The former manager of Royal Never Give Up (RNG) came forward on Weibo, accusing the organization of breaching contracts and withholding pay.
CHINA – Royal Never Give Up (RNG) allegedly owes about nine months in unpaid salary to its former VALORANT team manager.
The manager came forward on Weibo (1) (2) under the name ‘真的真的c’ (cc) after unsuccessful attempts to reach the organization and receiving no response since late November. In addition to the unpaid salary of CN¥18,000 per month, the financial dispute includes a reduced and ultimately unpaid signing/referral fee. Initially agreed upon at CN¥100,000, it was lowered to 5,000 and eventually not paid at all.
The manager also shed light on Royal Never Give Up’s mishandling of player contracts, specifically mentioning Shi “AAK” Yekai, the player cc also brought alongside him in February to sign with the organization but unfortunately found himself trapped in a contract jail. AAK’s contract, which needed immediate online signing at the time and was intended for short-term participation in the FGC VALORANT circuit, turned out to be a binding two-year agreement.
“AAK said that they assured him the contract was just for the FGC tournament, so he didn’t think much of it. I had discussed this with Liang Feng [higher management], and his response was that it was indeed for the tournament and wouldn’t affect other things.”
AAK has since joined TYLOO. There are no specific details provided about the terms of his departure whether TYLOO purchased his contract or if RNG chose to release him following the FGC VALORANT Invitational Act 2 in May.
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The manager also accused RNG of mismanagement that resulted in losing former player Lu “Kai” Zhinan, who is now playing for Trace Esports.
“On March 5-8, due to the end of the tournament and the weekend holiday, there was communication with other team managers. It was clearly stated that Kai should not be contacted by anyone else over the weekend, and everyone was to wait until Monday for the player to come in person. However, the team leader continued to communicate with the player over the weekend, which led to the player going to BLG. This was only disclosed during a meeting that night. As the club manager, I believe the team leader was negligent in not reporting this incident on the same day, resulting in the loss of a very talented player from our perspective.”
Kai’s move to Bilibili Gaming sparked a conflict between cc and the team leader, escalating to a point where RNG’s higher-ups felt one of them had to leave the organization. In the end, cc was forced to step down due to the team leader’s control over “player resources”, but was promised be be reinstated in the future.
Although was no longer officially employed by RNG, the manager was asked to help the team, where he was still responsible for helping the players’ morale and even took on the task of buying essentials for the team, including food and cigarettes. To this day, cc still has not received the salary compensation he was promised, nor the signing commission. His anticipated return to the organization also didn’t happen, adding to the accusations of RNG not keeping its promises and poor management.
“To keep the events clear without going into too much detail, I will release the relevant chat records and recordings. The situation hadn’t escalated to a breaking point because Liang Feng [RNG higher management] mentioned in April or May he would let me return to my position. I also wanted to rest for a while, so I kept in contact with them. They were considering signing a player who might have been involved in match-fixing but wasn’t under any league penalty.”
“This was continuously delayed, and eventually, they just stopped replying to my messages until November 22, when I couldn’t take it anymore and made my first social media post.”
“Today [November 25], they had other managers contact me, trying to dismiss me with 5,000 yuan. This money is what I rightfully earned from my regular work, which is even less than what was owed and originally promised. They wanted to use it as hush money. Their way of handling this matter is utterly disgusting. To prevent more people from being deceived, I have decided to expose them.”
Royal Never Give Up has yet to release an official statement regarding the allegations.
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As with any translation, there could be slight variations or discrepancies from the original.
