Beşiktaş Esports has allegedly not been paying its players

According to former Beşiktaş Esports League of Legends player Natalie “Stratospanda” Kristiansen, the organisation hasn't been paying salaries on time and in some extreme cases, not at all. The issue also affects players from other games and is not limited to its League of Legends roster. 

Beşiktaş Esports is owned by Turkish sports club Beşiktaş Jimnastik Kulübü, which competes in a variety of sports like basketball, volleyball, wrestling and table tennis. It is especially known for its football team. The organisation presently has teams for both men and women's League of Legends, a women's CS:GO team and a team for first-person shooter Zula. 

In Stratospanda's TwitLonger, she revealed that the team has had these issues right from the beginning. Their first salary was delayed for weeks and for five months they continued to be paid late. This was the same for members of staff and other game rosters. 

Players have since been asked to sign non-disclosure agreements and threatened to not go public with the situation, otherwise their salaries would be withheld. Former teammate Olimpia "Komedyja" Cichosz replied to Stratospanda's tweet, adding that Beşiktaş had promised things like media days and boot camps which it was unable to pay for in the end. "They shut down BJK players discord server cuz players from different games started to realize there is something wrong happening," stated Komedyja. 

According to some sources, Beşiktaş J.K. amassed a debt of over $450 million in February 2018 to build a new football stadium which led to a series of financial issues for the football club. It later became open about its financial trouble that year but somehow managed to stabilise and contain the issues. 

It was in late October 2018 that Beşiktaş created its female League of Legends roster, of which Komedyja and Stratospanda were members. So either the organisation had underestimated its cash flow problems at the time or some new financial issues arose afterwards. 

Stratospanda left the organisation in June and doubts she will ever see the money owed to her now that she has spoken out about the situation. With such dire news, it's hard to tell what it's players are going through and what the future of Beşiktaş Esports will be.