What initially appeared to be a major leak regarding Gentle Mates’ VCT offseason quickly became a big misunderstanding. After M8 CEO Lucas" “Squeezie” Hauchard displayed a text page on his stream,
the X account Lion Esports shared it online, presenting it as confidential notes about the team’s recruitment process for next year.
The text contained several claims about Fnatic’s players and staff. These included allegations that Jake "
Boaster" Howlett couldn't control Emir "
Alfajer" Beder,
who is set to join the French organization; that coach Andrey "
Engh" Sholokhov had discussed issues involving the Turkish player with Martin "
marteen" Pátek,
who is set to join Fnatic; and that Utku "
Loita" Kart allegedly refused to play with Alfajer.
The notes also suggested that Gentle Mates had decided against selecting a main Duelist and were considering a coach alongside three players. However, Squeezie later clarified that the text should not be treated and considered as a leak of their plans for next year.
Squeezie’s explanation of the incident
After the post circulated and quickly went viral, Squeezie explained that the notes were not confirmed information or his own conclusions. “Just to be clear, these notes are not facts or my personal opinion. It’s just some of the things a player told me during a call before my stream,” Squeezie explained.
Gentle Mates CEO said the organization speaks with many players during transfer windows, so players exchange a lot of information during recruitment calls. According to Squeezie, players can share claims and opinions about other players and teams, which, however, are not necessarily accurate.
“During mercato we do many calls with so many players, and a lot of things are being said by them about each other,” he added. “Reality is that a lot of these informations are false and is being spread by others to serve their own interests.” Squeezie described the notes as information he received while trying to determine what was true and what wasn’t, rather than a complete recruitment document.
“90% were false”
Squeezie went even deeper in his clarification, saying that, in his opinion, about 90% of the information in the notes was false. “I’m totally fine with that but as a CEO I have to hear all of these informations to find out what’s true and what’s false,” he insisted. “In this case 90% were false.”
He also apologized to the players and staff members mentioned in the notes, acknowledging that this mistake could create problems for people who had nothing to do with the claims. “Sorry to all the players / staff in the note. I don’t want to cause any trouble to anyone, and wish you all the best,” Squeezie concluded.
As a result, that information should not be considered a roster leak. The text was accidentally made public, but according to Squeezie, it contained unverified information he received from a player during a recruitment call, and most of it was allegedly false.
