First off introduce yourself, most people know BDS from SK ownership.

My name is Alex aka TheSlaSH, I am one of the owners of SK-Gaming, together with Griff and bds as all of you may know I live in Cologne and am doing eSports since 1998 on the site of Marketing/Sales and PR also I am the CFO for SK-Gaming and therefore responsible for all money coming in and going out.

Obviously SK.swe's team along with a few other players have departed recently from SK, can you explain why the rash departure?

Well, that was a longer story to be honest, but it obviously started end of November.  That was the time when we felt it was time to talk to the players about their contracts for 2005, as the old ones were running out and of 2004 -Even though results in 2004 were below expected, we saw the possibilities this team has when motivation is high and therefore offered them new contracts with a rise in salary. The reason why we could do so was that insider income rose within the year and we wanted to give this back to the players as they deserve to get it partly -We don't believe in giving the players a percentage on insider, as this would move some of their concentration towards insider and away from what they should do. So lifting salary was the best way in our eyes.  For some of the players the lift was nearly 50% and as everyone may guess, SK is paying high salaries. Well, two of the players did not want to sign new contracts, which moved us into a bad situation as we had a product launch with one of our partners and we wanted to work with the players images on the boxes and stuff but none would do so if there wasn't a contract. So we explained the situation and asked the players how to solve the problem. The main problem, as one of them explained, was that they thought they could get much better offers. So I offered them to get out of the contracts with a two months notice which was a compromise in my eyes. The players denied, wanted a one week notice get out clause, which I think is not possible if one thinks about it. -Well, everyone can do the math on his own, if they had signed, they could have lost two times the new offered salary minus the one they would get from not too much in my eyes but still the players did not move At the same time we learned that the players wanted to make a showcase in Dallas out of themselves, which was something we really did not like at all. I always insisted on solving the problem face to face and not keeping anything away from the other.  We realized the players wanted to make a move.  That was the time when we asked them to sign the contracts before CPL or we would consider sending the German team, which by the way cost us the whole trip. It was thesame as sending the SWE team some people think otherwise, but CPL denied giving out the tickets as we broke a rule by letting this team play a qualifier and at the same time registering the SWE team. So there was no financial advantage at all on our side. When the players still did not move we felt a break in trust.
The whole situation was somehow clashed.  It was me who called all of the players several times, messaged them, explained, discussed...
No feedback at all
From that point on we concentrated on setting up a new team. We agreed with the team that we would meet 9th January in Stockholm. My flight was already booked and none of us would make a move but inform the other side, as it was clear. They wanted to leave and we wanted a new team. Well, the rest is history. Heaton published all of what they planned on Janaury 1st and believe me, we had our own speculation, but we did not know.
That is how the whole story happened.

A lot of people have wonder about the practice of giving BDS a cut of the prize money that the team owns with also being an owner of the team, I assume he has a salary, so that would be mean earns double pay?

No, not at all. The moment bds got a real salary his share on cash prize was cut off. Before it was the players that wanted him around at tournaments to organize all stuff for them.  So I guess it was only fair he was involved there, too but it was a deal between him and the players. I asked both sides a couple of times and it never was a problem.
So I can't understand why someone would come up with it now :)

Well the goal of rebuilding now falls on SK, with Insider so heavily based on the skill of the team, how do you plan to replace arguably the most skilled CS team in the world?  

Ok, let's take a look at 2004
ESWC loss on virtu and later on the korean team
CPL summer
twice losing to Eye
WCG
Losing to 3D and later Maven, finishing 4th
I know, 2003 was an outstanding year. The team won everything they were the ones to beat and people thought so
all over 2004 as well. But except for the WCG and ESWC qualifier, the team was not that world class team anymore.  I can totally understand their situation. Getting on top is always easier than staying on this level.
And when you won everything you can't keep the motivation you had before. We realized that lack of motivation within the team but believed 2004 was over now and with CPL winter they could come back, concentrate on their strength and get back the motivation for 2005 that was needed. But when discussions started and we realized the
guys were up for more and more money we saw their heads were not as free as wished  I am not sure what the future will bring for them.  For sure, an outstanding team, but just as I said before, they got beaten a couple of times and had way more close matches than expected.  I wish them all the best, but we will concentrate on SK now
We will come up with a new team that hopefully bring SK back on track as it was 2003. I mean, the other players and teams we have are top.
We got the Fifa twins in, Zacard is playing for SK, Painkiller is getting better and better and there still is more to come. We will have a CS.SWE team again in the future, but we won't make fast moves now. We need the time to recover from this situation and straighten out things first.

Do you think the team's success in 2003 was due in large part to their successful use of the money system?  Saving out rounds, playing slow.

Ah, ok. Well, that could be, but I am not good enough to say anything on this topic at all.
This is something you should ask Andreas. He is the one knowing Counterstrike and the code bit by bit.
If I gave you an answer it would be pure speculation.

Has SK made any decisions on its current future, I know WEG has offered you a spot, what is the current future of the team?

WEG is waiting for us to present the new team to them and based on this they will let us know if SK is invited or not. A kind of tricky situation here, but I can't change it. I will try to speed up the process, but that is all I can do. Well, regarding the future of the CS.swe team we have made decisions, but it is not only depending on us if we can achieve all of our plans here. But we hope we can cause that would be a nice blast for SK

Obviously you don't want to dicuss actually salaries of your former players but what kind of comparison to other players in the world do you believe they were paid?

Well, indeed we don't discuss the salaries of our players and we don't want them to do so either. I know the salaries of other teams or at least some of them and compared to the ones I know for sure, SK was the top salary But it is not a question of the salary itself I guess,  it is a question of what exactly is a team or a brand worth to get sponsorship for and SK is among the top teams in the world I would say. We have 40 players under contract and on salary.  We are not talking of a budget for 5 or 6 players here .So maybe another pure CS team was able to get good money and therefore could afford paying a salary like SK did to their players, but it is my believe that those who promise salaries of 2.500 $ a month are the ones that won't be able to keep it for long.  eSports is on it's way up and we all have to take the small steps.  As I said above, an increase of 20% for some and almost 50% for other players, that is something you can feel at the end of the month and that is the growth rate within eSports right now To get this straightened out, I do not have a problem when a player comes and wants to get out of the contract cause he is able to get a lot more salary in another team. He should go there of course and I am the last one holding people back. All I want are contracts to be fulfilled.  I can only pay what SK is getting, it is that simple From time to time Griff, bds or I paid out of our own pocket to realize things for the players and not to make them suffer from it. I hope all of this gives you a feeling for what players can earn today and what not :)

In your opinion as a top manager in the community, do you believe eSports sponsorships are growing and how will CS:Source effect sponsorship?

They are growing on a steady base and that is good. But also teams and players have to work their part out.
For the partners SK has it is not all about success of one team or one player. It is about how to present eSports in total and that is what SK-Gaming stands for. Look at the TV commercial we did anyone thought we could do that a year ago? and we got some new really nice things coming up for 2005. These are the main reasons for the partners to stick with a team and that is the reason why I believe in the success of SK-Gaming CS:Source well, it is not too important, in my eyes, look at CPL they focus on painkiller the Asian market is more strategy games orientated.  We should not overestimate CS in total, even though it is by far the largest community we have worldwide But still, it is not THE reason for sponsorships. Companies are more looking for the long term development and Source is a part of it

Those are really my big ones, any other areas you wanted to cover?

Well, only thing I want to say in the end is that the whole sitiuation is not about who is bad and who is not.
The guys wanted more than SK was able to give and maybe the way we talked to each other could have been less emotional, more grown up. In the end a team is moving away from SK. Before the players did not earn a penny as a salary and SK made them top earners in this area. Now they move on cause SK does not seem to be fast enough for them. After seven years working with the industry that build up eSports, I think I have a feeling for the possibilities we have and therefore I wish them all the best for the future. And will keep on working on our long term goals to achieve as many as possible.

Thanks for the interview, try to get them up in the next day.
I am sure in one year from now noone will make a big issue out of what happened on 1st January anymore :) And to all of the guys following eSports out there: Don't believe all rumors, bad talk or blackmail you hear. No player, no management, no orga...nobody insists on ripping of others. At least this stands for SK-Gaming.
Cheers!