This From the Desk of... was written by Jonas "BSL" Alsaker Vikan and is solely his opinion.

A white sheet of nothing

Back in 2003 a white sheet of paper defined esport professionalism. The contract had arrived. As in other pro sports players would need to be contracted to the top teams – and the community, the teams, their managers and sponsors instantly recognized it as a quantum leap for the sport. A mainstream breakthrough could not be far off when that the players were legally locked to a team once they signed on the dotted line – right?
Five years later there are still contracts but to most players they are just an extension of the IRC or MSN conversation where they agree to someone’s terms before changing the prefix of their handle from one organization to the other.

It’s a sad expression of the state of affairs.

The concept behind a sporting contract is to provide stability. Not everyone is born a winner, creating teams, or building character is as much of an actual computer game these kids are exceptionally good at. But did you ever consider Bill Bellichick a product of his players? What about Alex Ferguson? Coaching and managing is a skill - but we do not have a number of coaching and managing stars to rival the number of top level gamers - why?
Esports is not very attractive in a sense where you never know what you have to work with. Your 18 year old superstar gamer can sign a salary based, legally binding, contract – only to jump ship a week later because of someone else’s offer. Add to that he will badmouth your team or organization should you lash out in despair over talent lost – and the community usually come down on side of the players which will ensure terrible PR and public image for the organization. You lose.

Try and cut your losses publicly? Lose even bigger.

To illustrate this point consider the situation surrounding Thomas “DaY” Rudstrøm’s transfer from Catch Gamer to 4 Kings in late 2005. Rudstrøm had signed a six month contract within the last two months and then he was benched. He was told he was very much a part of the organization but that his current level of play and attitude was not up to the standards the owners of the team wanted in their players.

At 19 he was obviously, and rightfully so, frustrated with the situation as he desperately wanted to compete. Enter British 4 Kings in need of a solid player – at first they approached the Norwegian team’s management. They did not intend to deplete their own talent pool, and in turn replenish their British counterpart’s, free of charge.

There never was an offer and shortly following these initial conversations Rudstrøm switched teams, his contract still being valid. The only thing Catch Gamer could do was plead with the CPL to disqualify 4 Kings from their Winter 2005 tournament on the grounds of fielding a player contracted to a different team. The CPL declined – “DaY” was 4 King’s player to use.

The Catch Gamer management, all businessmen aged 35-40, discussed taking legal action against the 19 year old back in Norway but came to conclude it was not worth potentially hurting the kid financially.

This example outline is a typical adolescent gamer’s behavior - where the blanket of anonymity provided by the internet inspire audacious and bold decisions not likely to be taken in a real world, face to face, setting.

And had the problem rested solely with the players it would have been an easy kink to iron out.

The fact of the matter is, however sadly, that disregard for contractual obligations and flat out lies have been and still are carried out – by the same organizations that can turn around on a dime to condemn players for the same. Whereas most do not care to follow through with lawsuits against players, as described earlier, no one dares to go up against an organization after being screwed over.

The reason for that is obviously poor entry level scrutiny. And thus, the status quo of esport transparency is at the same level in 2008 as it was in 2003:

A young dude, or gal, wanting to get some money to play does not go through a contract to dwell in its financial and legal intricacies. When the players and organizations remain ignorant to their legal rights we are not even taking baby steps forward.

We’re still in the same place for the same reason as we were five years ago.

Something has to change so I extend my greatest wish to our readers: Let it rain lawsuits in 2008 – or better yet – for both parties to come forward with their stories to the gaming media. Reach out with facts, dates, numbers, and names.

Right now that is about the only thing I can think of that can circumvent the backward thinking and sly personalities that operate the shady areas of those white sheets of paper we call “contracts.”