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NEWS
ex-WICKED remain teamless
The former WICKED squad, back-to-back ESWC champions and home of the legendary Filip "Neo" Kubski, have informed HLTV.org they remain without an organization.
By Duncan 'Thorin' Shields
Sep 9, 2009 09:27
The former WICKED squad, back-to-back ESWC champions and home of the legendary Filip "Neo" Kubski, have informed HLTV.org they remain without an organization.The team most recently known as WICKED eSports has confirmed to HLTV.org they remain without an organization behind them. This is significant for CS fans as it helps to explain why the team, which houses of one of the all time greats in Filip "Neo" Kubski, have yet to be invited to Global Challenge Chengdu. It also makes it appear likely the team are not destined to be the next MYM CS team, though one cannot rule out the release of this inform as a way of increasing pressure in the negotiation process.
The situation remains a difficult one for the Polish squad who won ESWC in 2007 as PGS and 2008 as MYM. They began 2009 strong with a 3rd at the EM III Continental Finals Europe and 2nd at the EM III Global Finals immediately afterwards. They then departed from the MYM organization, unsurprisingly as that name fell into ruins, and joined WICKED at the end of April. A highly disappointing 9th-16th followed at ESWC Masters Cheonan after drawing winners fnatic and runners-up SK-gaming in their group. Less than a week later they were able to redeem themselves at Kode5 with a 3rd place.
At GameGune WICKED were unable to overcome the increasingly hot Mousesports and settled for 2nd. After being left without an organization again the team was involved in a bizarre situation which involved Crack Clan dropping their Finnish team in order to sign the Poles only for the ex-WICKED side to announce they had received a better offer and be out the door before ink could hit a contract.
While their location in Poland may be a significant disadvantage to them fans will wonder why a team with Filip "Neo" Kubski, who would be a candidate for best Counter-Strike player of all time talent-wise, and so many huge placings lacks for an organization. The difficulty in melding those pros and cons leaves some to speculate that the ex-WICKED team has made too many or too exorbitant salary demands at the negotiation table. Certainly in relation to other teams with salaries they are more than qualified but within the current climate fans would no doubt wish to see them at events regardless, something which is in jeopardy if they don't accept a deal which at least covers basic travel expenses.
ex-WICKED
Jakub 'kuben' Gurczynski
Mariusz 'Loord' Cybulski
Lukasz 'LUq' Wnek
Filip 'NEO' Kubski
Wiktor 'TaZ' Wojtas
Source: HLTV.org
The situation remains a difficult one for the Polish squad who won ESWC in 2007 as PGS and 2008 as MYM. They began 2009 strong with a 3rd at the EM III Continental Finals Europe and 2nd at the EM III Global Finals immediately afterwards. They then departed from the MYM organization, unsurprisingly as that name fell into ruins, and joined WICKED at the end of April. A highly disappointing 9th-16th followed at ESWC Masters Cheonan after drawing winners fnatic and runners-up SK-gaming in their group. Less than a week later they were able to redeem themselves at Kode5 with a 3rd place.
At GameGune WICKED were unable to overcome the increasingly hot Mousesports and settled for 2nd. After being left without an organization again the team was involved in a bizarre situation which involved Crack Clan dropping their Finnish team in order to sign the Poles only for the ex-WICKED side to announce they had received a better offer and be out the door before ink could hit a contract.
While their location in Poland may be a significant disadvantage to them fans will wonder why a team with Filip "Neo" Kubski, who would be a candidate for best Counter-Strike player of all time talent-wise, and so many huge placings lacks for an organization. The difficulty in melding those pros and cons leaves some to speculate that the ex-WICKED team has made too many or too exorbitant salary demands at the negotiation table. Certainly in relation to other teams with salaries they are more than qualified but within the current climate fans would no doubt wish to see them at events regardless, something which is in jeopardy if they don't accept a deal which at least covers basic travel expenses.
ex-WICKED
Jakub 'kuben' Gurczynski
Mariusz 'Loord' Cybulski
Lukasz 'LUq' Wnek
Filip 'NEO' Kubski
Wiktor 'TaZ' Wojtas
Source: HLTV.org
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And about the salaries, if you want the best you need to pay, sometimes a lot!
And most CS Teams including ex-wicked know shit about business so they still live in their own bubble thinking they can demand ridiculous salaries because every organization in eSports wonderland has a limitless pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
A Team has to be profitable for itself to be interesting for an Organization to support.
Since most teams can keep their prize money ( which is btw paid out late or not at all most of the time) the calculation for an organization is quite easy.
Roughly,
if Salaries + Travel Costs + Accomodation > Growth through Fans and Sponsorship money they get from working with the team and its reputation/success = Bad Deal
If Salaries + Travel Costs + Accomodation < Growth through Fans and Sponsorshop money they get from working with the team and its reputation/success at least twice as large as what they pay for it = Good Deal
eSports is a day to day business. Nobody cares how much titles you won in 2003-2007 when it comes down to business in 2009.
And besides fnatic,SK, mTw and maybe mouz no Team can actually say they performed on enough events and good enough, this and the past year, to be worth supporting by an international organization and getting paid at all.
ex-wicked is on the stunning 9th place of the official G7 CS Ranking, how are you going to sell them to any Sponsor? I can tell you, not at all, that is why they either have to go back to their roots and play for LAN Support only until they got back on Top and their new home made some solid profit. Or just die slowly like they did the last half of the year and nobody will care about them in another half year and two more organizations they joined and got broke afterwards.
Just my two cents.
2nd, I don't know their demands but other teams (SK, mTw, mouz, WMF) have their needs full covered and aren't in their best shape. I would say that ex-wicked/MYM/PGS is doing better this year.
3rd, I bet that they are looking for an organisation that is better or at least on old MYM's level. This may be too much on 2009.
Hopefully a decent org can support them soon enough.
I very much hope that guys as soon as possible find a new home !
SK | TaZ
SK | Loord
SK | LUq
SK | kuben
hope they find a better organization soon
gl!
Such a good team, without an organisation. GL to find new one !
look at those NBA stars today, rasheed wallace/ron artest, for example, are really good players, and they don't really deserve a mid level exception salary but look they accepted their respective team's offers, though financial issues are not really a factor. Even Allen Iverson accepting a mininum salary offer! he can carry a team all by himself
it's just me though
correction
Wish the best of luck to them, and hope to see Neo back in form!
gl
Basically i say this because at the moment they have no organization and rejected Crack Clan, and still remain unsponsored. It really depends on their luck at the moment whether they find one at their level of salary or not.