It's never easy is it? Just when we were all geared up for ESWC and we thought we'd solved the riddle over who would be going, it turns out that the matter still isn't settled.

Virus Gaming have now failed to deliver on their promise to send the team to the event leaving the players with no choice but to leave the organisation and fly solo. They've forked over the money for their flights out of their own pocket and are now hoping to attract a new sponsor before the event begins.

All of this is far from ideal preparation for the event and the team, who were ranked up there with the favourites, now face an uncertain fortnight ahead of the competition.

The team's manager, Mikael Miettinen, had the following to say:

Greetings,

My name is Mikael Miettinen, also known as unef0is. I'm team manager of one of the most succesful Counter-Strike: Source teams in the world, former Virus Gaming.

We are looking for an organization, whom we can represent at the upcoming ESWC in Paris Games week (October 21-25, 2011) and other tournaments, such as the i-Series #44 event in Telford, UK (November 18-21, 2011).

I want to explain our situation with Virus Gaming briefly:

We have left Virus Gaming due broken promises, a breach of contract. They promised full support to us, but when the first international event came up, they didn't deliver it fully. They so far only managed to pay for two tickets, which in this case doesn't even include those, as they had already been in debt to myself personally for the teams attendance to a recent ESPC -event here in Finland.
We waited weeks for the plane tickets and other types of support that they promised, but never received those.

The situation leaves us with two facts: 1) We are without an organization 2 weeks before the event that we are, no matter what, going to attend. 2) We have only so far managed to secure the flight tickets, to achieve confirmation.

We have confirmed our attendance out of our own pockets for now, but this doesn't change the urgent fact, that we do need a legitimate partner to secure our full concentration in preparation for the event.

We would also be willing to consider a short time sponsorship, for example ESWC + i44 only, or just for the ESWC event.
Realizing that this is with short notice, I hope that you will not hesitate in contacting us for a possible potential partnership.

Sincerely,

Mikael Miettinen
Email/Skype: mikael.mie@gmail.com

Virus Gaming were:

Juha 'aNGeldusT' Kurppa
Ville 'CISU' Leppälä
Taneli 'disturbed' Veikkola
Olli 'kononen' Salmi
Christer 'nashje' Loukas