Esports Tournament

[Patrice]

Jurisdiction

Virginia

Hello I need some help! Long story short me and my team have played in a esports tournament with a prizepool of $10000 in the finals the other team cheated and got DQ, so we won. But now the company hasnt paid us anything yet the tournament was Nov 7th and its been a little over a month. They are saying since the other team cheated the money has to stay in "escrow" for a little time and if they transfer us funds they are liable to get sued. Because the other team has some time to file a complaint against them. Is any of these statements true? and is it legal to not pay us for over a month after the tournament?

 

[Tax Counsel]

Is any of these statements true? and is it legal to not pay us for over a month after the tournament?

When you say the other team cheated and was disqualified, do you mean that the other team won the competition and the cheating found after the fact or was the cheating discovered during the competition and the competition halted as a result of the cheating? And what do the tournament rules say about cheating?

 

[Patrice]

YES! Exactly they won but after the fact it got revealed that they cheated

 

[Patrice]

When you say the other team cheated and was disqualified, do you mean that the other team won the competition and the cheating found after the fact or was the cheating discovered during the competition and the competition halted as a result of the cheating? And what do the tournament rules say about cheating?

The rules have stated from the start of the season that cheating is not allowed. The rules were broken. We have recieved confirmation that we will take 1st prize.

 

[adjusterjack]

What do the rules say about a time limit for challenging a decision?

 

[Patrice]

What do the rules say about a time limit for challenging a decision?

There is no such rule about the time limit. What basically happened was that they paid other people off to ruin our game and make us loose and paid someone to ddoss my internet. They got caught and confessed. So now we have been waiting over a month to get paid and Im just wondering if that legally is possible

 

[army judge]

So now we have been waiting over a month to get paid and Im just wondering if that legally is possible

Apparently it is possible because you told us it is happening.

It might be hard to wait, but waiting is your only option at the moment.

If waiting is impossible for you and your crew, you could contact the media (as in ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, FOX NEWS, MSNBC, NewsMax, OAN, Newsy, local TV stations, local newspapers, local radio stations, etc) and tell them your story in hopes that the sponsor would "pay up" sooner rather than have the entire fiasco go viral all across the planet.

 

[Tax Counsel]

There is no such rule about the time limit. What basically happened was that they paid other people off to ruin our game and make us loose and paid someone to ddoss my internet. They got caught and confessed. So now we have been waiting over a month to get paid and Im just wondering if that legally is possible

Their issue here is that the other team did win initially, with the allegations of cheating after. If they paid you and then the other team were to sue for what they claim to be their winnings and win then they would be out the money twice. So they are sitting tight for now until they can ensure themselves that that won't happen. For the moment the best option is to wait and see if they can resolve it reasonably soon. A lawsuit would cost you time and money with no assurance that you absolutely would win.

 

[zddoodah]

Is any of these statements true?

Let's look at each of the statements you mentioned:

1. "They are saying since the other team cheated the money has to stay in 'escrow' for a little time." We have no way of knowing if this is true or not because we are not privy to the rules of the tournament.

2. "if they transfer us funds they are liable to get sued." In the abstract, anyone is "liable to get sued," so this is probably true (albeit irrelevant).

3. "Because the other team has some time to file a complaint against them." As with the first statement, we have no way of knowing if this statement is or isn't true because we are not privy to the rules of the tournament.

There should be written rules governing this video game tournament,* and I assume you and all of the other teams agreed to those rules when you signed up. You need to read the rules. If they're online, you could post a link and maybe someone will look at them.

* - If there are no written rules, then this becomes much more murky.

and is it legal to not pay us for over a month after the tournament?

Depends on the rules. The 32nd season of The Amazing Race was run in late November and early December 2018, and the winner still hasn't been paid because the final episode has not yet aired. That's perfectly legal because the rules of the show state that the winner doesn't get paid until after the full season has aired.