In League of Legends, the 29-year-old Russian Danil “Diamondprox” Reshetnikov is considered a veteran; he participated in World Championships 4 times, the first time in 2012. In May 2022, he wanted to support his family with LoL and signed with a Norwegian team. Half a year later, however, it seems that the Russian has lost faith in e-sports.
Who is Diamondprox?
- The now 29-year-old Russian comes from St. Petersburg and was already a big name in the first seasons of League of Legends, more than 10 years ago: In 2011, he made a name for himself as a jungler for “Team Empire,” whose core later celebrated great successes in Europe as Moscow Five and Gambit Gaming.
- He played as a jungler and shone on champs like Lee Sin, Nasus, or Volibear. The Russian was regarded as someone who could establish champs as good jungle picks on his own in the early seasons, even if the champions were considered weak.
- Between 2012 and 2018, Diamondprox participated in World Championships 4 times: 2012, 2013, 2017, and 2018. However, he did not achieve major international successes. His prize money from 10 years of LoL is estimated at $157,850 (via esportearnings).
Pro signs with team for “absolute minimum to support family”
This is the team he has now joined: In 2022, Diamondprox, at 29, had surely reached the end of his career: He signed with the Norwegian “BiFrost” in May 2022 and was set to compete in the regional league NLC, where teams from Scandinavia and Great Britain play against each other.
He says he made it clear to the team that he was playing for the “absolute minimum to support his family”.
“Contracts in this business are like toilet paper that bosses use to wipe their behinds”
What went wrong? In a post on Twitlonger, the Russian explains that he was never paid for his more than 1,000 hours of work for the club.
The team had kept him waiting for months, with statements about how hard it was to get him money in Russia – due to the sanctions. When a way was found in November to send him money, it was said that it just wasn’t the right time, waiting for sponsor funds.
Now the CEO of the team has resigned, and the money still hasn’t arrived. Instead, he received an email stating that the team is likely facing bankruptcy.
He says:
So essentially, they made a fool of me for months, wasted my time, made me go into debt because bills were piling up instead of me looking for new opportunities to earn money. […]
The whole situation has been stressing me out for months, and I am afraid to look for another LoL team. Especially because my best friend in e-sports, Edward, was also badly cheated.
No one cares what we signed; contracts in this business are like toilet paper and the owner of a team can wipe their ass with it […]
By my calculations, I have given BiFrost more than 1,000 hours of my labor, plus the time I trained for the Aurora Cup. I don’t know if I ever want to work that hard again, working more than 12 hours a day every day and then getting ZERO money while betraying my family by not supporting them better.
I hope there is such a thing as karma in this world and that it will hit them hard when it strikes.
What’s behind it: This is a phenomenon that keeps reoccurring. E-sports seems to be a hype for some investors, “the next big thing” that can be profitable. But only the top teams are really successful – for many others, it’s a subsidized business because hardly any revenue comes in.
Some teams from the second or third tier in e-sports therefore have enormous financial problems; the owners pump ten or hundreds of thousands of euros into it, eventually the money runs out, and the players ultimately bear the consequences.
There are often stories of players not being paid or players training and living under conditions that are life-threatening:
Pro player from CS:GO dies at 19 – team must now pay €72,000 to his family
