Galaxy Racer Fails to Pay HER Galaxy $100K Apex Legends Open Winners in 2023

Galaxy Racer fails to pay HER Galaxy Apex Legends Open winners in 2023. Credit: Galaxy Racer

The Esports Advocate has confirmed that Dubai-based esports organization Galaxy Racer will miss the deadline to pay winners of the HER Galaxy $100K Apex Legends Open tournament that ended in June.

The company said on Dec. 8 that—per the contract it signed with participants—it had 180 days from the conclusion of the competition to pay players, which would have been on or around Dec. 22. Later, a company representative said publicly that it would pay participants by the end of December. But with Friday (Dec. 29) being the last business day of the year, that deadline is likely to be missed, and an email sent to players on Thursday afternoon indicated that the company doesn’t have a formal deadline in mind on when it will finally pay winners.

TEA reached out to Galaxy Racer prior to the publication of this story, but the company did not respond to our request for comment.

The $100K HER Galaxy Apex Legends Open concluded at the end of June, with the following players winning part of the overall prize pool:

In an email sent to winners on Thursday, Galaxy Racer said that it did not have a timeline for when payouts would be made:

Hello,

Thank you all for your patience as you wait for updates regarding tournament payouts.

At this time, a set date for when payments will be received is still pending but Galaxy Racer is working diligently to get all payouts issued as soon as possible. Once the timeframe has been determined, you will be notified. Your continued patience is greatly appreciated.

If you have any further questions about payout or anything related to that (i.e. tax forms), please feel free to reach out to [redacted email of Ajay Narang, Founder of Equations, LLC – the firm handling bookkeeping/accounting for GXR in NA].

A former Galaxy Racer NA employee confirmed with TEA last week that employees from the North American office(s) made sure to gather important details from winners needed to receive their prize winnings and then provided that information to Galaxy Racer HQ. In fact, former employees we spoke to prior to the shutdown of NA offices in early December were concerned that the parent company would not pay tournament winners on time and did not want to be blamed for those delays.

The concern among sources familiar with the players that participated in this competition is that they may have to wait until sometime in mid-January or even later to finally receive the prize money they earned more than six months ago.

On a related note, TEA has learned that Chicago-based tournament platform LeagueSpot is still owed somewhere at least five figures for the work it did in facilitating the HER Galaxy $100K Apex Legends Open competition earlier this year. LeagueSpot declined to comment on this story.

Finally, TEA has also learned that at least one claim has been filed with the State of California’s Department of Industrial Relations (DIR). A spokesperson for the agency told us this week that there is a current wage claim filed against Galaxy Racer in Long Beach and that subject matter experts are still researching the insurance aspect of our inquiry (we inquired about claims against Galaxy Racer in early December).  Details on the claim (Case CM-960015) were not available as of this writing, but it is currently listed as “under investigation.”

The spokesperson added that workers who believe they have a claim can file with the Labor Commissioner’s office on the DIR website. The state has rules in place that may levy civil penalties and fines for late payment and non- payment details can be found here FAQs – Late Payment of Wages (ca.gov). Employees with work-related questions or complaints may visit WageTheftIsACrime.com or call the Labor Commissioner’s Office Call Center in English or Spanish at 833 LCO-INFO (833 526-4636).

This news follows the company finally settling with its now-former full-time staffers in North America (Her Galaxy), who were considering a class action lawsuit after the company failed to pay them for three months. That situation was finally resolved earlier this month. The company closed its North American operations in December and announced that it would change its focus to working with influencers and content creators in the region.

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.