Banner image: Ubisoft / João F. @itsmeERROR
Earlier this week, MNM Gaming’s former Rainbow Six Siege roster announced their departure from the British-Chinese organization due to a debt of over £200,000 in unpaid salaries to staff, players, and former team members, according to players. SiegeGG had the opportunity to chat with a source related to the situation.
MNM Gaming as a Rainbow Six Siege organization
MNM Gaming initially joined the Rainbow Six Siege esports scene in Sep. 2018. While the team started as a small roster in the UKIN (United Kingdom and Ireland) region, the roster eventually reached Europe’s top flight in May 2019. Later on, Natus Vincere acquired the roster, which went on to win the Pro League S10 Finals.
Despite the organization’s decision, MNM Gaming kept investing in Rainbow Six Siege’s second tier. In 2020, the team’s new roster won Europe’s Challenger League and was one match away from making a top-flight return. One year later, the British-majority roster secured promotion and qualified for the Six Invitational 2022.
Since then, the team has been in multiple international competitions including the Six Berlin Major, the Six Jönköping Major, the Six Invitational 2023, and the BLAST R6 Major Copenhagen. Despite the lack of international success, we’re talking of one of the most consistent lineups in Rainbow Six Siege.
Overall, MNM Gaming has had a brilliant reputation among the Siege community. The organization’s constant investments in rosters from scratch and their trust in young talent were examples of great scouting and managing. At the same time, the sharing of touching personal experiences such as Kalvin “KalKal” Chung’s on-stage marriage proposal, or the extensive coverage including info-graphics, informative tweets in multiple languages, and more, made MNM Gaming everyone’s team, a small organization that faced the big esports powerhouses from around the globe.
Beginning of MNM Gaming’s unpaid salaries
Unfortunately, MNM Gaming’s constant contributions to the Siege community can’t make up for the team’s most recent news. Following the conclusion of the BLAST R6 Major Atlanta, which the squad missed out on, the now-former MNM Gaming Siege roster “decided to stop representing the team” due to the organization’s “repeated failure to meet their contractual obligations.”
“The main troubles for (the majority of) us started around July 2023, but it changed for everyone, a few of us got our last salary in September,” admitted SiegeGG’s source. Therefore, the lack of payments began during Rainbow Six Siege’s off-season, right after the team’s performance at the BLAST R6 Major Atlanta.
According to our source, the problems for one player in the team began “somewhere between February and March of this year.” Another player in the team got “every salary up to September.” Meanwhile, the remaining five members of the team got every salary up to July.
Although the team’s salary situation was made public earlier this month, SiegeGG’s source believes that the “oldest one (unpaid salary) might be around September or November 2022.”
As a whole, “around 16 or 17 people” have been affected by being unpaid, including “our team (five players and two staff), as well as Neo, Archer, the Academy Team and its staff.” At the same time, the roster’s public announcement reached another person affected. “After our tweet, there is a GFX artist that said he is also missing money.”
In the meantime, MNM Gaming flew to Japan and Germany to compete at the Japan Invitational and the R6 Central Combine, respectively. On those trips, the squad met with Kal, but the “communication was friendly” mostly because the team thought “it was temporary and solutions would come after.”
Regarding the costs of the trips, SiegeGG’s source believed “it was either covered by the tournament organizer or partially MNM Gaming.”
MNM Gaming’s unpaid salaries, the truth behind and players-owners communication
Since the roster’s Challenger League 2021 championship (Nov. 2021) the team has pocketed around US$300,000 in prize pool money alone.
“They never told us about any financial problems,” our source told us. “They said exciting deals were coming, brands would invest, and also private investors were talking to them.”
Unfortunately, if that were the case, the deals had probably collapsed. “I think they were really expecting deals to be signed but it didn't happen and put them in an impossible situation.”
As the team’s position got harder to sustain, inevitable communications took place. Following the team’s victory against Wolves Esports at the R6 Central Combine, the players and staff “requested” a meeting with Kal and Dan “to clarify the situation.”
While both the roster and the owners agreed to stay in touch with “messages and meetings every ten days”, the communication changed from “relaxed” to “cold” after some time. “We are still in contact for details related to this situation as of today.”
Eventually, both players and staff found out about the harsh truth. “We just asked them about the missing prize pool and after some time, they acknowledged that it was used to cover salaries.”
According to our source, the team is missing the “Jönköping Major, EUL FInal 2022, Six Invitational 2023, Blast EUL Stage 1, and BLAST R6 Copenhagen Major” prize pools. Moreover, the team members are missing their “share on the R6 Share program” as well as their prize pools for the Japan Invitational and the R6 Central Combine.
“Last message was a few days ago,” our source explained. “The last word about all the missing money was that they won’t be able to pay what they owe us and going to court won’t change anything because they are bankrupt and don’t have any assets under their or company name.”
Consequences
Shortly after the conclusion of the off-season competitions, the players were forced to reduce their amount of preparation time. “We had to reduce how much scrims we were doing because players weren’t available and the ones left were less productive than usual because we all had ‘bigger problems’ to manage.”
Inevitably, the potential lack of preparation and the economic situation of each player and staff member started to affect the team’s results in the second split of the Europe League.
“We had to work for a complete EUL stage while also trying to find solutions to pay rent, food, house, etc. Even with spare money after a few months without an income, you’re obviously in trouble,” SiegeGG’s source explained.
While such a situation has been described as “mentally very hard” the team is sticking together, at least temporarily. Right now, the players are exploring their options, both “individual offers as well as team offers.”
According to our source, the team is “in contact with Ubisoft.” Although they can’t “interfere” in the player’s contracts “in any way”, Ubisoft have been doing “as much as they can to help us solve this.”
Right now, the roster’s future is uncertain as only time will tell if the players can keep competing together or if their paths will go in different ways.
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