F1-racecar-PEEK swerve away from BlackOut
F1-racecar-PEEK, one of the top teams in MDL, have long remained unsponsored after their original sponsor, Morior Invictus, was banned from the ESEA network. However, that almost changed when Team BlackOut entered talks to sign the F1 roster.
According to contacts close to the organization and the players, Dust2.us has learned that contracts were drafted by BlackOut and sent to the players to sign. However, negotiations fell through and F1 chose to back out of signing the contracts. The move would have seen Jake "kaboose" McDonald return to the organization.
After the MDL players chose to back out of the deal, Nathan Blum, a co-owner of BlackOut, went to Twitter to express his discontent with the MDL team pulling out.
Gabe "Spongey" Greiner also commented about the deal on Twitter, replying to Nathan Blum's tweet and thanking the organization for the offer. The player then states the scene is a business and not a charity, indicating the terms given by BlackOut did not benefit the players enough to warrant them to sign the contracts.
However, a further Tweet from Blum illuminated that BlackOut offered the team travel support to Tokyo in Tulsa, Fragadelphia, and $2,300 in salary for the first month. Similar to Spongey's remarks, the comparison of a charity appears.
BlackOut CS:GO manager Jeremy "Jeremy9000" Gray was likewise unhappy with the team's decision.
Rumors of F1 being in discussions with organizations such as BlackOut have been circulating within the MDL community for over a month now, as the organization have been searching for a team to carry the name after losing their roster in earlier this year.
According to sources, the "non-proven" organization referred to by Jeremy9000 is Austin-based Vision Gaming.
F1 are currently competing in MDL, where they are in 8th place with a 5-1 record so far. The team has also recently participated in the ESL One New York NA Open Qualifier and all four Americas Minor NA Open Qualifiers, but were unable to reach the Closed Qualifier for either event.