Bleed Esports' CS2 coach Aleksandar "Kassad" Trifunovic has posted an announcement on his personal X account (formerly Twitter) unveiling a case of delayed and unpaid salaries inside the Singaporean organization.
According to Kassad's post, the team has "grappled with delayed salary (up to four months at the time), buyout, bootcamp, and other payments." The Serbian coach mentioned that "most of the players" got their first salary in April despite signing their contracts in December of last year.
Kassad's post has also revealed that other organizations have confirmed that Bleed Esports have "failed to pay buyouts for several players (still not paid to this day), threatening them with legal actions and going public." He also revealed that 60% of the prize money is still "outstanding."
The situation has been complicated between the players and the team for the last few months as Kassad mentioned that "during the last 4-5 months the team refused to play officials and practice (weeks at the time) until some of the payments were made."
The uncertainty and lack of communication between the players and the management created "stress" while "impacting our preparation, motivation, and performance."
Kassad's announcement ends with a roundup of the situation and what the team's next steps will be.
They've repeatedly lied about payments, made empty promises, and kept us hoping things will get better. Most of the time we've been completely ignored by management - radio silence on their end. We're currently consulting with our legal team to determine our next steps and move things forward. We plan to search for a new organisation that can offer us stability and meet the essential requirements for effectively managing a team.
As explained, this situation of unpaid and delayed salaries has affected not only the Bleed Esports' CS2 squad but also other divisions inside the organization. To be precise, the Dota2, Valorant, and Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege competitive teams have also been victims.
On October 4, Riot Games unveiled that Bleed Esports had been removed from the VCT 2025 Pacific due to "failure to comply with critical reporting requirements and other key obligations under the Team Participation Agreement (TPA)."
Hours after Kassad's initial post, Bleed Esports stated that "this roster (Counter-Strike 2) has been paid through August with September salaries in processing."
Additionally, they denied the lack of communication between the team, the players, and the coach. "Bleed Esports has been in constant conversation directly with the team on all outstanding matters brought forward."
Kassad responded shortly after detailing the money the team owes to Apeks, G2 Esports, the players, and himself.
While Bleed Esports' Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege squad hasn't made an announcement as of yet, Patrick "MentalistC" Fan said on his personal X account that he wants to "stay together and keep competing with them (his teammates)" but "outside factors will soon render that wish impossible."
We will update this piece as more information regarding the situation between Bleed Esports and its players is unveiled.