Shamelessly stolen from this NeoGAF thread: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=65685451
8WAYRUN.com was the first gaming site to convert to XenForo. I saw the value of the platform and immediately jumped on it. I am now one of the bigger XenForo third party add-on developers as most of the stuff on my website are programmed in house. since then, I've helped many of the websites in the FGC to update their forums, including testyourmight, vfdc, freestepdodge, and many others.
One such website was SRK. However, working with SRK was a pain and made it a chore to get anything done. In addition, they kept asking me to program in additional features that were harmful to user experiences, including poor integration with WordPress, that they refused to give up, and advertisement systems. I told them it would be problematic and I don't feel comfortable programming such features, but would do it anyways since they were paying me.
When all the work was done, and I asked for my fee, they refused to meet my price. They said they would give me half, and "never talk about money again". Basically, pay me half, and I continue working for free. I took the money, but refused to work for them anymore.
However, SRK is a huge website running my software, so it's still in my interest to make sure it's running well as it's basically a big advert for my add-ons. There was a huge problem, after months of running without a programmer, everything was now out of date, and of course bugs were starting to show their ugly heads.
When people started complaining about bugs, MrWiz tried to blame my software. To which I had to respond that those bugs were fixed almost a year earlier, SRK was just severely out off date. MrWiz immediately banned me and deleted all the support threads I had commented on. A month later they switched to the service hosted vanilla forums.
All this because they are greedy bastard who refused to pay my paltry service fees. The amount I asked for is probably less than two days of revenue from that website.
I've been recording/streaming for BigE, for FREE for about 7 years, and he's always treated me like shit. Whenever I tried to talk to him, he would always be like "What do you want now Jaxel?". But he always treated the Soulcalibur community well, since back in the day, we pretty much made his events. Before 2005, we always had the biggest turnouts, so we were the premier game. So I still stuck by him, even though the tournaments were always poorly run... seriously, if you've been running tournaments for over a decade, and they're still run like shit, you're doing something wrong.
So as I said, I've been essentially working for him for free for years, and he always acted like he was doing me the favor, rather than the other way around. As if I was "working for the content", which you guys all know, 3D fighting games, I don't make any money off those youtube videos. There was a significant lack of respect in the fact that I always had to hound him just to get information about sponsors and schedules of his events. Often I would have to be rushing at the end of Friday night to finish the stream slides because I never knew who the sponsors were till last minute. And I NEVER got any schedules.
Meanwhile, I never even had any fiduciary responsibility to have sponsors on my stream slides. They weren't paying me, and BigE never treated me like an official streamer, on most of his tournament threads, he never even listed my stream. He got all the money and never gave me any of it. The most I ever asked of him, was to cover my hotel room, which he always refused. Of course, he always said "I got you covered", promised me arcade sticks from madcatz at EVERY event (3-4 per year)... I never got a single stick.
You may not know this, but I streamed the first THREE Bar Battles; but BigE never listed my stream on his threads. In addition to all this, he doesn't even supply me with internet anymore. At all his events, I shell out $300 of MY OWN MONEY to stream on my Verizon 4G. And yet, he still acted like he was doing ME the favor. So I was shelling out cash to stream for free, for him... meanwhile he collects thousands in venue fees, with very little cost since he gets the venue for free, and hires his family as staff. He doesn't pay any of the TOs who help him run the event, and doesn't even cover my internet costs. In addition, he collects revenue from the increasing number of sponsors.
The big issue happened at Winter Brawl this past year. As usual I was streaming the 3D fighting games. As usual, I rush on Friday night to finish the stream slides. As usual, they don't give me any schedule, or post the schedule online. Saturday comes along, and Dead or Alive, Tekken and Soulcalibur are scheduled to start at the EXACT same time, 5pm. Seriously? You're gonna be claiming to support these games and then basically fuck them all over for stream/gaming time?
So 5pm comes along, and I ask the Tekken guys if their tournament is ready to stream, they say no, so I start Soulcalibur, since I am running Soulcalibur and I run my shit well. By 8pm, we are in top 8 of Soulcalibur. Everyone in top 8 says they would rather play on Saturday than wait for Sunday only to get fucked over on stream time on sp00ky's stream (which ALWAYS happens, not sp00ky's fault, but BigE's, since he can't schedule for shit). Hell a recent "Jaxel Power Hour" episode I did, I spoke about how tournaments run behind because of TOs, and I used NEC as an example of TOs fucking up.
So I'm running top 8 in Soulcalibur, and we're pretty much close to the end and Hubbs asks me if I can stream Tekken now. I tell him that we're almost done in Soulcalibur and if it can wait. He says fine and I finish up Soulcalibur. We get in some Tekken pools afterwards, about 4 or 5 matches... by then its midnight and we pack up for the night. Remember, I was not given a schedule, nor told what games I had to stream at what times.
The next day, BigE complains to me that Namco complained that I didn't stream enough Tekken. He said my "love" for Soulcalibur made the decision on what game I streamed; when thats not true. I did not choose Soulcalibur over Tekken, I chose TOP 8 over FUCKING POOLS. I later find out that BigE is laying the blame on me to Namco, telling them I fucked up and sabotaging my relationship with them. He wouldn't admit that it was his poor scheduling.
In addition to this, he's going on Facebook to the Tekken community and telling them that I fucked up and that's the reason Tekken wasn't on stream that much. Even though I gave the Tekken community the first dibs on the stream time, and they chose not to take it. In order to protect his own interests, he refuses to admit his mistakes and sabotages my relationships with both Namco and the Tekken community. A week later, SweetJohnnyCage contacts me on facebook to tell me that they don't PHYSICALLY have "space" for me at ECT and they wont be having me stream there. I can read between the lines, BigE has his hands in EVERYTHING on the east coast, and he just blackballed me.
So naturally I'm pissed off, but because I'm a professional, I keep quiet and think about it for a bit. About a week or two later, I send an email to BigE explaining my complaints with Winter Brawl; pretty much asking for an apology. I'm giving him an out, so that he can apologize and I will continue working for him for FREE. Instead he calls me up, and gives me this non-apology, insisting that he's "going to bat" for me, and that I fucked up at Winter Brawl. Whatever, I accept it, and still plan on streaming for him at upcoming events; because this is BigE, and I don't expect him to act like a fucking human being.
So in July I was supposed to be streaming at VxG in St. Maartan; a huge event which will result in a nice paycheck for me; both from VxG and the residuals I will make off of youtube. I've been working hard to get this event, streaming VxG events on good faith, expecting them to return the favor. I've met with staff from St. Maartan and all is going well. However, I find out last month that I've been dropped as a streamer at VxG. Yes, there are issues with Capcom games at VxG, but they could have kept me on for non-Capcom games. I find out that the reason they are dropping me is because BigE is talking bad behind my back, scaring the tourism board at St. Maartan, telling them that I am unprofessional.
Now you guys know me, I am a consummate professional. I strive for perfection in everything I do; and I act like a professional and expect others to treat me the same. When it happens, you see some fantastic events that I work with, such as APEX or Canterlot Gardens. However, BigE has been nothing but unprofessional for many years, and now he just cost me a $10K by fucking me over with this VxG shit. Thats the moment I decided FUCK THE FGC, I'm not working for free for the FGC ever again. So all these streams that I've been doing for free, you can thank BigE for ruining it.
Because I DONT CARE ANYMORE. I have nothing left to lose in the FGC. The WORST people in the FGC are in control of it; the people who run EVO/SRK, BigE, Henry Cen, etc... they are all terrible people who are sabotaging the FGC in order to pursue their own interests. The worst part about it is that they act like they are doing it for the community, meanwhile they nickle and dime the players, leeching off of them, and stunting the community's growth. The FGC is actually shrinking, and it's not the player's fault, but the people in control.
Its pennies for the PLAYERS, not for the tournament organizers. These guys make a KILLING. Lets say NEC venue fee is $30... and 1000 people show up. Thats $30,000. BigE gets the venue for FREE; if you tell a hotel that you will fill up 300 rooms, they give you the ballrooms for free. In addition, BigE hires his family as staff, so he keeps the revenue in house. Not to mention he doesn't pay any of the TOs that actually help run the brackets. And of course, there is the ever increasing number of sponsors that further fatten his pockets. Meanwhile the venue fees keep increasing year of year, even though it doesn't actually cost them anymore to run the event.
These guys may have started in it for the community, but its no longer about that. Now its a business; they run more and more tournaments throughout the year because it allows them to continually bleed the community dry. THIS is the reason why they are so adamant that eSports is bad for the FGC. It has nothing to do with "grass roots" or protecting the interests of the FGC, its about protecting THEIR interests, and their revenue stream. So they are actively fucking over the FGC's chances with big eSports leagues in order to protect their own businesses. MLG is far better than EVO, and doesn't fuck over the community, and the payouts are 5 times the size, and happen every 3 months...
But if MLG ever had a chance, it would sign the death of EVO because people would see how much better it was and abandon EVO.
