We all know it from our favourite soccer team. Rumours on a new player to join the team or a player leaving the team. It happens all the time and we love to read what's going on between players, their management and the team managers. We really want to know it, but most of the time the discussions stay within those three parties involved and none of them talks to the press about details.
When SK agreed on the deal to sell Element way back, it was pretty much the same. Websites only guessed what really happened, but the core always stayed where it belonged.
This winter it is a bit different. Our German CS team lost one of their players, Tixo, though he was under contract till mid of June 2006.
Today I have to read an interview with a manager from Alternate aTTaX talking about how things happened back in December. Here a part of it:
"Bei tixo waren wir uns anfangs nicht sicher und wollten deshalb die EPS-Finals abwarten, um herauszufinden, wie er unter Druck spielt. Als er uns eröffnete, es existierten interne Probleme bei SK und er würde durchaus zu uns wechseln, wenn er irgendwie aus dem Vertrag, der bis Mitte 2006 lief, herauskäme, nahmen wir die Verhandlungen mit SK Gaming auf. Nach einigem Hin und Her und übertriebenen Forderungen SKs konnten wir uns auf einen Kompromis einigen: SK behält einen Teil des Preisgeldes und löst dafür den Vertrag früher auf. "
Ah, it's German, so I will translate a bit giving you a better view on the situation:
"Alternate wanted to wait until Tixo had played ESL Pro Series Finals, to see how he performed under pressure, before recruiting him. When the player told us about internal problems within the team and he would want to switch teams, if possible with his running contract till June 2006, aTTaX started talking to SK.
After some tit for tat and some outrageous demandings from SK, a compromise was at hand: SK would keep some of Tixos winnings and would release him from his contract."
(keep in mind, I just tried to translate what was said by aTTaX!)
Ok, so besides the fact that I really don't like anyone talking about stuff like this in an interview with a community website, i pretty much dislike if a story is told the wrong way.What if I told you it was different from that? Not only a little bit?
Guess what would have been if SK told aTTaX to contact them and not vice versa? What if the very first statement about an amount to sell the player for would have been thrown to SKs face 30 seconds after mentioning it to the aTTaX manager by an eSports TV host?
What if aTTaX told SK afterwards they were not interested in the player no more?
What would you think if aTTaX left Tixo alone, solving this issue with SK himself and now talks of themselves as the ones clearing up the situation?
Wouldn't that be weird?
Well, it is not my nature to throw mud at anyone. But it would be quite a different story to tell :)