Cover-Credits:
Professional Valorant player Sabyasachi "Antidote" Bose recently spoke about the transfer of four former Enigma Gaming players to Orangutan Gaming. He stated that the situation between the players and the organization remained amicable and that both parties parted ways mutually. He explained that Enigma Gaming gave players an early deadline to extend their contracts, which the players felt was too early since they had three months remaining in it.
Antidote also went on to acknowledge the support the organization had provided to help build the players’ careers.
Antidote states that the players and Enigma Gaming parted ways mutually
On 21st January, Orangutan Gaming unveiled its new Valorant roster. The Valorant roster included four former Enigma Gaming players and a Filipino player. The roster's sudden transfer from Enigma Gaming to Orangutan Gaming raised a bunch of questions in the Indian Valorant community. To address these questions, the team’s in-game leader, Antidote, recently went live on his YouTube channel to address these questions and clear the air around the matter.
Antidote revealed that Enigma Gaming gave players an early deadline to re-sign their contract. This decision would allow Enigma Gaming to plan ahead and ensure that they have a full roster of players for the upcoming season and avoid any potential issues. If players were to wait until the last moment to re-sign their contracts, it would have left Enigma Gaming scrambling to find replacements at the last minute. "If we could not sign the contract at the last moment, the organization would have struggled to find players for the team," he said.
Unfortunately, it wasn't the ideal scenario for the players. With three months remaining on their contracts, players felt it was too early to commit to an extension. "The Organization asked us to re-sign the contract three months before its end date if we wanted to continue. However, as players, we thought it was too early to extend the contract. In those three months, we had two LAN events: Esportz.in and GXR India Invitational, and one online event: GXR India Invitational Qualifiers. So we thought it wasn't the right time to extend the contract," he added.
"We all are professionals, and we all have expectations in terms of salary or paycheck. For that, player evaluation is necessary," Antidote said. Following this, he explained that the team's performance in the said tournaments would have affected their paycheck. "At that time, we thought we should finish the events first. For example, if we had become Esportz LAN champions, won GXR, or performed better, our player value would have increased. So when we extend the contract after that, our base salary would have increased. However, if we had played poorly in Esportz LAN or GXR, our value would have decreased. So we were ready to take that risk," he added.
Antidote again stressed that the decision was mutual and added, "The scenario neither worked for Enigma Gaming nor us; that was the only reason."
Antidote also spoke about the support that the team received from ENigma Gaming during its early days. He acknowledged that when the team was established, it was not performing well and that he himself was struggling with the in-game leader role. Despite these early teething problems, Enigma Gaming continued to support and believe in the team, which allowed it to grow and develop into one of the most competitive lineups in Indian Valorant.
