Evil Geniuses Is Supposedly Keeping Its Players In A Contract Jail

Evil Geniuses players are still negotiating their contracts after winning the VALORANT Champions 2023 title, and it seems the negotiations aren’t moving anywhere. Despite the team’s success, the North American organisation give its players two options – either take a substantial pay cut and remain with the team for the 2024 season or leave the team and join another VCT team.

As it was said, the players decided on the latter option, and while it sounds simple enough, recent reports suggest that Evil Geniuses is working against the interests of its players and is denying buyout offers from other teams.

It was recently discovered Evil Geniuses players' contracts don’t have a specific buyout price, meaning that the North American esports organisation can choose the amount it wants to receive for its players. And while that sounds fair enough, the problem arises when EG denies substantial offers, which effectively keeps its players in a contract jail.

As reported, Evil Geniuses already rejected offers for Ethan “Ethan” Arnold and Max “Demon1” Mazanov, each around $100,000. 100 Thieves also tried to sign  Kelden “Boostio” Pupello, but were – like other teams – denied even though Boostio looked to leave the team even before Evil Geniuses announced the news of pay cuts.

All five players on EG roster have their contracts until 2024, meaning that unless they get signed by another team i.e. Evil Geniuses, allow them to leave, they’ll have to play for the organisation for one more season and then get released into free agency. This, however, likely isn’t the best option for Evil Geniuses, who would lose out on a lot of money and have unwilling players play for the team for the entire season.

The situation will likely get resolved before the start of VCT 2024 as it seems unlikely for Evil Geniuses to force its players to stay; however, by denying substantial buyout offers, Evil Geniuses is making it much harder for its players to find a new home and could potentially lead to a situation where no team will be able to afford to buy the championship-winning roster.