Brandon Spearman, the apparent founder of a popular website that hosts online PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS (PUBG) tournaments, allegedly owes upwards of $30,000 to Counter-Strike players he used to employ, according to multiple sources, including one of the former players.
Spearman is the co-owner of Digitally Adaptive LLC, which is registered for the domain PUBGonline.com, an online website for hosting PUBG tournaments that is growing in popularity. Spearman also lists himself as founder of PUBGOnline LLC in his Linkedin profile and is the CEO of Team Apparitions Got Game (commonly referred to as Team AGG), an esports organization that employed multiple CS:GO rosters last year. According to sources, Spearman and the organization still owe North American Counter-Strike players $17,000-20,000 for their services from more than a year ago. Additionally, AGG allegedly owes its former Polish roster $15,000, money the players consider as good as gone.
Former AGG player Kyle “OCEAN” O’Brien has spearheaded an attempt to receive his and his former teammates’ owed money, but he said nothing could be done. He said he spent considerable time contacting lawyers who worked pro bono before eventually losing hope. Each time he mentioned the owed money on Twitter, he says, Team AGG ownership would contact him and explain that mentioning it publicly would only delay the payments even more.
OCEAN’s team played with AGG for only six weeks before parting ways with the organization in early 2016, while the Polish roster signed last March and stayed through September.
With a growing number of organizations and players participating in PUBGonline events, it’s important to note previous allegations against the owner. The site offered $350 in prizes for its first online event in May and recently held a joint tournament in cooperation with DreamHack at the organization’s Atlanta event in July, which shows how quickly the site has grown. Privately, Spearman has talked about trying to monetize PUBGOnline, according to a source. There have been no public complaints about delayed payments from PUBGonline.
PUBG is a battle royal game that has recently exploded in popularity, propelling it to the top of Twitch and YouTube. Streamers and players are not only playing the game, but actively competing in small online tournaments.
Spearman did not respond to requests for comment.
Cover photo courtesy of Bluehole