In Fortnite , there is a discussion about Mitr0, who is considered a top player in Europe. Three of the best Fortnite players in the world, Mongraal, Benjyfishy, and Tfue, suddenly tweeted #freemitr0: And indeed, the esports organization Team Atlantis releases him from his contract after the pressure became too great.
Who is Mitro? It is about Dmitri “Mitr0” Van de Vrie, a Dutch player. He is one of the best players in Europe. He became known as the partner of Kyle “Mongraal” Jackson. They secured 6th place and $450,000 as a duo in the Fortnite World Cup.
Mitr0 is 17 years old, and his partner Mongraal is only 15 – with Mongraal having been a pro since he was 13 years old.
Mongraal and Mitr0 are considered one of the best duos Fortnite has to offer in Europe.
Fortnite stars tweet #FreeMitr0
Who wants to free him? Mitro’s partner, Mongraal, recently joined the clan FaZe, which is one of the largest Fortnite clans in the USA.
People then wondered: Why doesn’t Mitr0 join him at FaZe, where they are duo partners?
On the night from Monday to Tuesday, some of the best Fortnite players in the world appeared on Twitter and shared the hashtag #FreeMitr0. Among them:
- Turner “Tfue” Tenney, number one on Twitch
- Benjyfishy, who is somewhat of a Fortnite wonderkid – he is a trio partner of Mitr0
- and of course Mongraal
Just Tfue’s tweet received 30,000 “likes”. Many other tweets with the hashtag followed.
Rumors about Mitr0’s terrible contract
Why does he need to be freed? Rumors surfaced that Mitr0 is under contract with Team “Atlantis” and they do not want to let him go. He allegedly has a “gag contract” and is completely underpaid.
The team is supposedly siphoning off a huge amount of money from its earnings. This circulated as speculation online and grew bigger and bigger.
Eventually, it became such a topic that Team Atlantis wrote: “Stop sending threats to our employees and players, we will issue a statement soon.”
We wanted to sell him, but no one wanted to pay
This is what the team says: The statement also came. Essentially, Team Atlantis says:
- They signed Mitr0 in 2018 when he was still young and paid him good money
- Then he grew, and they gave him a raise in January 2019 as stipulated in the contract
- However, Mitr0 continued to grow and reached levels that Team Atlantis simply could not afford – Mitr0 then stated he was unhappy with his salary
- Team Atlantis then tried to sell Mitr0 to another Fortnite team, but no one wanted to pay a transfer sum that was reasonable for Team Atlantis
- Therefore, they agreed that Mitr0 would stay in Team Atlantis for the last months and serve out the contract
Team Atlantis also stated that the contract is by no means as bad as it is rumored. They don’t take any of Mitr0’s earnings from Twitch and YouTube. The profit participation also corresponds to an “industry standard” that was agreed upon with Mitr0.
Team releases Mitr0 after protests
This is what Mitr0 says: Mitr0 was just as shocked as everyone else about what happened with the hashtag #freemitr0.
He says many rumors about the contract that were circulating were far from the truth and exaggerated. He signed a contract in September 2018 that he later became dissatisfied with. He has outgrown Team Atlantis.
He actually wanted to get out of his contract earlier. But the situation could not be resolved, so they decided to let the contract run its course.
Now, however, after the shitstorm, he has sat down with Atlantis again and decided to let the contract expire after the Champion Series. He wishes Team Atlantis only the best.
Mitr0 can buy his way out of the contract – Tfue cannot
This is what it’s about: Mitr0’s situation can be summarized as:
- Someone signs a contract that he finds acceptable at the moment
- then it develops such that he could get much better conditions elsewhere
- now he uses the “weight” of social media to get out of this now unfavorable contract
To understand what kind of weight this developed, one must know that the situation with “gag contracts” in Fortnite is charged after Twitch star Tfue sued the FaZe organization.
Tfue was in exactly the same situation as Mitr0 is now: he also signed a contract with FaZe as a “small fish” from which he rapidly outgrew – but FaZe did not want to release him.
Interestingly, the hashtag “FreeMitr0” developed such weight on Twitter that Mitr0 got his wish and can leave earlier.
The interesting thing is that this tactic failed for Tfue because FaZe, as an established esports organization, apparently can take a much harder line than the young Team Atlantis. FaZe received more backing from its fans for Tfue to leave the organization that made him big:
- While Team Atlantis evidently faced strong pressure from fans and had to back down
- FaZe was able to simply withstand the situation with Tfue
The ironic thing is that Mitr0 will likely end up at FaZe – the organization Tfue is desperately trying to leave.
