Still unpaid: Ex-Valiant players speak out on ghosting, lies, and broken promises

Still unpaid: Ex-Valiant players speak out on ghosting, lies, and broken promises | Sheep Esports

Inside the collapse of Team Valiant: unpaid wages, broken contracts, and a trail of broken trust

Months after their Spring Split triumph in LFL Division 2, the former Team Valiant roster is still chasing salaries owed by their old organization. Sheep Esports previously reported that Valiant was leaving League of Legends amid payment issues, but now players themselves have come forward to detail how those problems remain unresolved.

Valiant League Of Legends roster 2025 | Poster by @AXODesign_

Despite public promises of repayment, they told us they continue to face ghosting, dishonesty, and broken deadlines from Valiant’s directors. While the roster has since found a new home with Caldya Esport and finished fourth in the LFL Division 2 Summer Split, the wounds left by Valiant’s collapse remained open.

Broken promises and ghosting

After Sheep Esports first reported on Valiant’s financial struggles earlier this year, the organization privately assured players that their debts would be settled. In June, the CEO promised to pay outstanding salaries in three monthly installments starting in July. Two months later, not a single payment has arrived for most players.

Instead, players say they were met with repeated excuses — “today or tomorrow,” “early next week” — which were never honored. Screenshots shared with Sheep Esports show conversations where Valiant's directors stalled, ignored messages, or outright ghosted players for weeks at a time.

Soldier: "Valiant acted in their own interest, not the players’"

AD Carry Thomas “Soldier” Haudecoeur says delays started in March, leaving him without money heading into the Spring bootcamp. “I had no salary, so I arrived with nothing,” he explained. Forced to share a room with only one bed, he ended up sleeping on a couch for eight days. Unable to afford even basic needs, he had to borrow money from his support, Pierre “Steeelback” Medjald.

By May, payments stopped altogether. “My salary was already modest, and going unpaid pushed me into real financial precarity. I had to rely on my girlfriend since I don’t have parental support.” Soldier also claims Valiant blocked transfer opportunities without informing him, and later pressed him about potential buyouts when the team wanted to stay together. “They acted in their own interest, not ours.”

Steeelback: "We played and won in horrible conditions"

Veteran support Steeelback describes the situation in stark terms: “Some of us faced eviction, no electricity, not enough to eat. We had to play under horrible conditions, but we still won LFL2 Spring.”

He accuses Valiant of deliberately stalling payments: “They lied to us, dragged things out, and mocked us. We stayed professional and patient, but their attitude shows they will do everything possible not to pay.”

Spooky: "Valiant, Mada, and Simba have been nothing but dishonest"

Jungler Miroslav “Spooky” Gochev says he has only received two salaries total, the last in April. “Since then, I’ve been chasing them constantly, and it’s always the same copy-paste answers. Monday: ‘today or tomorrow.’ Friday: ‘next week.’ And then the cycle repeats.”

He shared screenshots of a June call where Valiant promised debt repayments in July, August, and September. “I haven’t received a single cent since April.” Forced to borrow from friends and family while owing taxes, Spooky says the stress has been overwhelming. “They’ve been nothing but dishonest. I didn’t even receive a jersey from them.”

Nafkelah: "Extremely unprofessional and dishonest"

Midlaner Andrija “Nafkelah” Kovačević received his first and only payment on May 16th — covering just two months. Every other promise went unfulfilled. When Valiant proposed debt contracts, Nafkelah says he had to rewrite it himself after the organization repeatedly sent flawed drafts and ignored corrections. Weeks passed without updates, and eventually Nafkelah was forced to draft the contract himself.

After winning the Spring Split, the roster had a call with Valiant to discuss the future. During the call, the organization spoke in French for 20 minutes straight, despite three of the five players not understanding the language. “They didn’t even try to explain. They just said: ‘YOU WILL TRANSLATE.’ Not ‘we’ll make sure you understand,’ not even an attempt to switch to English. For me, it was incredibly disrespectful and showed how little they valued us.”

Nille: "Every salary was late"

Toplaner Juho “Nille” Janhunen Wilhelm says the delays began at the very start of the year. “Every single salary was late. I couldn’t pay rent on time many times.”

During debt negotiations, he claims Valiant attempted to avoid paying his final month, even suggesting they would only cover half. Without an agent to back him, he felt they tried to exploit him. “They still haven’t fixed a basic error in my contract — my address — despite promising many times.”

Staff faced the same struggles

Uko, the former team manager, described issues from the very start. “We arrived in good conditions, with the direction giving us full freedom to build the roster, a clear budget, and promising us one bootcamp per split. But dates were constantly postponed, creating early distrust between players, coaching staff, and upper management.”

Payment problems began immediately: January and February salaries arrived late or not at all. After the reverse sweep against IziDream during the Winter playoffs, the CEO blamed the staff without acknowledging the organization’s failures—zero bootcamps, unpaid players, and no follow-up.

The Spring bootcamp was chaotic. The team, in a partnership with Val-Morel, had initially planned to organize cost-effective bootcamps at the ski resort. However, these bootcamps ultimately did not take place, and Valiant set up a bootcamp in Toulon. Problem: transportation, lodging, and catering weren’t booked until the last minute, forcing Uko to cover some costs himself. Worse, Valiant allegedly faked a bank transfer to the caterer, and the gaming center hosting the bootcamp was never paid, according to Uko. He still hasn’t been reimbursed for these expenses, on top of some of his unpaid salaries.

"Poopy pants?"

Simon “Baguette” Cordoonier, the former Head Coach at Valiant, confirmed similar problems for staff. “They still owe me a month’s salary, just like the players. Total ghosting, zero updates, and no staff group like the one players had,” he explained. He also confirmed Uko’s account of the pressure placed on staff.

During their decisive playoff series against IziDream, as Valiant was being reverse-swept at a score of 2-2, Valiant's owner sent a message to Baguette: “Poopy pants?” The message was quickly deleted, but had already been captured by Baguette, and shared with Sheep Esports.

The former Head Coach also noted a habitual lack of communication: “It was common for them to ignore any requests while posting messages in their Discord to find last-minute players for VALORANT or League FlexQ.”

Valiant’s Response

Contacted by Sheep Esports, Valiant' CEO Nolan "Simba" Chaim shared an answer regarding the allegations. “We are doing what we can, and if we could resolve this situation—which puts everyone in a difficult position—we would,” the organization said.

Regarding the disputed Spring bootcamp, Valiant stressed that it was negotiated by the managers with the players, not imposed by the organization. “We had to spend €7,000 to honor their request, but there was no contractual obligation for us to organize it,” Simba explained.

Uko contests this version of events, saying Valiant had approved the bootcamp and provided additional proof to Sheep Esports. However, the former managers acknowledged that Valiant’s promise of a bootcamp was only ever verbal.

Valiant’s financial troubles stretch far beyond League of Legends

Sources familiar with the situation, who preferred to remain anonymous, revealed to Sheep Esports that Valiant's troubles extend well beyond the team’s League of Legends operations. Payment delays and broken promises have impacted at least thirty individuals and organizations. VALORANT players and staff remain unpaid, with sums significantly larger than those owed to their League counterparts. The organization’s managers, social media staff, and content team members have also been affected, alongside several partner organizations still awaiting overdue payments—some dating back to before 2025.

Sheep Esports obtained Valiant’s application to Webedia for entry into the LFL Division 2 in 2025. In it, Valiant projected a revenue of €661,000 for 2024 and listed eleven different partners in its financial plan. The accuracy of these figures could not be independently verified. For context, even a fraction of this estimate would have theoretically been sufficient to cover the team’s outstanding expenses.

Contacted for comment on this figure, Simba stated the following: "Had everything gone as planned, we would likely have hit the projected revenue — but the deals were all tied to the same sponsor who put us in this mess, so of course it threw everything off. The numbers themselves weren’t wrong, at least not at the time."

"I want to make it clear that Mada (Enzo Matteo, Head of Esports) has nothing to do with this — absolutely nothing. He’s not the CEO; he’s the club’s esports director, and the responsibility for everything that’s happening falls entirely on me," Simba said. He added that he is actively working to resolve the situation, which is why he has not closed the company.

*Note that some quotes from this story have been translated from French to English as accurately as possible.

Header Photo Credit: Valiant

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