knocked out early.
“And they aren’t owed thousands, they were only contracted to £175 per month. They broke their contract, within the first two weeks of them being contracted they were knocked out. I told them they were out of contract and they didn’t like it.
“That all happened and it’s the reason they think they owed money. They can seek legal action all they like, I’ll happily go to court with them, they breached the contracts.
“No one has looked at me and seen that I pumped almost £80,000 into the scene, they just pointed out a few bad things. All I was getting was abuse, so at this point I’ve cut my losses. I think Alan Sugar was bankrupt three times before he made it to the big time. So I see what we did over the past year as an achievement.”
Esports News UK will now be talking to others from eMasters to get their views on Ben’s comments.
Response to Ben’s response: Several sources have contacted Esports News UK to dispute some of Ben’s claims above, including finer details around contracts. Some said the allegedly racist comments were not photoshopped, and some also said Ben closed the organisation for other reasons.
Bullet Circus added:
His statement regarding us (the game changers team) is untrue.
— Bullet Circus (@BulletCircus) May 16, 2023
He agreed to end the contract early at the two month mark after we were unhappy with non-payment (before tournaments), despite the contract being for three months.
Player Allex commented:
jtay also made other claims towards Ben.
Note: This article is about the former UK esports organisation eMasters, not the former CSGO tournament platform, which stopped tweeting back in 2019.
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.
