Mauisnake speaks on AZIO tenure
Former AZIO in-game leader Alex "Mauisnake" Ellenberg has released a video describing the "rise and fall" of what lead to Esports Director Jordan "tryhard" Trabue being mutinied from his MDL roster.
The beginning of the AZIO story from the Hawaiian's perspective began with the organization flying out Mauisnake, Jack "JackZ" Zaruba, and Dave "seziwana" Schrage to a suburb of Oklahoma City where the team house was located. Before getting to the house, the team was promised Origin PCs and gaming chairs. Upon arrival, the team allegedly had no desks or chairs; just beds and lots of empty space.
With no equipment, the team had to practice daily at a local LAN cafe and after a poor season, Mauisnake claims tryhard attempted to deflect all blame for the team's mediocre play off of himself. It was at this point that the team started to be uneasy around tryhard, especially after he allegedly told JackZ "if you keep going behind my back, I will knock you the fuck out." JackZ left the team soon after this incident.
Following this, Mauisnake claims tryhard told him the organization might not pay for his flight home to Hawaii. When the offseason came, the player was forced to call his mother for a flight back, as he had no contract or lawyer. mauisnake alleges tryhard wanted to keep him from going home over fears he would not return.
Returning to the team house after the offseason, the team had few goals and began dropping qualifiers. One specifically saw AZIO lose to an Intermediate team. Despite bottom-fragging, tryhard attempted to deflect blame once again. Mauisnake had enough and finally put his foot down, marking the first mutiny attempt, requiring that tryhard step down and they find a player to replace him. At Season 27's end, tryhard would finish with a -103 K/D, one of the lowest in the leagues history. With tryhard convinced, he stepped down, and Frankie "NnyQuil" Miranda was added to fill the void.
With NnyQuil in the roster, the players were finally issued their contracts. Filled with poorly written clauses and vague wordings, they still decided to sign. The contracts ensured the team flights home, salaries, gym memberships, and other benefits. The contracts included a clause that made sure AZIO/tryhard were able to withhold payments at their own discretion. Unsurprisingly, payments were later withheld.
The team won an online qualifier, earning them $1,500 that was allegedly never seen again, as well as a quarterfinal finish at Tokyo in Tulsa 2. When William "shonk" Kittrell confronted tryhard about the money, tryhard cited "not keeping the house clean" as the reason for withheld payment.
Finally, once the team reached it's end, they did not receive their payment for the last month, and tryhard cut the roster at the last minute.
Contacted by Dust2.us, shonk corroborated the portions of Mauisnake's video that transpired after he joined the team. We also contacted tryhard, who opposingly said that the video was "full of lies", pointing to a tweet from the AZIO house showing PCs and gaming chairs.
The story of AZIO in CS:GO came to an abrupt halt last night, with the revelation that the organization's former team had been uncontracted, and signed with a new organization — today revealed to be Spacestation.
