Saudi esports organisation Fog Esports recently competed at EMEA Masters amongst many other teams from Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa.
However, reports from Sheep Esports have revealed that the team were threatening to forfeit the tournament due to going unpaid for months.
The roster of Fog Esports has attempted to resolve overdue payments for months without much progress.
Who are Fog Esports
Fog Esports is a Saudi Arabian esports organisation that competed in the Arabian League to qualify for EMEA Masters.
The team had made it to the Grand Final of the Arabian League 2025 Spring Playoffs.
Losing to Geekay Esports for the second time in the Playoffs ended as the runner-up.
In EMEA Masters, the team defeated Colossal Gaming in the Group Stage, before being knocked out by Karmine Corp Blue and ULF Esports.
The organisation also competes across multiple esports titles, including Overwatch and Call of Duty.
Fog Esports’ roster goes unpaid for months
According to Fog Esports’ coach, Gerard ‘Jayrad’ Blasi, the roster went throughout April and May without payment.
At the start of May, they began to bring forward their concerns about the delayed payments.
The organisation cited to the players that they were waiting on a partnership deal to be finalised.
This back-and-forth continued in the following weeks, with the players asking for payment only for the organisation to delay.
This came to a head at the end of May, as the players threatened to take the payment issues to Riot Games MENA.
Ultimately, this didn’t affect the organisation, and Riot Games was informed of the situation.
However, the response and actions of Riot Games on the situation were not disclosed.
This forced the organisation into action, which gave verbal assurances and a deadline of June 15th was made in writing.
In the end, this meant nothing as the organisation has since missed the deadline to pay its players.
It should be noted that unpaid salaries are common in amateur leagues throughout every esports title.
However, Fog Esports’ registration with the government-backed Saudi Esports Federation makes this a curious case of their involvement with its smaller member organisations.
Threats to forfeit EMEA Masters
According to Jayrad, they considered forfeiting EMEA Masters before the organisation promised to pay the players two months of salary.
This was an escalation of the players’ ongoing struggles with the organisation.
Jayrad chose not to take part in EMEA Masters as opposed to the players who did compete.
Ultimately, this didn’t resolve the situation, as the players received half of the promised amount and still owed their salary for the last few months.
Esports News UK has reached out to Fog Esports for a comment, but the organisation is yet to respond.
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