Bleed Esports CEO faces criminal trial as his organization crumbles
Riot GamesBleed Esports CEO, Goh En Wei Mervyn, is facing trial in Singapore. While the purpose behind his trial isn’t yet known, it’s classified as a criminal offense.
According to a court hearing scheduled for October 21, 2024, he’ll have to defend himself in a criminal hearing under Penal Code 1871, which is about as broad a criminal code as you can get. It can cover anything from theft and assault to extortion and other financial crimes.
As a result, the hearing doesn’t provide much detail as to what Mervyn is actually being accused of.
However, his name was mentioned in connection with assault charges against one Lincoln Lim Jun Hong in 2022. Lim was accused of punching and kicking a woman there, with Mervyn being spotted there with him during the incident.
Lim was also an early investor in Bleed, with Hydroflux, the company Lim owns, making a $1.5 million investment in the esports organization and penning a two-year partnership back in October 2021.
But, there’s also a chance that the criminal charges raised against Mervyn are related to allegations against Bleed from players who claim the org failed to pay them salary.
Kassad, the now-former coach of Bleed’s Counter-Strike 2 roster, claims the organization owes players tens of thousands of dollars, including a large portion of prize money that was never paid out to the players by his account.
This follows Bleed getting booted from the VCT as well, with Riot kicking them out as a result of the team’s “failure to comply with critical reporting requirements and other key obligations under the Team Participation Agreement.”
Yay has teased that he may discuss what happened during his time at Bleed as well, with the Valorant star looking uncharacteristically bad on the team despite coming in as one of the best players in the world.
Even their Rainbow 6 roster has woes, with Terdsta claiming that the organization owes him over $35k and that he made barely enough to live with the salary the org paid him, with streaming paying for his groceries.
Some Bleed employees have chosen to leave the organization as well in the wake of this news.
Mervyn has yet to comment on the circumstances around his court hearing, but the future of Bleed is uncertain considering their teams in CS2, Valorant, DOTA 2, and Rainbow 6 are in various states of dissolution.