Excali's Controversial Transfer From Team Mahi to Samurai Esports Explained
- Team Mahi's Excali is now a part of Samurai Esports but the transfer has left many within the Valorant community shocked.
- TM revealed that it was not informed about the Excali confirming his transfer to Samurai Esports and may take legal action.
- TM and Excali also hosted livestreams to explain their version of events
On April 24, Samurai Esports announced that Karan “Excali'' Mhaswadkar had joined its Valorant roster. However, soon after, Team Mahi (TM) issued a statement on its social media handles alleging that Excali was still under contract till August 2021 and expressed concerns with Samurai Esports’ announcement. TM also stated that it planned to take legal action against the player as a result.
Excali responded to the situation via a YouTube livestream on April 25. He cited concerns about the future of his career owing to inappropriate comments made by TM's owner, Manoj “Sentinel” Kashyap, as the reason for his decision. Following this, Team Mahi hosted a livestream on its YouTube channel to reveal its version of events.
Through this story, we aim to answer various questions surrounding the incident, including an allegedly broken contract, Excali’s motives, and more.
Team Mahi’s Manager Responds to Excali Joining Samurai Esports
After Team Mahi publicly condemned Samurai Esports’ announcement of Excali’s transfer, AFK Gaming reached out to both organizations to obtain more information.
According to Team Mahi’s manager, Adarsh “EupHoria” Singh, Excali did approach them with Samurai Esports’ offer. Team Mahi had agreed to let the player leave as long as the terms of his contract, including buyout conditions, were followed.
(Note: AFK Gaming has not independently verified the terms of the contract)
EupHoria stated that players seeking to leave the organization need to serve a notice period of two months. In case of a buyout, the interested organization is required to approach Team Mahi and to pay a mutually agreed buyout amount. Both of these clauses were allegedly broken by Excali. EupHoria also claims that Excali shared his contract with Samurai Esports which is also an alleged violation of the contract.
He also added that Samurai did not approach Team Mahi after its discussions with Excali. He claims that they learned about the transfer only through social media which came as a shock to Team Mahi. EupHoria expressed his concern about the security of industry members who invest in esports and said that the incident sets a bad example for upcoming esports professionals.
Excali’s Statement on His Transfer to Samurai Esports
Following heated discussions on social media, after Team Mahi's statement, Excali posted a video on his YouTube channel detailing his version of events. He started off by explaining that Samurai Esports approached him to join its Valorant roster. He stated that he spoke about the offer to Team Mahi and that it agreed to match Samurai Esports’ offer in order to retain him.
However, since Riot Games is allegedly investigating TM's owner Manoj ‘Sentinel’ Kashyap after he made some unsavory comments in a livestream, Excali said that he was concerned about being disqualified from future Valorant tournaments. This, he claims, was one of the deciding factors that lead him to join Samurai Esports.
Team Mahi’s Response to Excali’s Statements
After Excali’s statement about this transfer went viral in the Indian Valorant community, Team Mahi livestreamed a pre-recorded call among Excali, Team Mahi’s Valorant roster, team owner ‘Sentinel’, and manager ‘EupHoria’.
Following the broadcast of the call, the organization confirmed that it had agreed to match Samurai Esports’ offer to Excali. Team Mahi also alleged that while the organization was aware that Samurai Esports approached Excali, he did not inform his team mates or the management that he had accepted the transfer.
When confronted by Team Mahi in the call that was streamed to fans last night, Excali did not bring up Sentinel’s controversy despite bringing it up in his own video. He also did not offer any explanations to Team Mahi on why he chose to leave the team and move to Samurai Esports.
Samurai Esports is yet to make a statement on this situation following their announcement of the transfer. AFK Gaming has reached out to the org for its comments on this matter and will update this article if we receive a response.
Follow us on social media
