Shadowleague - Trophy of legends: Ange tells everything about the whole adventure and where the unpaid prizes went. Below is his account of the story.

Hi,  I’m  Laurent “Ange” Blum. I'm 24 years old, working for the MYM DotA team-management and the French television.

Some months ago I held an important tournament called “The Trophy of legends” made by the Shadowleague company. I was the head manager in charge but I was not one of the owners. It was a great experience but some problems came after the grand final: a part of the players didn’t get paid. I love esports and have been working in the scene for 10 years now, so I want to explain the whole story and how such bad things could happen… even with friends and people you count on.

How does it start?

The whole story started two years ago with “Alexander Kapinos”, “Pierre-Jean Catherine” and me: three students of the “Business and marketing high school of Paris”. We won an important contest in France called “The trophy of the new best enterprise maker”. The purpose of this contest was to select a new enterprise based on an original idea. Since I have been in esports (used to lead the MCL Europe and Beijing Esport-team) for years, I convinced them to participate an original subject “the electronic-sport”. It was not really known by the jury, the people, or the economic scene so we did have good chances to be really different from others. My mates didn’t know the esports-scene at all but they decided to go through because they found the idea crazy and interesting. I was the leader of the group. As I said previously we got the first prize and won this tournament over 220 others projects in the grand final in a big show in front of thousands of people. The victory brought us sponsorship and a sidespot for big investors.

Shadowleague is born

Some months after our victory Alexander and Pierre-Jean contacted me because they wanted to make this project real. They wanted to invest 30,000 euros. I wasn’t really motivated by this at first because I'm working for the French TV as scenarist (making shows, new concept, etc) and was really busy at this time. After 2 meetings they convinced me to help them as head manager of the tournament and to be the picture of the Shadowleague undernet (they had no knowledge of esports scene, they didn’t even know a single pro player, website, tournament, admin…). I signed a contract with them and here is the list of the people who took part in the adventure and their roles:

- Alexander Kapinos took 51 % of company and was the major owner of the Shadowleague (the CEO). He was in charge of the external business related to the Shadowleague : sponsors contacts, websites, VODs and so on.
- Pierre-Jean Catherine took 49% of the company and was the minor owner of the Shadowleague (financial expert). He was in charge of the things related to the money (contracts, paying players, paying prizes, paying me, etc.)
- Laurent Blum (me) took 0% of the company. I wasn’t one of the owners at all of the company. I was just under contract with them in order to lead the tournaments, bring players in, make publicity work, handle WTV/GGTV coverage. Facing the law they are the 2 owners of the Shadowleague and I’m nothing, I was just collaborating with them and getting paid.
- SL-Mali, SL-Drunkin, SL-Soltani were the 3 admins helping me. (thanks again to them for their help)

The Shadowleague went up with us three as major staff. About the money involved here is exactly what the 5 things we agreed on :

- 1st:  We invited two kind of players as “the old pros” and the “active pros”. In order to attract the old pros we paid them a decent amount of money before the tournament . We didn’t pay the active pros because they were playing for the prize. (We thought that the old legend got low chances to win the prize so we compensated it by paying them at first).
- 2nd : We decided the rate of salary for every month.
- 3rd: We decided the final prizes for the winner, which we had to pay at the end of the tournament.
- 4th: Alexandre and Pierre-Jean, as main owners of the shadowleague, would get the money from the sponsors (51% & 49%).
- 5th: I should get 18% of the society after the first season.

The issue : what the shadowleague paid and what the shadowleague didn’t pay

- The Shadowleague (Alexandre Kapinos and Pierre-Jean Catherine) paid some of the old pros generously before the tournament for a total of 1800 euros (they received all the money via Paypal). Here is the list of the one we paid if you want to confirm:

• MadFroG
• Tak3r
• Showtime
• Sweet
• FoV
• ToD

- The Shadowleague paid me well. I didn’t get any problem with them and my salary.
- The Shadowleague didn’t pay the final prizes to Infi , Focus and Sweet.

What happened in France and between me and the owners of the Shadowleague related to the unpaid prizes?

One month after the grand final I asked them to pay the prizes and give me the 18% I must get from the company. I also sent them the mail, bank information from the 3 winners. They told me they would pay it soon and just need to wait a bit (both for my 18% and for the prizes). I came back to them 3 weeks later and pressured them hard because the players hadn't get any cent yet and I hadn't been pay my 18% either.

They told me to focus on my business, they said I had got my money and I had nothing to do with these prizes. We went into a big fight later and because of this, they ignored me (didn't answer telephone, emails etc.)

I was really disappointed … I knew them for a long time and I didn’t expect they could betray me due to money. I like the esports scene and I couldn’t accept such a shame.

What did I do?

Since I was involved with my 18%, I decided to attack them behind the legal court. I recruited a good lawyer to claim my 18%. The truth is that I didn’t care at all of my 18% but the idea was to get into the company and then as one of the owners I could force them to pay the players.

They received the letter from the lawyer saying that they were obliged to give me the 18% because it was in the contract. 

They didn’t answer this letter in the first 2 weeks. That was really a strange move because in France it’s a big fault not replying a lawyer. You MUST reply the lawyer within 2 weeks or the court will punish you.

 I was surprising NOT to see them reply the lawyer so I checked (3 weeks ago) the league again. What did I discover? They disbanded the company. The company did not exist anymore so they were free for anything. I have no more way to fight against them since the company doesn’t exist anymore.


What can be done ?

This move is really annoying and when people act like that they must be punished. I can’t do anything myself since I’m not involved in the company and in the prizes deal. The only thing that can be done must come from the managers of the big teams: WorldElite & Mojawi . They should attack them in France behind the legal court. It’s quite hard for WorldElite since they are in China and their manager is German but it’s even easier for Mojawi to do it since it’s a French company.

Here is my message for the teams and the managers:

If any of you need help: getting support in France, need telephone numbers of the owner, need to go to the court, need document or whatever related to this story I’m free to help you.
I am now working in MYM management and also in TV so I’ve good contacts. If I can help any of you in any way I’ll do it.

Just contact me.

Anyway I’m sorry about what happened and all this shit story.

For more infos you can find the shadowleague company references =>
SHADOWLEAGUE
MRS KAPINOS et P-J CATHERINE
18 rue VOLNEY
75002 PARIS