Jordan Trabue - the team’s manager at AZIO Esports
The CS:GO team from AZIO Esports signed their contract with Spacestation Gaming on the 10th of October this year. Not long after that, Jordan Trabue - the team’s manager at AZIO Esports - went straight into their house without informing. VP Esports reported that he tried to turn off the utilities of the house. He also attempted to take back the computers which the team received from the organization.
As VP Esports interviewed them, the team expressed their fear when the incident happened. They felt insecure about their legal rights when Jordan invaded their house. Therefore, they reached out to the local policemen, who immediately arrived at their property.
According to one of the officers, AZIO - the actual owners of the house - could shut the utilities of the house off as they wish. They also had the right to take back anything they can prove as their possession. However, they could by no means issue a 24-hour eviction notice like what Trabue insisted on claiming they had done so.
Trabue also denied some parts of what the players recounted. He claimed he only did what AZIO owners commanded him to. But he insisted that he didn’t turn the power off or have belligerent behaviors. However, when his words was proven inconsistent, along with the fact that there were some eyewitnesses confirming his action, only then did he reveal that it was AZIO owners that asked him to do so but he refrained himself from doing it.
The former AZIO's CS:GO team
But in fact, when Trabue showed the message that the owners of the organization sent to to VP Esports, which also led to the incident, there were no such instructions as he claimed.
The message was, originally: “Let the teammates know they are no longer allowed to stay at the house and that they need to make arrangements by tomorrow to be out,”
He didn’t respond when one member of VP Esports - Richard Lewis - asked him to indicate the specific part of the instruction that order him to shut down the power. Still, he expressed that he was in a “really difficult situation in a sense that we have a team who decided to sign with another org after we provided so much for them.”
VP Esports later sent a “summary of the contradictions in their story” the the operations manager of AZIO - Clay Taylor. Surprisingly, he chose to stand by Trabue and his words, claiming that AZIO did as well.
After the mentioned incident, Trabue removed every player involved from the ESEA list of the team, which would likely lead to the forfeits till the end of the season in the MDL. Luckily for them, the admins of the E-Sports Entertainment Association League were aware of the situation and made sure that they wouldn’t have to forfeit any remaining matches.
Some other players, in the other hand, stood by the CS:GO team and stood up to AZIO as well as Trabue. Alexander “Mauisnake” Ellenberg, an ex-player of AZIO made a vlog on YouTube describing the relationship between players and the manager - which is Trabue - and and revealing that the organization tends to break its promises.
He told that there were times that he and his teammates had to play at a internet cafe nearby their house as there weren’t any furniture but beds. He also told about the issues his team had with Trabue as he relentlessly tried to keep his starting position.
The conflict resulted in the team asking Trabue to leave so that they could start looking for an alternative. There was an intensive argument during the meeting. on the 10th of Feb. Trabue threatened Jack Zaruba that he “would knock [JackZ] the fuck out” if they replace him. That led to JackZ leaving the team about five days after the fight.
Mauisnake - former CS:GO player at AZIO
JackZ confirmed about that claim of Mauisnake to VP Esports, he also added that he doesn’t “believe a person of influence on younger individuals or someone who was in his job position should be doing these things around the players or anyone else who is not of age.”
And JackZ was not the only one. Mauisnake was also a victim of Trabue’s threats. Trabue once said, reported by Mauisnake, that he could “f*** [him] and not play for [his] flight home.”
Mauisnake also shared the promises that AZIO broke of memberships of a gym, salary payment for the last month to the players’ and a system for grocery delivery.
Currently, VP Esports is checking other claims from some other players saying that they haven’t received their salary from AZIO Esports yet.