Former Iceberg owner Daniel Escott launches bid for Canadian WNBA team
Former Iceberg owner Daniel "Daname" Escott has resurfaced on social media, with headlines on CBC pointing towards the 23-year-old as a co-founder of a bid to secure a Canadian team in the Women's National Basketball Association. Daname has yet to pay any of the players that were signed to his now-defunct esports organization, leaving his candidacy for a professional sports team in serious doubt.
In a statement to CBC, Jonathan "djay" Dallal said the following:
"The way [Iceberg] handled the dissolving of the [organization] and paying back money that was owed was truly amateurish as I never received a dime, and I don't think any of my ex-teammates did either."
Daname told CBC that players on Iceberg were owed "somewhere in the ballpark of $5,000 to $10,000", which directly contradicts Dust2.us' report from March of 2018. The CS:GO roster alone was owed upwards of $10,000 USD, while the team had also signed a Dota 2 roster that also never received payment.
In a statement via TwitLonger, Daname claimed that he "was a fool" for trusting a handshake agreement with an investor, leading to him signing multiple teams and stringing them along for months with the promise of paying a salary. According to Daname, the investor "disappeared", leaving the organization without any financial backing.
Ironically, Daname did the very same to Iceberg's players when they questioned him as to when they would be paid, with one of his most notable replies telling a player that "my best advice would be to find a job man" when the player said that they were in need of the money they were owed. Daname even says that he "felt free" for a day after Iceberg finally closed, before making the story of him not paying players out to be some form of a redemption arc for his failures both contractually and ethically as if he is the victim in the scenario.
Similar warning signs have already arisen regarding Daname's WNBA bid, with little to no details emerging regarding any investment or financial backing that could faciliate signing a team. Despite his insistence that he and his partners are in "negotiations between massive organizations and powerful institutions", Daname has seemingly made no effort to resolve any of his past debts to players that he had previously contracted.
As would be expected under the circumstances, reactions from former Iceberg CS:GO players and their associates has been fast and furious:
Though Escott's campaign has gotten off to a rocky start, there is at least one person who remains in his corner: his mother.
Update: Following the publication of this article, Daname has deleted his Twitter account. An archived version of his TwitLonger, should that be deleted as well, is available here.
