Cover-Credits:
Lethal Esports is an Indian esports organization that has been through the wringer for multiple controversies including non-payment of tournament prize money, salary dues, and ousting its VALORANT lineup from the bootcamp.
It has publicly addressed some of these issues in the past but its reputation and identity still remain tainted in the eyes of the regional Valorant community.
During a recent 24-hour charity stream, former Lethal Esports player Agneya "Marzil" Koushik, shared his personal experience of competing with the team and accused the organization of bootcamp issues, management problems, and a salary scam.
Marzil Shares His Personal Experience With Lethal Esports
Indian esports veteran Marzil, who has competed professionally across CS:GO and Valorant, recently hosted a 24-hour charity livestream on YouTube sharing his experience with Lethal Esports where he called out the organization for a number of things.
Marzil on the state of the bootcamp provided by Lethal Esports
According to Marzil, the bootcamp provided by Lethal Esports had three internet connections from local providers but none of them were reliable, as they frequently stopped working.
"In Pune, apparently the best internet that you can get is Tata Play Fiber, which is not very good, but that is the best you can get. Our locality did not have that. We had to rely on local providers that would go out at random times," shared Marzil.
He further said that out of the three connections only one used to work at a time and if it faced latency issues or packet loss, the team did not have any alternate options available.
Talking about the owner of Lethal Esports, Marzil said that he used to treat the bootcamp as his "own private chill place or resort," visiting the place every other week to drink and smoke.
Marzil was personally not found of such behavior as he believed that it sets a bad influence on other members at the bootcamp.
He also mentioned that members of the Lethal Esports management team who were still in college would bring over their girlfriends to the bootcamp and spend the night there, which Marzil thought was very weird.
Coming to the food provided at the bootcamp, Marzil said that the quality of food was poor, not because of the cook - who was actually very good, but because their pantry was never stocked appropriately.
"At times there was no atta (flour), no onions, no vegetables, and the cook used to ask what should I make to eat? There are no ingredients available," said Marzil, frustrated with the fact that he had to constantly order things because the management was incapable of doing all this themselves in a timely order.
Another big complaint that Marzil had was with the way he used to receive his salary. He said that the owner used to pay him via UPI which was not satisfactory for him because it was not considered as a legal pay slip and hindered him from applying for things like credit cards, loans, etc.
Marzil on the alleged mismanagement by Lethal Esports
Marzil explained that initially Lethal Esports had two managers, Jay “Anarchy” Kapadia who was the bootcamp manager, and Yash "NESH" Tyagi who was the team manager. He points out how both of them were not the best at their roles, resulting in many unfavorable situations for the players at the bootcamp.
Highlighting an incident, Marzil spoke about the situation that had resulted in Santhosh "Rafaaaa" Kumar, a former Lethal Esports players, to leave the organization.
According to Marzil, Rafaaaa was denied permission by the managers to leave the bootcamp and practice from his home for a period of two to three months as he wanted to take care of his mother, who was alone at home at that point in time due to his father getting transferred.
Rafaaaa was left with no other option than to quit the team after which the owner apparently started to question Marzil about why he chose such a player to join the team.
"He would keep asking me why I picked a player like this as if it was my fault that he left," said Marzil.
Talking about another incident of alleged mismanagement, Marzil spoke about the time when Shivam "sh1vy" Ajmani had been signed as the replacement and had fallen sick right after joining the team. He said that there was no one available from the management to look after and take care of the new player. Finally, the players themselves had to take him to the hospital for a checkup and it turned out that he had Dengue, resulting in immediate hospitalization.
Marzil blamed this on the disgusting and unhygienic state of the bootcamp which according to him had been created by the college-going managers along with the owner.
"In the morning, you could find alcohol bottles, food splattered around, and lot of insects buzzing around the bathroom. It was a very disgusting and unhygienic environment at that point," said Marzil.
He further said that instead of helping out with the mosquito infestation at the bootcamp, the management simply left the players and went home. After this, other players also started falling sick and had to resort to taking care of the situation themselves, just like before.
After Anarchy and NESH left, Harshal was appointed to take care of all the players but Marzil said that things did not improve and he was forced to confront the new manager over a phone call.
"What are you doing? You have been put as in charge of the bootcamp, the players are falling sick here, there is a mosquito infestation, there have been no attempts to clean the place or sanitize it, to do anything, and you are just roaming outside," said Marzil, about his conversation with Harshal, but the outcome of all this was barely positive.
Marzil on the alleged money scam that took place in Lethal Esports
Calling the new manager Harshal two-faced, Marzil goes on to unfold the story of how he allegedly scammed multiple content creators that were signed by Lethal Esports.
Marzil said that Harshal constantly lied to both the creators and the owner, while shifting all the blame on NESH who was not even in the picture at this point in time.
As per Marzil, Harshal had apparently promised a high salary to the content creators and took that amount from the owner, who had agreed to pay the amount, but never actually paid the creators, thus keeping all of it for himself and blaming things on NESH.
Marzil said that this went on for a period of two and a half months after which Harshal was supposedly caught as all the parties involved spoke to each other directly and confronted him. They all ended up meeting the manager in the hall of the Lethal Esports bootcamp, where Harshal was asked about the money and he tried to make some excuse which resulted in others allegedly beating him up.
In the end, Harshal seemingly spoke the truth and ended up apologizing, also promising that he would arrange the money and pay the creators. Marzil adds that the manager was fired from Lethal Esports after his money siphoning activities were exposed.
These were some of the things that Marzil shared with the Indian esports community about the time he spent with Lethal Esports. Most of these accusations were personal, anecdotal references and cannot be perceived as the whole truth.
To know the other side of this story, AFK Gaming has reached out to Lethal Esports for their response on the matter. If any statements are shared by them in this regard we will add them to the article.
