The drama started late November after we contacted the talented Absolute Legend squad, but unfortunately only disappointment ensued. Upon contactingAbsolute Legend we made them a solid offer which included complete salary for the whole squad as well as team-manager Tim 'Wetdream' Buysse. This would have made for a strong six man squad alliance with mTw. One we reached an oral agreement with the players we then sent out the contracts via post. Two of them returned the contract signed so legally, they had become bound to our team. During this time, one of the player's on the Absolute Legend squad mistakenly uploaded a screenshot of his contract instead of a screenshot of an ESL game. This made us release an article about the partnership on our website, Absolute Legends also published  their statements. From there on, AL was officially apart of mTw, although not all the contracts were signed, we had reached an oral agreement.

Counter Logic Gaming

Then suddenly, out of the blue, CLG contacted Absolute Legends and made it obvious that they made the squad a better offer, however the squad had previously promised us that they would play under the mTw brand. Absolute Legends then made a statement about how mTw wouldn't release the squad and we were then accused of being non-professional and stingy. After several days of discussion AL made it clear that they had no intention to play for us.

So we then contacted Counter Logic Gaming in order to reach an appropriate solution. At first the conversations were heading in a positive direction, of course CLG claimed that we did not have all contracts and that Absolute Legends was not bound to mTw, which they were right about. With regards to labour law, a verbal commitment is binding and CLG eventually accepted those facts. This resulted in both parties negotiating a transfer fee. After reaching consent about the transfer fee the terms had to be put into a written agreement  and Counter Logic Gaming wanted to draft this agreement. We had no objections to this but had to wait several days for an answer  from them. Whenever we asked about the final agreement our questions were quashed by excuses. When CLG finally came up with an agreement it was packed with several mistakes, so this whole process took more than two weeks.

However, towards the end of the discussion CLG informed us that they did not wish to acquire the players anymore and would kick them out of the team if acquired, the reason they gave was that Rene 'Kbap' Werner and Henrik 'Froggen' Hansen were against the transfer from the beginning. In the end they followed their teammates in order to avoid being teamless. During the negotiation about the transfer fee, Counter Logic Gaming kicked Rene 'Kbap' Werner off the team and justified it by saying he was bad jungler who was only able to play a few champions. CLG then informed us that they only needed one player. A short period after the team released Bram 'Wewillfailer'De Winter as well, the main reason CLG did this was to avoid paying the transfer fees. These days Marcel 'Lyumi' Haas plays under Counter Logic Gaming, however this was done in order to resolve the next issue.


What about the points ?

When Absolute Legends qualified for the Intel Extreme Masters in Kiev they did so under the mTw brand, so naturally ESL gave us the licensed IEM slot. However, the license stated that at least three of the players from the original squad which qualified had to play at the Intel Extreme Masters, we obviously had a problem on our hands. Only two of the players from the original squad were still with us while the rest of the team had deserted us. At that period CLG also housed two of the players as well, this is the main reason why they added Marcel 'Lyumi' Haas back to the team, whereas he was previously kicked off of the squad. (»As a friend I am a bit sad that we have to change Wewillfailer and Lyumi, but the only 2 other possibilities were changing one of them or keep having a bottom lane that weren't on the same line. I am very happy to welcome Krepo, Snoopeh and Yellowpete in our team.« - Mike 'Wickd' Petersen auf clgaming.eu).

After a long discussion with the ESL we basically arrived to a conclusion that a new agreement had to be made. Together, with CLG team-manager Tim 'Wetdream' Buysse and the ESL we finally arrived to an agreement, which stated that the ESL would ease the traveling expenses of Counter Logic Gaming and that any potential prize money would go to CLG. In exchange, we would get and keep all the points earned from IEM. However one day after we reached this agreement the players decided to cancel everything that we agreed upon. Since the situation was turning out to be irresolvable we decided to forfeit the IEM spot to the runner up team from the qualifiers.

The allocation of the points was a hot button issue point during all this turmoil. We believe that the team as a whole deserved the points because they were the ones who put in the time, work and effort. We were against giving the points over to a portion of a team that thinks they can do as they please.

To end all this off, Tim 'Wetdream' Buysse claimed to the ESL that he and his team were a registered company so that they could receive the slot for the Intel Extreme Masters tournament. However, while all this was going on he boasted to another team that if mTw tried to sue them it would be to no avail because he and his team were not a registered company. Counter Logic Gaming denigrated Rene 'Kbap' Werner as being a bad player just so that they would look like a successful team. It is truly sad to see, that the game and esport originally started as a way to spend time with friends has fall behind blind obedience to fame and money.

Without us !

Since 1998 mTw has been a known team in Germany and all over the world. Through our passion, work ethic and effort we have made tremendous achievements and will continue on the same path. We obviously wanted to work with Absolute Legends but we had to draw the line somewhere, that line was drawn when the team manipulated us into making them an offer which they then went back on, just so that they could "test the waters". We do not condone this type of affair/relationship because it does not fit with our team philosophy, we pride ourselves on maintaining an honest relationship between our team and our players.