Snakes Den ceases operations as players, staff allege $2.6k in unpaid salaries

In mid-July, Chicago-based esports organization Snakes Den seemingly ceased operations with the organization's X account being deleted after a brief period of inactivity. The deletion of the organization's primary social media presence followed reporting by Rocket League esports website Shift that Snakes Den had yet to pay their South African Rocket League team their salaries, leading to the team leaving the organization after multiple failed attempts to contact and reach an agreement with Snakes Den owner Joe "Dabz" Pennino.

As Snakes Den previously hosted multiple Counter-Strike 2 teams, Dust2.us investigated these allegations with the Rocket League team, two Counter-Strike 2 players, and two former staff members alleging to the website that they are collectively owed around $2,600 by the seemingly defunct organization.

The lion's share of the alleged unpaid salaries belong to the former Rocket League team, with former player Umar "Werty" Rasool alleging to Dust2.us that the organization owes him and his teammates $2,127.50. The Rocket League team represented the Snakes Den organization from April 17th, 2024 to July 3rd, 2024 before leaving due to the previously mentioned allegations of non-payment.

According to Shift's reporting, the Rocket League team were allegedly informed by Pennino's brother on May 23rd that the owner had been hospitalized on May 19th, with this brother offering to assist in running the organization and sending the players their delayed salaries. On May 27th, Pennino allegedly contacted the team on May 27th, allegedly stating that "ALL money owed will be paid this week." Despite this promise, at the time of publication the team alleges that Pennino has not been in contact with them since May 30th.

Compared to the Rocket League team, Snakes Den's former Counter-Strike 2 team alleges a far smaller amount of unpaid salaries and league fees. Snake Den's most recent roster played under the organization's banner from April 4th to June 12th before the majority of the lineup left to join Final Form ahead of ESEA Advanced Season 50. Of those former players, Shawn "JoSoo" Noah Kim and Evindar "Drop" Isik each claim they are owed $30 for league fees from last season.

Finally, former staff members Conner "cernersandals" Rhodes and Anthony "ynoT" Vitale allege that they are owed $375 and $200, respectively for their time at Snakes Den. cernersandals previously worked as the organization's general manager before joining Limitless, while ynoT was Snakes Den's esports director before joining DETONATE recently.

It is worth noting that cernersandals was in a similar situation almost a year ago as he is allegedly owed $1,120 for casting and social media work by X13's former owner Jessie Moreno, who is still unaccounted for as of the time of publication.

Dust2.us reached out to Snakes Den's owner Joe "Dabz" Pennino for comment on the alleged unpaid salaries on July 23rd. Pennino said that the $2,127.50 figure quoted by the Rocket League team is incorrect, stating the organization owes the team far less.

According to Pennino, Snakes Den owes their former Rocket League team $860, however due to an agreement in place that the organization would receive 15% of the team's Rocket League Championship Series (RLCS) winnings, he alleges that the team only requires $410 to even out the balance sheet as they kept 100% of their RLCS earnings.

As for the Counter-Strike team and former Snakes Den staff, Pennino claims that Drop was paid the $30 he is owed, but he otherwise confirmed the amounts that are owed to the other parties. Pennino also stated that Snakes Den owes LCA Broadcasting $250 for their services on top of other outstanding expenses. For all of these expenses, Pennino told Dust2.us that the plan is to pay everyone by the end of August 2024, as part of the organization ceasing operations.

Pennino also alleges that anyone owed money could have contacted him at any time, however one source alleges to Dust2.us that this is not the case, with the source not having heard from Pennino since May 24th until Dust2.us reached out to Pennino on July 23rd.

One tangent of interest is that despite Snakes Den being listed as Snakes Den Esports, LLC in multiple places, Pennino confirmed to Dust2.us that the organization is actually a DBA ("doing business as") or trade name of himself personally. Therefore, unlike organizations like X13 where the former owner is not personally liable for the organization's debts, Pennino may be personally liable should his plans to pay back his former staff and players by the end of August fall through.

Overall, the situation is another unfortunate cautionary tale about the risks associated with working for small NA organizations in the grassroots scene, where salaries may dry up with little warning and little recourse.

Dust2.us will continue to follow this story and provide an update at the end of August about the status of Pennino's repayment plans.