"This is the weirdest scam I've ever encountered," Thomas spoke about leaving 5W

British esports player Thomas "Thomas" Utting shared some details about the situation with the Indian club 5W in an interview with HLTV. He explained how he and his former teammates joined the organisation and the circumstances under which they decided to leave.

"Initially, I was creating a new project for Into the Breach with players like smooya. After several weeks of trying to build a suitable roster, I was offered the opportunity to join 5W, which on paper seemed like a logical decision for me: I liked the team dynamic, and it was a risk I wanted to take to grow and use my new skills.

It was a really interesting period in my career. Discussing this with my agent, we had doubts, but I believed that the roster was being carefully and correctly formed, considering roles, positions, and personalities, which made me decide to take the risk and join them.

I asked for a salary advance to confirm any suspicions regarding the legitimacy of the organisation so we could start training and developing the roster. They paid, which created trust between me and the so-called owners, making me believe it was a real project, so I started my work.

After 30 days, some strange things began to happen. Our general manager, who was our only contact with the owners, was fired from the company, and then our social media person disappeared and stopped doing their job. They tried several times to find some communication channel with our coach Loord, but they were very slow to respond to emails and our questions, and then they stopped responding altogether, and we no longer had contact with them.

We then decided that we had a successful period as a team and that everything was coming together pretty quickly, so we decided to leave the organisation—I even think they didn't care about it—and started looking for options to keep the roster together."

Thomas added that he doesn't expect to ever receive the money owed to them by 5W—players would need to travel to India and file a lawsuit.

"In my view, the whole situation with 5W and the money they owe the players will never be resolved. It’s the strangest scam I’ve ever encountered; they paid half the salaries and then disappeared without a word. To fight them in court, we’d have to go to India, and it’s not worth it considering the amount owed.

The whole situation still baffles me; it makes no logical sense, and the owner we know seems to be an agricultural farmer growing aloe vera. Yes, I understand that all of this is very strange, and their connections to Indian esports and esports in general were greatly exaggerated. It was quite difficult as I had never been connected to the Indian scene and/or personally knew anyone from there."

Last week, the team that played under the 5W banner for several weeks disbanded. Following this, Thomas announced that he was looking for a new team as an in-game leader.