[dippa]

Originally Posted by hmst

The players are also extremely sorry about your situation YoonYJ, and I know one of them that was even extremely eager to meet you. They had no idea about that such a breach, and they all feel betrayed and lost, and they all hope that they will still have a place in the Starcraft 2 SEA scene.

If the members of AZK remain on the team after this, then I'm sorry, they don't belong in the scene in my eyes.

Remaining on the team says to me that, while they're sorry for what's taken place, they're still happy to remain under the banner of what is clearly one of the most grossly unethical, manipulative, conceited management teams in eSports today.

The players need to take a stand and vote with their feet; what took place is not just wrong, but totally abhorrent.

Sorry isn't enough - they need to disavow from their organisation and start anew.

Remaining under AZK after this just says that they care more about handouts than they do integrity.

The ball's in your court kids.

[wolf]

It's funny you call us kids, yet you're the one for emotional, hasty decision making. Like I said on sc2sea chat, I will wait for Gus to explain himself and the situation before pulling out the lynching rope. I haven't heard from any management as of typing this and I'm not one for knee jerk reactions. I've spent the last few months getting to know a lot of the AZK guys, with most being great people around to practice/joke around with (including Gus). So it's hard to just say "ahh, well **** it, I'll leave nows" and sever that connection. Like Nemo said, this is big enough to warrant waiting a few days to make an informed decision on where I stand with AZK.

tl;dr: Cool your head, as exemplified by YYJ before wanting to CRUSHKILLBURN. Wait for AZK management story and then go from there.
:-)

EDIT: Dippa

Quick Comments

	Nemo:	Exactly, just wait a few days to take a cool headed decision. We need more info.
	nirvAnA:
	EveMassacrisM:	<3
	Bash:

[zendex]

AFAIK AZK doesn't give contracts. Some of our friends at AZK that fell victim to this whole issue has left.

[dippa]

Originally Posted by AZKwolf

It's funny you call us kids
EDIT: Dippa

Also , but I'll put this here in case I annoy anyone else in the future: my use of the term kids doesn't mean I'm actually calling you an infant, it's just how I address people. My bad etc.

Onto the meat and potatoes, then.

I'm not expecting you guys to leave immediately, and I'm not saying you shouldn't wait for an explanation from AZK management before making a decision.

But even the biggest optimist will have difficulties explaining away why, after IGN transferred the money to PPSL, Gus waited so long in confirming to Yoon whether he was flying to the event or not.

Or what happened to the prize money from S2 Games for their event. I haven't seen a statement from them yet: that one is definitely going to take some explaining.

This isn't an emotional decision: there's a complete lack of ethics at foot here, and Gus' statement live on air just added to the image of a man that has shown no indication of behaving with any morals whatsoever.

So wait all you want, but at the end of the day, you're going to be faced with the same choice

[nGenLight]

Greed?

Incompetence?

Both?

Misunderstanding?

Or even a combination of the three?

To me it felt like a Uni student cramming his term paper the night before the due date, an effort way, way too late considering the hype and weight of it all.

[ETL.Santi]

Originally Posted by FaDeBadger

No they didn't. They gave it to AZKSickness. Ziek paid for himself to get there.

Well im sorry mate but can you prove this?

[syfMiley]

Gus is an embarrassment to e-sports and football. Very disgusted by what he did.

[iSt]

seems like the things that SPR wrote on playxp thread regarding this issue is getting deleted

[Nemo]

In fact Zendex gave us information this night and it seems that's now much, much more serious than that. Can't tell more since I'm not the source of information, just check the chat archive if you really want to know. Finally, it seems quite good Yoon was out of this mess.

[Wawa]

hi guys!
this issue is really messed up and i fear that we have yet to hear the worse.

hoping for Gus to step up and make a response soon. -_-

[DemisodaSPR]

Originally Posted by xGKingLight

Greed?

Incompetence?

Both?

Misunderstanding?

Or even a combination of the three?

To me it felt like a Uni student cramming his term paper the night before the due date, an effort way, way too late considering the hype and weight of it all.

Yeah that's what most of it looks like, cept the parts regarding denying flights to yjy and offering to glade etc etc

[Dox]

Originally Posted by hmst

Dear SEA Community

I'd like to bring forward a couple of things concerning this situation and the criticism received.

First off, I am not speaking on behalf of any of the AZK team members or management. I know some of their clan members personally and I am friends with them, and have been talking to them about recent events.

They are all in distress. Many of the clan members had no idea about the scams, shame and controversial acts that took place behind their backs. Many of their members expected that of which was told to them, a tournament consisting of the best SEA players paired with some top pro Koreans. They had no idea about what AZK's management did to achieve such a goal as well...

Although what really shook me up while talking to one of them was his concern with the reputation of the players of AZK themselves. Almost none of the members of the team actually were aware of the events their manager Gus had been involved in, and what so called treachery he had committed towards the entire Starcraft 2 community. All they did was look up to him to provide for the team in hopes of becoming a well known and respected clan in SEA. Then when this happens, and suddenly the world turns against Team AZK, they feel extremely distressed not only because such a reputation has been given to the team, but the players feel that they are being blamed as well. Because the scams and such are depicted as 'Team AZK's' fault, or further flame such as 'Team AZK is a terrible team', the players feel as if they are being blamed for the entirety of the scams, and worst of all, some players are starting to believe that it is their fault as well, and as such, are questioning team commitments and total separation.

Now I am aware that some AZK members aren't on the top of the list of the friendliest Starcraft 2 players, but i know a handful of them, and they are extremely nice and friendly people, who are now shook up and lost entirely given the present situation. The players just did as their management told them to, and up until the current events, thought that the management was doing nothing wrong.

The players are also extremely sorry about your situation YoonYJ, and I know one of them that was even extremely eager to meet you. They had no idea about that such a breach, and they all feel betrayed and lost, and they all hope that they will still have a place in the Starcraft 2 SEA scene.

So I do ask you of the SEA community, a community of understanding, to just be aware of this, and maybe construct your posts with these facts in consideration.

I do feel what AZK management did was unacceptable and requires a formal apology if any condolences are to be made, but lets keep our fingers pointed toward them/him and maybe not towards the players themselves.

I post this not as an official statement from the team, nor as one of their members. I post this as a close friend of a couple of the AZK members, and do as for your consideration.

Great post - although I'd just like to highlight that YoonYJ specifically mentioned that the AZK Team as a whole was full of very good people, and only went out of his way to mention Gus. In my blog I also highlighted Gus and Sonny as the troublemakers, whilst people such as Mariano were actually wonderful to work with.

[Dox]

Gus has addressed the issue over at Team Liquid:

Originally Posted by AZKwitchdoc

First and foremost, the PPSL would like to formally apologise to everyone (IGN, our sponsors, the players, organisers, special guests and the viewers) who were involved with the IPL4 Pacific Qualifiers. The PPSL takes full responsibility for the way everything has unfolded, and would like to make it clear that it was no one else's fault but ours.

Read more at: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/view...opic_id=283925

[Weirdkid]

So is what he says true? YoonYJ is ok with the issue already? Did he apologise to you personally, or only through this post?

[Bugalugs McScruffin]

No, Yoon is still pissed, but he's willing to give Gus this last chance.

Pretty generous, but if he manages to fix this then he's pulled a miracle.

And just for Yoon, you can forgive the guy without giving him your trust. He should have to earn it back.

[YJY]

That is definately true bugalugs. Forgiving is completely different to forgetting. I can only hope the community stands beside me in forgiving him if he acts accordingly. I cannot support him in terms of getting any trust back; that is up to him.

[aLtShortizz]

I know that Team AZK are one of the victims of this situation. But after reading up about it, i felt like as event organisers, they also bear part of the blame. Instead of pushing everything to Gus and adopting a ''We are nice guy and got scammed too''. Maybe they could have done better in ensuring the events were better planned. To let 1 person handle and decide all the finances(Taking in money and paying) is moronic, especially when this guy has no previous experience/credibility. Thats why shit is stir storming up right now.(Hotel/Flight unpaid).


A first year business or events management student would have noticed the problems and skeptical sheit that your entire organising team(If that even exist) failed too see.

Dont mind me, just got a .little annoyed at the ''AZK are good ppl and only Gus is to blame''. Cos really, with so many ppl involved in the grounds, id assume someone has half a brain to smell something fishy instead of posting something on TL pushing blame on Gus and away from yourself with a (I knew it) post.

[x5_Potter]

In my personal opinion, witchdoc should still be "banished" as such from the e-Sports scene, apologies or not. What he has done to YoonYJ and everyone else involved is disgusting, and he has just run off, posting only a TL thread, which I have read, that does not really answer to anything, other than admitting to the obscene amount of mistakes that have been made.

While I am with YYJ on the accepting the apology part, my opinion differs from his in that after he has paid up to everybody involved, apologised and shown he his sincere, his career in e-Sports should be over. Personally I would voluntarily give it up rather than try to salvage what is left of it, as the community will tear him apart if he tries to do anything else.

On the issue of AZK players, they should be allowed to make up their own mind, rather than be hounded to leave the clan/team immediately, based on one person. Surely, as has been said by a member already, the friends and the fun they have in the clan is too much to simply give up and throw in the trash, because of all this. Only Gus has screwed up, the AZK members cannot be attacked for simply being in the wrong clan at the wrong time. It is their decision, so leave them to it.

Overall, I am amazed by YYJ's professionalism in all this. First, to post such a calm post about it all, keeping names quiet for their own good and not making a giant rage at Gus thread. Then to still keep calm as all the new information arose about Gus' shadiness. YYJ had my respect for being a great player before all this, and now he has for respect for being a great human being as well.

[ZraF]

@Yoon I partly disagree with you with regards to forgiving him. In this case I definitely think there was some malice involved when he tried to pull a fast one on the community, trying to screw people for self promotion and monetary gain. Sad to say trying to pull some strings to make things favor you/your team, is quite common in the Philippines. Since no one ever complains, as evidenced by team cube's statement (they were even having 2nd thoughts on exposing what happened).

I think the community should be able to for give to some extent, like accept him as a normal community member; but i think it will be hard for anyone to accept him as a tournament organizer or as a figure in the community (being a team owner/manger).

I think paying you 1600 is not enough for what has happened, there are way way more people screwed/inconvenienced/scammed/cheated leading to this. That I think having him as a community figure, will just make our eSports scene less respectable.

Quick Comments

aLtShortizz:

[YJY]

Originally Posted by ZraF

@Yoon I partly disagree with you with regards to forgiving him. In this case I definitely think there was some malice involved when he tried to pull a fast one on the community, trying to screw people for self promotion and monetary gain. Sad to say trying to pull some strings to make things favor you/your team, is quite common in the Philippines. Since no one ever complains, as evidenced by team cube's statement (they were even having 2nd thoughts on exposing what happened).

I think the community should be able to for give to some extent, like accept him as a normal community member; but i think it will be hard for anyone to accept him as a tournament organizer or as a figure in the community (being a team owner/manger).

I think paying you 1600 is not enough for what has happened, there are way way more people screwed/inconvenienced/scammed/cheated leading to this. That I think having him as a community figure, will just make our eSports scene less respectable.

Paying me 1600 is by far not enough. I accepted a delayed compensation so he would have time to fix the other mistakes that he has caused. I believe that everyone should be forgiven. I don't believe anything should be forgotten, but earned as mentioned earlier. Those who know me well personally know I am very ruthless against who I consider my enemies, but I always believe in chances. This is because I and I am sure you yourself has been given chances But I very much appreciate your feedback and support.