Exclusive: Galaxy Racer NA/HER Galaxy Staff Fired

Credit: Galaxy Racer

Update: Sources within Galaxy Racer North American offices confirmed with TEA that Galaxy Racer headquarters did in fact wire a payment to employees late Wednesday evening/early Thursday morning , but because the transactions have not completed the exact amount sent in unknown. We will update this story as more information becomes available.

Original Story: Dubai-based esports organization Galaxy Racer has cut off all communication with staff and shuttered operations on Thursday.  Sources within the company describe the situation as sudden and social media posts from employees confirm the abruptness of this decision. The closure follows staff in Los Angeles demanding that the company pay them three months of back pay (more on that below).

The company issued the following statement to The Esports Advocate Thursday afternoon:

In it, it promised that it will pay the winners of the HER Galaxy $100K Apex Legends Open (see screenshot below).

Sources tell TEA that Dubai-based esports organization was recently given an ultimatum to pay full-time employees of Her Galaxy/Galaxy Racer North America the three months of back pay it owes them by end-of-day Wednesday or the employees would file a class action lawsuit in the state of California. From what we understand, the group of employees have retained legal counsel, who has sent at least one demand letter to the company. Sources also tell us that employees haven’t had direct contact with management for weeks, but that—through a third-party—GXR promised to settle its debts this week.

TEA first reported on issues with late payments to Her Galaxy/GXR NA in July. In September an anonymous whistleblower shared conditions within the Los Angeles offices, and also claimed that the company owed popular influencer Nore Stars and Nigma Galaxy millions of dollars in back payments.

TEA is the only news outlet to cover this ongoing story, despite its potential impact on employees, content creators, esports teams, vendors, and women and marginalized genders who have been affected throughout the world.

This is a developing story…

Editor’s note: This story was updated with additional information on wire transfers from GXR HQ to employees in North America. A previous version of this story stated that no payments had been made (at the time of writing, which was Wednesday evening/early Thursday morning), which was factually correct as this story was being written as those transfers were being executed.