Félix “xQc” Lengyel has responded to the backlash online after he allegedly “ghosted” Turtle Troops, a professional Valorant team he was in talks with to acquire, citing financial reasons and disagreements on where the roster was heading.
The esports industry of late has been propped up not by big corporations, but rather high profile content creators deciding to launch their own teams. Big-name streamers like Jeremy “DisguisedToast” Wang, Charles “Cr1TiKaL” White and Ludwig Ahgren (both of the latter forming Moist Esports) have all entered the industry of late with their own esports ambitions.
During such a time with multiple popular figures buying out teams, particularly squads in the Valorant space, xQc was reportedly in talks with free agent roster, Turtle Troops. Had he signed them, the lineup would have been paid by the superstar streamer directly.
However, according to a report by George Geddes, talks between the streamer and the team broke down before long. Now, in an April 5 live stream with Subroza, Turtle Troop player ‘Governor’ alleged that xQc had “ghosted” the team. “We had term sheets signed and everything but then he like backed out last second and ghosted us,” the player said.
Addressing the controversy head-on, xQc took to Twitch later that same day to clarify the situation. Admitting to the ‘ghosting’, he first sought to apologize to the Valorant team for his lack of communication.
“I let my managers and my team work with them, and they arrived at certain numbers. But I told them, before anything is set in stone, I want you to come back to me and give me one more hard warning, to where I’ll sign, and things will be final. That kind of never happened.”
“Something happened… around spending,” xQc said, careful not to give away any specific details that could land him in trouble. “There was just a lot happening, and I just kind of got blindsided, and I was embarrassed, and I understand that in that amount of time I definitely should’ve communicated more.”
One of the reasons xQc claimed things went south is that he and the team couldn’t agree on a plan for the future. His original idea was to buy out two-star players and insert them into the team, thus creating somewhat of a “superteam” in the Valorant space.
“I think it would’ve been sick to buy out extremely talented players that are smurfing and make a superteam, like a massive powerhouse, and have them win the whole thing.”
However, Turtle Troops did not like the idea, as they wanted to stay as a group of five. In addition to xQc’s external issues, this alone made him second guess the idea of buying that particular team, leading to backtracking and eventual lack of communication.
Due to xQc’s time as a professional Overwatch player, he empathized with how frustrating it was for the Valorant lineup to be led on. Out of respect, he allegedly paid the players a month’s salary as a “waiting price” of $25,000.
“I felt so bad and so embarrassed of the s*** I was doing to them that I agreed to pay them a month’s, or half a month’s, salary for the time they spent waiting,” xQc confirmed.
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