BearClawGaming was an American esports organization fielding a Korean team at First Strike Korea and the ongoing Valorant Champions Tour’s Korean qualifiers among other events. The team disbanded its Valorant team recently due to the staff and player not receiving their payments. The CEO of BearClawGaming revealed that the organization entered into an agreement with PLYNIUS as a subsidiary and under no point did the esports organization break the contract from its side. The CEO claims that the organization had to disband due to internal issues at PLYNIUS, and they want to remain involved in Valorant moving forward.
Why Did The BearClawGaming Roster Disband?
The organization’s general manager Steven Kim revealed that the BearClawGaming roster was suffering serious damage due to overdue wages and “repeated lies” from BCG’s parent company PLYNIUS. The team members, staff and players have not been paid at all since January 2021 and have not received any basic support necessary for the operation of the team including accommodation and equipment that Plynius had agreed to provide under the contract. In the current situation, Plynius allegedly does not abide by the contract at all, and BearClawGaming took the decision to terminate the contract to prevent any further damage to the player and staff.
Internal issues arose in Plynius which BearClawGaming did not share. The organization apologized to everyone who was harmed as a result of the incident and claim that they are still interested in being involved in the Valorant scene. Currently, BCG is focused on rebuilding trust in the community. They did not reveal any plans of competing in Valorant in the future.
Previous BearClawGaming Roster
The roster will now play under the name of Team MUYAHO. The players on the roster are:
- Choi Jin-woo (10X)
- Yu Byung-chul (BuZz)
- Jeon Hyeong-heon (GANA)
- Kim Han-kyu (Harry)
- Kang Seung-gyun (iNTRO)
- Yoo Jung-sun (Locomotive)
BCG was among the top 4 in the First Strike Korea qualifiers and secured qualification to the next stage for the Valorant Champions Tour. It is not known how the incident will affect their journey in the ongoing Riot Games event. This is not the first time that a major organization had to disband this year. In January 2021, Mamba Mode Gaming was forced to disband after its CEO mysteriously disappeared and broke off all contact. The former BCG roster is currently looking for sponsors to continue competing in Valorant.
RELATED: Missing CEO Forces Top 20 NA Valorant Team To Disband
Note: AFK Gaming has reached out to PLYNIUS for a comment and has not yet received a response.
