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Richard “Dr. Gonzo” Lewis looks at the ongoing issues surrounding the outstanding prize money from Multiplay's i37 & i38 events.

This article is the sole opinion of the author and does not represent the opinion of Heaven Media Ltd or the opinion of any affiliates.

Missing and delayed prize money is a hot topic of discussion right now… Well, in truth it always was, but it seemed to crop up less often and was deemed to be a lot more shocking on the occasions that it happened.

Indeed, the financial aspect of e-sports is something that can’t really be played down in any sense – the money is what distinguishes an e-sport from simply a competitive game and when players do not receive the due rewards for their endeavours it is a damaging to the whole structure of the industry. Quite simply if a player isn’t rewarded for winning, why would they continue to try. But that is an oversimplification of the issue, which in reality is closer to a domino effect than anything else. The organisations are also reliant on that prize money as most take a percentage, and if organisations are kept small then they can support fewer players and fewer games. All of a sudden the e-sports scene is starting to contract rather than expand.

Multiplay are the company behind the UK’s largest and longest running LAN event, known as the i-series, and with three events a year they are a cornerstone of UK e-sports. Their financial model has always best been described as “cautious” but it has proven to be prudent as their longevity will attest to. Although there has been much debate of late about shrinking prizes and increasing attendance fees, up until only recently the reputation of Multiplay regarding the timeframe in which they paid out was always good. Their only stipulation was you had to be at the official prize giving ceremony, something that made sense as the resulting photograph would be used not only for promotional purposes but also as a sign that they were keeping their end of the bargain.


All that hard work from Reason and they have not yet received the rewards of it
However, this changed and they introduced a caveat into their code of conduct that read simply:

Prize giving
To receive your prize you must be present at the official prize ceremony as directed by Multiplay at the time. We reserve the right to refuse prizes to those who don’t attend the ceremony.

Please note: We aim to make prize money payments within 6 months of the event finishing.

This addition came up at the time of the economic crisis, which seemed to allow a lot of people to be excused for a lot of shortcomings. In the microcosm of e-sports, with a close-knit community, it made sense to make some concessions. In the wider world banks were collapsing, loan companies were going bust, tax-payers were being forced into bailing out banks and national debts soared to record highs. Waiting a few extra months for prize money seemed reasonable under the circumstances. Besides, who believed it wouldn’t really take six months…Was it not reasonable to presume that was the worst case scenario and a timeframe adopted simply to cover themselves against all eventualities?

However months came and went and the six month target for i37 was looming large, due on the 7th February 2010. Communications regarding the outstanding money had been kept to a minimum, but Multiplay always had the deadline shield with which to deflect criticism. What would happen if they went past that? What would the consequences really be? How much of a protection for the players and organisations was it? These questions were soon to be answered with as contemptuous a response as you could imagine.

With approximately a week to go before their self-imposed deadline was up they made a bold decision. They decided to change the line in the code of conduct. It now reads:

Please note: We aim to make prize money payments within 12 months of the event finishing.

But of course, while that may be a new policy they wish to implement, one that would widely be derided as ridiculous in any other line of business, it simply cannot be backdated as if the previous pledge did not exist. Even if it is little more than a written promise in small print on their website, it is still something that their customers, which is ultimately what the competitors of all levels are, can reasonably expect to be upheld. If it means little to nothing why have it there in the first place?

To give you an example of the type of amounts outstanding, look at Reason Gaming, the current dominant force at the i-series events having won three in a row. Having to fly players from Slovakia and the Czech Republic isn’t cheap and they have already said publicly if they didn’t earn free entry from having won the previous event they would stop attending. For winning the i37 and i38 CS:S tournament they won close to four thousand pounds. So far they have not received any of that amount and they are due to attend again in April. Each time they attend they have to spend in the region of one to three thousand pounds, depending on the seasons affecting flight costs, and all that money has to be paid up front. Waiting long periods for prize money is crippling for an organisation like that, not just because they don’t recoup their meagre percentage, but because players can become disillusioned and demotivated. It is not even just gaming organisations that are still awaiting payments for prizes. Other partners have debts unsettled and patience is wearing thin.

[/page1] [page2] Tired of asking rhetorical questions we asked Multiplay for an official comment about the outstanding amounts and their recent policy change. Craig Fletcher was heading to catch a flight to America and we spoke with the leading member of Multiplay Operations Will “Dentist” Lowther about the situation. The first thing I asked was what exactly was outstanding:

“I can't really go into specifics I don't think, but we've not paid out any actual money, but some teams have elected to take their prizes from i37/i38 in services such as tickets for events and servers.”

When are Reason going to actually see the real cheque?
This sort of answer did bring further questions, some regarding the financial stability of Multiplay, however it was not anything he was willing to discuss on the record. What we do know is that the company did lay off a significant portion of its staff after i35 to cut back on costs, yet at first glance it seems this measure has not been as initially effective as hoped. When I asked him if he thought it was acceptable to simply alter a promise because it looked like you were going to fail to deliver on it he became more candid:

“The change to the code of conduct is a simple line change on a wordpress page that's not actually used in the i39 site currently. Any chances to the Code of Conduct for i39 will be made clear once the full tournament pages are launched this week. Although we haven't paid the i37 money yet and yes you are correct that we did state we would aim to pay prize money within 6 months of the event at that time, we're not saying that we're now aiming to pay i37 money within 12 months. We'll have a more official statement on that part once Craig gets back from the US, which is in a few weeks.”

I pressed him on the matter of twelve months, curious as to why it would ever be necessary for a company such as themselves, running three events a year and operating at a profit to ever delay payments for twelve months. Again, he wouldn’t be drawn into the discussion saying he didn’t know enough to be able to answer the question. The man who could answer them would soon be in another time zone and wouldn’t be available for some time. It was suggested before the brief interview finished that those still waiting for their money would be contacted today by him, but as of writing this that doesn’t seem to have happened.

Multiplay might well argue it isn’t fair to single them out in this manner and of course there are others that owe money. There are even those that tried to run something that had more in common with a scam than anything serious. But with Multiplay’s prominence in the UK scene and in e-sports in general, their sliding professional standards have a huge impact that shakes the respective scene’s to their core. Look at it this way, MPUK used to promote themselves for handing out the cheques on the day at events. It was something they wanted people to know and they wanted the e-sports media to spread that word. Then it changed to within a week, but that was still a point of pride and people still got to know about it. Then somewhere along the line it became six months, a measure that took advantage of people’s good natures and the broader problems facing everybody. The facts are, of course, if you advertise something you simply can’t delay it to when it suits you. If you went to the movies and paid your entrance fee would you be happy being told you’d have to wait six months because the film spools had hit delays? For them to try and then stealthily alter it to twelve months ahead of their next competition is an insult none involved should tolerate. It is an unacceptable precedent, which if emulated elsewhere would slowly squeeze the life out of the fledgling industry.

On the Multiplay website one of their advertisements boasts “12 years, 63,000 people, over 120 LAN events, £350,000+ prize money”. Impressive figures on paper, but like all statistics it doesn’t really tell the whole story. [/page2]