Shady Business Practice in the Unreal/LAN World

[Soulja]

I know we have some Texas gamers here, so please read, and anyone else, please read. If you ever chose to compete/go to this LAN for fun, then you better think twice.

Hello there,

My name is Chris Westmacott, also known as xTc` in the game Unreal Tournament 2004. I generally enjoy competing in a 1v1-based environment, so I was intrigued by the tournament that TXGF(http://www.TXGF.com) was planning on running May 27th-29th, with a guaranteed prize of $150 for first place, as well as a couple of hardware prizes from their various sponsors.

I drove from San Diego to Texas for their lan party and won first place in their tournament for Unreal Tournament 2004. It was overall a fun event, particularly because it was run by one of our fellow UT2k4 players, and a good friend: Concrete. The prize for this tournament was $150 for first place; yeah, it’s not much, but I was going more for the fun of meeting people I’ve known for a while and such.

At the end of the lan party, I was able to collect my hardware prizes, and was notified by a high-ranking staff member that the person handling the money would send me my $150 right away. I headed back to my hotel room, slept, and drove back home for the next three days.

On June 6th I sent Chris, the head organizer for TXGF, an e-mail inquiring about the prize money that was supposed to be put into my Paypal account immediately. He e-mails me back right away, letting me know that the money will be coming soon, and when it does, he will be paying out all of the tournaments.

On June 15th, I sent him a short e-mail asking if he could give me a status report on the $150 that he owes me. He again e-mails me back within a couple hours of me sending my e-mail, assuring me that the money would be in my hands within 30 days of the event ending (May 29th was the last day of the event), mentioning that the reason I did not have my money is because all of the sponsors were at Computex, which just ended. Why it takes 30 days to send a small sum of money, I don’t know.

On July 1st, I send Chris another e-mail inquiring about the money, mentioning that it has been over a month since the event ended and I still have not been paid. He responded in a little bit of a rude tone, telling me that he has a copy of the check so he knows it exists. The sponsors just haven’t sent him the real check, or something like that. He then goes on to mention that the CPL takes 6+ months to pay their tournament attendees. I guess he figured that by saying that, he also gets the luxury of taking 6+ months to pay us.

On July 6th, Chris e-mails me back, notifying me that the check is in, but because it is out of state, there will be a 5-10 day business hold on the money. Starting to see a trend here? Anyway, he says that as soon as it clears, he will send out payment. Maybe I’m missing something, but didn’t I mention that Chris said he would send me the payment via Paypal? Why don’t the sponsors just give the check to Chris, and Chris places the money into my Paypal account? Shrug.

On July 28th, 16 business days ( 22 real-world days) later, I sent Chris a fairly long, all-encompassing e-mail. It has been exactly 61 days since the event has ended. In that e-mail, I mentioned that what he is doing seems like quite a shady business practice, as he’s been constantly making excuse after excuse. I mentioned that I spent $1,500 or more on travel expenses to go to what sounded like a potentially great event, and was up until the end, just to get jerked around and not get paid what I was rightfully owed. I’m not sure if the CS players or Q4 players have been paid yet, but I wouldn’t expect them to be considering the type of treatment Chris has been giving me.

It’s not that I’m in need of $150 – it’s the principle of the matter. I mentioned to him in the later portions of the e-mail that I honestly didn’t want to see his business get a similar reputation of the Cyber X Games; that is, a company that doesn’t pay out the prize money that they should have to their tournament attendees. I asked him to please have the money in my Paypal account by Monday, 07/07/06, or I would be forced to post about his shady business practices on various public forums.

This is when our line of communication has stopped – he would not reply to the last two e-mails I sent him, when previously he would respond to every e-mail I sent him within 2-3 hours, usually. I did send one more e-mail after the July 28th one, but it isn’t worth mentioning. It was simply a reminder that I would be posting about him and his company on public forums if he did not have my money, or a logical reason for why he doesn’t have my money, by Monday, 07/07/06.

Chris Tom, I hope you’re enjoying the money that you pocketed from your sponsors and refused to pay out to the people you rightfully owe. I hope this post has helped you learn from your mistakes. More importantly, I hope this post has helped warn people about the shady business practices of your company, called the Texas Gaming Festival (http://www.TXGF.com). Hopefully people will realize that you are a tool and won’t attend future events that you run.

Please tell your friends about this post if you get a chance. I don’t expect to get paid; my main goal right now is to warn people about TXGF, Chris, and their shady business practices. I hope Chris gets a chance to read this post. Maybe he will learn from his mistakes for the future, or maybe he will continue to pocket money from sponsors until enough people catch on and don’t attend events that he runs any more, forcing him to go out of business.

Regards,
Chris “xTc`” Westmacott

[Houdini]

that sucks. I looked at their site and their forum module was down I bet that guy was flamming them.

[Ace]

Is it just me, or is it extremely funny that a semi-pro player travels 1000 miles to out-class locals for $150 and hardware prizes? Should he be paid, absolutely. For a $150 bucks, I'd suck it up and not admit that I'm basically stealing from the locals by playing completely out of their league. GG.

I only bring this up because I've seen it first hand. As far as I know, it was the first local LAN party that offered a cash prize around here, along with a processor or something like that. The game was Metal of Honor, all the locals were there except this one guy. Sure enough the unknown guy wins. It wasn't until after we look at his screen, the bastard had every leaf turned off, no fog, etc. So he's playing in a wide open desert, while every other person in the tourney is playing in a forest. Hard core gamer type, didn't do anything "techinally" wrong, but wasn't playing the game...he was playing cheap to win. Anytime cash prizes come out, so do the people you don't want. Since all the local LAN groups dropped the cash prizes to avoid this crap.

It's a f***ing computer game, it's doesn't take physical talent like a sport, it doesn't take real ability like making music, and it doesn't take quantum physics in the mental department. Play it for fun. The minute it becomes about money, I laugh.

[nonstop]

I have no problems with folks trying to make money if they want. God knows Fatality and Thresh for example have made tons of money. Why not if there is opportunity?

This situation is silly though. It would be similar if ace flew over to ohio because he heard of a local tourney. He knows some of the players so obviously he knows his ability verses theirs so he drives down to completely own them and then complain about not getting money.

The whole thing is just an embarassment personally so why would you post it?

I would be curious what Hoss or another one of you texas fellas would say?

Don't mess with Texas?

[BeerNut]

Until I hear an official statement from Hoss on this matter... I am blaming him.

He plays UT AND lives in TX... so by rule of proximity, I'm pretty sure this is his fault.

[Naix]

Until I hear an official statement from Hoss on this matter... I am blaming him.

He plays UT AND lives in TX... so by rule of proximity, I'm pretty sure this is his fault.

I concur