It is not often that event organizers fail to keep their promises and not pay their winners the money they owe. Queensland-based company Doesplay, promised to work hard on the behalf of the Aussie eSports community, yet failed to meet their own deadline to pay prizes dating as far back as July of last year. Now their website is down and social media pages are missing or dead quiet.
Probably the biggest prize Doesplay failed to pay, was a $10,000 grand prize for a Call of Duty Pro Series in late July last year. Kotaku Australia reported that on a cached version of the Doesplay website from late September, a Queensland’s Surfers Paradise office location is shown. That address, however, disappeared in February of this year and Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) records show that another company began operating at that address from the first of March. Rob Lineker, the owner and registered director of Doesplay, has also disappeared off the face of the planet and has been unable to be reached via any means of contact.
Players have become so annoyed, that one such individual created a website, called Doesntpay.com which tracks the days since Rob promised to pay them their prize money. According to some who took to Twitter to voice their anger, the sums of unpaid money range from tens to thousands of dollars. On top of this, the website had a paid subscription service which allowed members entry into a monthly giveaway, the right to compete in the “Call of Duty Pro Series” events, entry into special competitions and recorded statistics.
Image courtesy of CallofDuty.com
Adam Campbell, Doesplay’s business development manager, said the public was not informed that the paid service was being shut down and users who had paid for the subscription service, were still charged for Premium until the website shut down. Adam also said he invested as much as $8000 into the company, yet never saw a cent in return. Another such employee claimed he was offered shares of the company instead of a normal paycheck, which he refused.
Most players have moved on to bigger events, like the ever-growing Call of Duty World League, yet will never forget Rob’s lies. Adam remains in the eSports scene and is held in admiration by some who did get paid their prize money, as that money came from Adam’s pocket. This isn’t the first time this has happened, however. Back in the early 2000s, the now-renowned professional eSports company, SK Gaming, failed to pay their players their deserved salaries, which led to famous players like Tommy “Potti” Ingemarsson and Emil “HeatoN” Christensen to quit the game.
Everything has its ups and down and for some, the downs turn out to be more influential than the ups. It remains to be seen whether Rob will pay out the money he owes the teams, but needless to say, the players have little to no hope of it.
