Read on Medium: https://medium.com/@KyotoVAL/x10-crit-still-yet-to-pay-vct-champions-skin-revenue-to-its-ex-roster-fa90dcf5a159
This is an update report to the initial rumor on X10 not paying the Champions cut to the roster in January.
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Despite statements by the organization following original rumors, Crws came out in March and dispelled the org’s claim; stating they still haven’t been paid.
X10 CRIT; a Thai VALORANT organization, rose to fame in 2021 from the initial season of the VALORANT Champions Tour. They held strong results in the Riot-sanctioned tournaments that they had competed in; taking a first place finish in Stage 1: Masters SEA and qualifying to Masters: Reykjavik, finishing in 8th place.
These strong results were enough to qualify X10 to VALORANT: Champions, the end-of-the-year finale to the VCT 2021 circuit, where they ended up finishing in the quarterfinals.
Champions also included a custom skin line, in which 50% of the proceeds from community purchases went to the 16 teams attending the event. This revenue came out to be $18.7 million USD, as of a report by Upcomer, with each team receiving around $585,000 USD.
However, the organizations that were given the revenue cut were given full control in how much would be given to the members; with X10 stating that their split would be a 90/10 (org/team) cut between the full roster; amounting to about $8,357 USD per player, or 280,000 Thai Baht.
In January of 2022, after the roster split from X10 and became XERXIA Esports, one of their players in foxz opened up about some of his issues with his former organization on Twitch, making allegations of X10 never paying, or having issues with paying the players their share of the Champions skin revenue.
A highlight of this was uploaded to YouTube by Thai channel madmax, where it garnered around 200,000 views and gained controversy within the Thai scene. An initial report about the scandal can be seen here, discussing and listing information about the topics discussed within the video.
The situation quickly blew up, eventually leading to the only remaining member of the Champions-attending roster; their coach 0bi, to respond to the allegation alongside other organization members.
0bi claimed that all players received their 10% cut of the Champions skin revenue, as well as saying that the players also received the full Champions prize pool money, ($40,000 USD total) and disclaimed the truth of the rumors by foxz and other community members, passing it off as greed by the players.
Although despite this claim, in March, sources at Upcomer stated in an article about Champions skin revenue cuts that although 0bi claimed that the players received 10% of the revenue, he was the only one that had an agreement to receive the aforementioned cut, in addition to the org also refusing to discuss the matter.
Independent sources also claim the same point made; also saying that 0bi in addition to the org’s staff were the only people to receive the money, with the players still having yet to receive anything.
Although the claim by Upcomer would come out much sooner down the line, the situation mostly died down following the initial response by the organization in January. Future reports on the matter would also receive not as much popularity as the initial report regarding foxz’s claims.
However, in late March, another ex-player; Thanamethk “Crws” Mahatthananuyut, stated new information in an interview with ONE Esports which revealed that despite the claims by the org’s staff, X10 CRIT still never gave any of the agreed upon 10% revenue to the members who departed the organization.
Crws states in the interview that they were told that they would receive their 10% cut, but there was no contractual obligation to pay the money forward. In addition to this, he also gave a hint as to other information regarding the matter on a Twitch stream where he said that he initially played to retire from VALORANT after the current season, saying that he couldn’t give the exact reason why, but it would be a “surprising” story. It is likely this story relates to the controversy, as his interview with ONE Esports was publicized shortly after saying this.
This now makes Crws the second member of the ex-X10 CRIT roster to put into accusation whether or not the money from the Champions skin line was really paid to every player on the roster, alongside the aforementioned foxz.
With the claims from the players, alongside sources from other parties, it is most likely that despite the organization’s claims to truth, the now-XERXIA roster members were never given their promised share of the VALORANT: Champions skin revenue, and it is unknown whether they will (or have) receive the money at some point.
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