Bankrupt NLC team Bifrost owes Diamondprox and his teammates upwards of $50 000

Legendary Moscow5 jungler Diamondprox has recently revealed that during his latest stint with NLC team Bifrost he has never received compensation. Six months later and after over 1000 working hours invested, he is yet to get paid a single dime. The organization has filed for bankruptcy and the future of the roster is bleak.

Moscow 5 in League of Legends

If you are an older League of Legends fan or player, you have probably heard of M5. The Moscow 5 as they liked to call themselves before rebranding into Gambit, was a Russian esports organization.  It was one of the first in the country, starting out in 2001 with a Dota team. They continued by building a CS 1.6 team, FIFA, and a WoW3 squad. So naturally, when League of Legends was released back in 2009, M5 was in on it. They created their League team and were preparing to compete. Fans might remember the glorious days of Alexich playing Kha’zix in the mid-lane.

But every M5 player had an aura surrounding him, and was revolutionary to the game. They quickly became the best European team, winning multiple tournaments in the early stages of the esports scene. The highlight of their short-lived stardom would come at the Season 2 World Championship. There they lost to the eventual winners, the Taipei Assassins, in the semifinals. Their organization would then crumble under an FBI investigation, with their players seeking out different career paths. 

Who is Diamondprox?

Danil Reshetnikov, widely recognized as Diamondprox, was their jungler at the time. Unlike most of his former teammates, he continues to play professionally to this day. He has achieved moderate success over his decade-long career, playing for multiple teams in multiple regions. He is widely regarded as one of the best junglers of the early days of the game, setting trends and inventing tactics during his playing days. But recently he has been in the spotlight due to some unfortunate news, as the collapse of the NLC continues to unfold. 

Bifrost in NLC

The recent changes Riot implemented in the European region, have had their drawbacks. The NLC region is collapsing, and Academy leagues are becoming more and more top-heavy. Meanwhile smaller regions can barely fund themselves. We are a long way from even elite esports being profitable. So it’s not surprising to see the rest of the ecosystem struggle. 

And that was the case with Diamondprox’s stint with NLC team Bifrost. Let’s not get it twisted, we are not talking about former TSM support player Biofrost. Bifrost is a Norwegian League of Legends team competing in the NLC Championship. Despite being a small organization, it managed to find decent success and make an impact. They won the NLC title in the spring of 2022, before heading to the spring EU Masters tournament and securing a top 8 placement. But the organization has seen better days from a financial standpoint, which has especially worsened during the last 6 months. In his recent Twitter post,  Diamondprox details how his 6-month tenure with the team went. On top of poor management practices, he also claims that the org has not paid out a single dime for his 1000 working hours over the last 6 months. 

Diamondprox situation explained

Diamondprox signed with NLC team Bifrost on May 23 for a minimum wage salary. But hespent the next two months playing for them without receiving payment. He claims that they were well aware of his situation in Russia and how it could hamper the payment process. He proposed a different bank, still supported by SWIFT. Other Russian players, playing for another Norwegian organization, successfully used it to get paid. In September, after 3 months without payment, he proposed a different method of compensation. in cryptocurrency, traveling to Norway to be paid in person, and was open to other banking methods.

Despite a mounting pile of bills that needed to be paid, the organization either ignored his requests or tried to prolong the solution. In October they finally agreed to pay him by the end of November, completing the transaction to a bank account owned by a friend of his, who lived in another country. But after a week of silence after the missed payment deadline, Diamondprox received an email from the owners and CEO, just as he was notifying Riot and the NLC about the entire situation. 

NLC Bifrost owners respond

The email from one of the owners claimed that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had hampered their business and ruined their financial liquidity. Their failure to attract new investors and sponsors was also attributed to Bifrost fielding Russian players like Diamondprox, and that moving forward there were two options. The owners were either filing for bankruptcy and letting the state handle the process of distributing resources to recoup losses. Or everyone on the team made a deal to split up whatever the NLC gave Bifrost in prize money and the selling of their NLC spot.

In short, Diamondprox was scammed out of a contract, with more than 6 months without payment. The rest of his teammates also hadn’t been paid in the last 3 months. The owner tried guilt-tripping the team, saying that around $80,000 of his investments had gone down the drain. But would then go on to address the situation in an email with the coach of the team, claiming that they never had the money to pay them and were hoping that investors and sponsors showed up after they won the NLC in spring. Obviously, that never came to fruition, and now Bifrost owes its former players upwards of $45,000 in salaries and expenses. 

Future of esports contracts

Apart from being disingenuous and ruining the lives of their players, it’s scary to think what owners in esports can get away with. It’s honestly sad that an esports contract, especially in lower leagues, is as valuable as toilet paper. We already knew how the environment kills careers even at the highest level. Unless Riot Games, the police, and the legal system in Norway step in, it’s highly unlikely that the losses these players have sustained will never be recouped. It’s unfortunate that the esports industry still hasn’t grown out of these issues as an industry, but thankfully steps are being made. The recent LEC player union action is a step in the right direction. Hopefully, the rest of the ecosystem picks up on it and starts unionizing to defend their rights. 

Header: Youtube/ Gambit Esports