[ToRSpartaz]

Today is a sad day, in fact this has been coming for a fair while now. Unfortunately I am announcing that Team ToR is leaving Avant Gaming after 6 months within the organisation.

+ [Disclaimer:] +

My post might be a little off in terms of structure/spelling - Balancing an assignment at the same time so my apologies ><

Effective immediately after the "new" direction that Avant has been taking in regards to it's management structure along with it's way of responding to players the decision to leave the organisation has taken place.

+ [Our Experiences with Avant over the last 6 months:] +

Back around October last year, we were made aware that there was an opportunity that our team would be able to leap at - That opportunity was Avant Garde.

We came into the organisation fresh and eager, with the idea that after all of our hard work leading up to joining Avant would be rewarded with real opportunities for our team to showcase how much they have grown and developed.

The first few months with Avant were fairly quiet, with the issues that were had regarding Tt eSports - The organisation were definitely on the rise from that point onwards, receiving more interest from potential companies to negotiate contracts.

When the organisation signed the first contract, since our joining with Avant, with Palit Microsystems we were super excited that we would be finally receiving some support from Avant. The first of that being was the name changes that we needed in order to represent the organisation. So we asked Wes, who is now technically in control of Avant, for the money in order to provide new accounts/a main account for the tags for the organisation. Months passed and when PJ presented the opportunity for the clans and teams to make a request for Blizzard to reserve the tags for the Clan Support feature for SC2, I jumped at the chance. Basically we asked for what was it $50 for the tags, which I didn't receive on time. So once the clan feature had been introduced, I approached Nirvana and paid for a new account myself. I think a week later I was reimbursed, but for months there was no signs of support or any indication that we would be provided with the funds for simply representing Avant ingame.

Just before ACL kicked off there was an internal management issue inside Avant, which some of you may or may not of seen on Cybergamer, but essentially it was the takeover of the organisation by the current owner Wes, from MKR - The founder of Avant. This brought across issues for the security of the team, because there were comments made against the team that spelt out in bold words that our team was viewed as "second rate" and as a result of that we wouldn't be deemed as equal as other platforms. This only strengthened our resolve moving into ACL Brisbane to represent Avant.

As you guys probably will know by now, both NXZ and Pezz did really well representing Avant and the guys at ACL Brisbane, unfortunately Pezz only losing out a place in the groups by going 1-2 to teammate NXZ, who went on to take 4th place at ACL Brisbane. We were really starting to open the eyes of the other players and management in Avant.

Unfortunately, despite showing what our team was capable of in regards to NXZ/Pezz's performance at ACL, the issues continued on after ACL and it came a time for us to act.

We were presented an unprofessional contract that could not sign. It granted little security for our players. It granted full control upon any decisions made that should be up to the player to the acting CEO of the organisation, which was in this case Wes. It put us in a position where we knew that our future with Avant was coming to an end.

What does this mean for the Team for the mean time?

Well definitely for the next month or so, we are going to step back a little and evaluate our options. There are a few paths that we can go down in our eSports journey, but we aren't going in to make any hasty decisions - I for one am looking forward to a bit of a break after the time and effort I put in aside from SC2 into Avant ><.

Despite the recently poor experience I hold the organisation itself in much respect. The people whom I have come into contact with have really added to my learning experience with this organisation, the Gears of War team, D1M1 and BLOPs have all been really great dudes to get on with. As well as my fellow manager Seth, who cares enormously for the wellbeing of the players.

to all that have read through this long winded post - And thank you for all the support you guys have show us across the last few months

Quick Comments

ToRMcLovin:

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