Minlu's log

JoliE has spoken of the horror of being managed by Eryc, the enigmatic mastermind of Aeon.Singapore and Aeon.International.

Since the recent disbandment of Aeon.International, Vasiliy "JoliE" Pepelyaev has now found a new team in clan AzN. However, the memories he has had during his tenure with Aeon.International are still lingering, but not for the reason most people expect. Here we have JoliE speaking out on the lies and deception that current Aeon manager Wei Zhen "Eryc" Wong has spouted to him and his teammates during their time in Aeon.International.

The transcript below has been tidied while maintaining its original meaning.

Statement Vasiliy "Jolie" Pepelyaev:

So guys, yesterday I read the news that fnatic are about to become Aeon.int. I was surprised by this as my past manager, Eryc did not mention anything about it. Sadly, this situation hurts me too much and I want to tell you all about the story of my working under Eryc's management for the past 1 year and 3 months in team Ks.Int, later renamed Aeon.Int.

It started on July 2008 when I found Eryc in mIRC to chat and possibly starting a team. First he says that salaries will be fixed in a month. We never discussed about the salary estimate and I thought it was unnecessary. Eryc keeps delaying the salary figures by saying there will be a salary in 2-3 months time. He has done this 3 times; during the beginning of July, August and September. After the worldwide financial crisis, we trusted him and did not bring up the salary issue as we saw how bad the sponsorship situation was around the world, taking MYM as an example. Eryc was again telling lies to us concerning salary 3 months ago, July 2009 when I was with the team at Gamescom. As usual, he said, "later, not now guys."

Ks.int never had any salary. That was my 2nd priority. The first was travel arrangement to LAN events and is of course the most important criteria for DotA team sponsorship now.

Now looking back on our trips, I now see what a fool I was. The first trip we had was during November 2008. We wanted to go to China and Eryc agreed 2.5 weeks before the event. After some discussions with Eryc, he says that he cannot send the money for plane tickets that fast and will return us the money in China. Of course this was not true. According to him, sponsors have not given him money and they will send it to us later. I have paid 2000 dollars for tickets for horon and myself, as well as visas costing 100 dollars each. In all, we were owed 2200 dollars.

Eryc and I have talked about this about 20 times, possibly more. I cannot remember. He told me that he will send the money in December 2008, then January, February, March. He finally sends me 700 dollars in May, and we agreed that the next 2 installments of 700 dollars would be done soon. I have not received any money from him since.

When Puppey invited me to return to Ks.int and play with them in Gamescom, I was wondering about my 1400 dollars. We talked with Eryc and I believed him again, him saying that after sending us to Koln (Gamescom venue) he will return our money as soon as possible. Ok... what about the money required to go to Koln in the first place, Eryc?

He asks me if it is alright if he sends me 400 dollars first. I said that it would be fine, but there is a big chance I will need more money. Everybody knows that Gamescom was advertised late and teams have no time to prepare. This presented two problems for me as obtaining a german visa is very hard, I decided to go through Estonia as I've already been there twice and it is very easy to obtain an Estonian visa for me. The other problem was the cheapest way was to get on a train from Saint-Petersburg and then to Tallinn, and then I have to take 2 flights with Puppey to reach Dusseldorf. So I spent 700 dollars in total for tickets and visa.

During gamescom, Eryc only ever asked us one question. "Do you like VSA or VGA (or something else) as our new clan tag?" WTF? I tried asking him to send us our money because we're short of it but he only cares about the clantag. It was so weird.

After Gamescom I had even more problems as I needed to return the money to my mother and friends. One and a half months after Gamescom, I asked Eryc a few times about my money (now 1700 as it is 1400 plus an extra 300 to cover Gamescom) but he gave his usual reply. "Later, later," he said. We made an agreement theat he will send the money no later than April 2010. It was an extra half a year than intended... but what can you do?

Some days ago, Ks.int or Aeon.int now disbanded *RIP*. We talked again with Eryc. he says that we can try to make a new team with me as leader. I thought of joining AzN and changing tags to Aeon.int and take up Eryc's sponsorship. He also thinks that TR is an option. So we decided to wait for a litlle bit especially I wanting to involve myself a bit more with team AzN. After 2 days, I saw the hot news of fnatic joining Aeon.int.

P.S. Sadly or happily I closed today's chat between Eryc and I like this

Me: Eryc, so you're gonna sponsor another team. Now I cannot wait, I need my money now. Eryc:  But we already talked about it and I will send it in half a year. Me: Really? You think it's ok to leave me without saying anything and giving sponsorship to fnatic and not even thinking of the money you need to return me? Eryc: Yes it's ok, sponsors money to send fnatic to SMM has nothing to do with your money. Me: Do you think that is my problem? Eryc: It's not my problem also...

I forgot to mention that I have asked Eryc 10 times if i could have a word with the sponsors who are not reimbursing the money for the China trip. He has always said no. Eryc wanted to talk with them only by himself, so he has no right to say that it is not his problem. It really is his problem because he has a contract with us.

Me: So Eryc, are you going to send me my money right now or not? Eryc: No Me: Ok I will make an article on what the manager of Ks.int has been doing to his players for 1 year. Eryc: *After long pause* Ok you have a choice. I send you 1200 dollars because I don't need to pay you for China visas (His excuse was he has not paid for puppey's visa before, is that OK?) and I don't have to pay for Gamescom because it is not my problem. I already sent you 400 for that and I don't need to send more (he only started talking about it today...) Me: 1600 (ok i let him off 100 dollars, I can't believe he had to think about it...) or it's gonna go public. Eryc: Ok bb Me: bb

P.P.S. As far as I know, GunzComeOut still has not received his money for the China tickets (I may be wrong. Ask Gunz about it)

P.P.P.S This takes us a step behind for DotA, not a big one but I am really sorry that I have to whistleblow on this manager.

An important lesson for me is not to be nice to people who are bad to you. Just let them be. I tried to keep quiet but because this situation made me look like a fool for more than a year and I still cannot believe Eryc is a guy who can go back on all his words and make new ones.

-Update-

Eryc's response to this situation is to take legal action against both JoliE and the myMYM organisation. Eryc feels that JoliE's dissapointment with him choosing to sponsor fnatic over AzN is the reason for JoliE's defamatory statements.

Statement  Wei Zhen "Eryc" Wong:

I just went to the lawyer company with JoliE's contract and statement on mymym.com to analyse it where we then decided to take legal actions to protect my name. JoliE's words in his statement contradicts what's said in our contract.

He wanted me to sponsor AzN. From the first paragrah of his statement, it's not hard to see that he was angry because I picked fnatic and decided to sponsor them to SMM instead of azn.

At the same time, i will also take legal action agains mymym.com for putting up this statement without even confirming the truth. When people use unproffesional channels for revenge, I will not not argue childishly. The terms stated in the contracts are very clear, it's the same when I bring it to the lawyers analysis.