Quantum Bellator Fire Accused of Not Paying CS:GO Players

Former Quantum Bellator Fire players have come forward and accused the organization of withholding money from them, according to a report from Jarek "DeKay" Lewis.

Quantum Bellator Fire, which notably reached the playoffs at ELEAGUE Boston Major in January 2018, was accused by Kirill "BoombI4" Mikhailov of Natus Vincere. Mikhailov commented following Robin "Fifflaren" Johansson's interview with Richard Lewis in which the former Ninjas in Pyjamas player alleged he was mistreated by the organization.

Mikhailov said he understood Johansson and later said $95,000 "was stolen" from him by QBF, and Team Winstrike saved his career. Winstrike, which purchased the QBF roster in mid-2018, paid the debts of the former org, according to the report.

According to the report, the debt was a accrued amount between salary, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive prize and sticker money from Boston. Vyacheslav Soloviev, currently part of ForZe, was responsible for the payments, according to the report.

Soloviev was previously the team manager and part-owner of Quantum Bellator Fire. According to the report, Soloviev joined Winstrike as a manager of the player for a period of two weeks. He was alleged to have withheld almost 3,000 Euros in stipends that were to have been distributed to the players, according to the report. He was then reportedly fired.

Soloviev disputed the allegations he withheld money from the players while a member of Winstrike in a statement to Dexerto:

"We parted with Winstrike on mutual agreement," he said in the statement. "I reported to the management of the company for each ruble spent. Moreover, there is a signed document with Winstrike on the absence of mutual claims."

Winstrike reportedly paid 3,500,000 Rubles (about $52,000) to the ex-QBF players upon acquiring the roster, though the players were owed 2,950,000 Rubles, according to the report.

Winstrike CEO Jaroslav Komkov also issued a statement to Dexerto:

"We were negotiating the purchase of QBF for an amount of about $150,000. The complete mess with the contracts in the old org led to the fact that we signed players as free agents and began paying them salaries and full security as teams (meals, per diems, computers, travel and accommodation). It is important that mix roster came with the manager (Soloviev), who controlled every single thing in the team for two weeks during tournaments. After returning from the tournament in Lisbon, Iksou (coach) wrote to me in a telegram, complaining that he had absolutely no money. Then it turned out that they want to sell us a team with a bunch of debts for salaries, unpaid prizes and stickers, lack of contracts. We suspended the negotiations and tried to understand the situation. It turned out that indeed, there was a big debt to the players, which the former management could not pay off. They sincerely wanted to pay debts to the players from the money for the transfer, but forgot to tell us about it. After that, we began to bargain and decide who should pay the debt to the players and how the transfer cost will change due to this. After 2 months we re-signed contacts with the players, made the QBF debt to them ours and began to pay it out of the current expenses of the team."