ESGN cancel their future ‘Hearthstone Champions’ $25,000 prize pool tournament

Last week onGamers reported that ESGN has been having financial difficulties in recent months in regards to paying both employees and contracted players, casters for Fight Night events.

Yesterday ESGN released a statement, apologising to the community and stating that all debts currently owed to employees, casters, and players for ESGN Fight Night events will be paid out by the end of June.

onGamers has learned that the upcoming $25,000 Hearthstone tournament, ESGN's 'Hearthstone Champions', which would be completed with an offline final, has been cancelled for the foreseeable future. ESGN today messaged all personnel of the upcoming tournament with the following message:

"It is with a heavy heart that we notify everyone today that we will be postponing the planned series of tournaments, 'ESGN Hearthstone Champions' for an indefinite amount of time. While we were all very ready and excited to execute this great initiative, it wouldn't be something we'd feel comfortable proceeding with given the backlog of issues to resolve first."

This comes shortly after the news that employees of ESGN were not paid for the months of March onwards, with players and broadcasters owed money from several seasons of Fight Night.

ESGN currently owes payments to all Hearthstone contractors for Fight Night Season 5 and 6, including Dan 'Artosis' Stemkoski and Johan 'Darkwonyx' Hansson.

"From today, May 31st, we have every intention to settle all outstanding accounts by the end of June maximum as it was always our intention to do from the start", ESGN CEO Jong Hwan Lee told onGamers on Saturday,

Season 5 and 6 defending champion Hansson tells onGamers this is the right move to make.

"It's great news that they focus on paying out their previous tournaments before arranging new ones," he said. "I don't believe a lot of players would be interested in upcoming ones knowing they might not get paid."

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