My experience with Thunder Gaming...







My experience with Thunder Gaming...



I've been kind of quiet about everything for a while in terms of Thunder Gaming vs technicals cause for the most part I had no Idea something like THIS would even continue past a week or so. Let me preface this by saying these words are my own. I am talking to you as Mightykeef. I have currently not renewed my contract with TGm so these words, again, are my own. This is not a formal response for TG nor is this a hit piece on technicals. This is just MY personal experience with Thunder Gaming so far and way to provide clarity on some topics.



People being upset because of lack of transparency so far is understandable. In a community built from grassroots, It seems odd that a company comes out of nowhere wanting to invest and sponsor players, casters, and content creators left and right. Shades of VvV (Only brawl players will understand that sadly). A lot of people were quick to call it a scam; and with Techncials recent video of "How the CEO of Thunder gaming is a con man", that only helped control the narrative of "big secret organization bad."

So I want to talk about the most Frequently asked concerns about Thunder Gaming's legitimacy, and my experience with those subjects so far, starting with :



SHADY BUSINESS/ SCAMMER

Scammer- 'a person who commits fraud or participates in a dishonest scheme.'

So who can get scammed in this scenario? It would have to be people who have monetary investment or people who work for TG under the promise that they would receive monetary compensation. Outside of those parameters I'm not sure what else could fall under the term "scam". To my knowledge, me and the rest of the sponsored team have always been paid. The tournament winners? Paid. Castors who arent sponsored? Paid. So who exactly is getting scammed? Shareholders maybe? Not possible. There are only two shareholders and they pour the money straight into the Smash community journey with the setups, equipment, lighting, music, streams etc, not Christian. So how did this idea of TG scamming people get implemented into peoples mind? .... Technicals vid on 'Christian Bishop'.



CHRISTIAN BISHOP

At some point, Christian Bishop was the CEO of Thunder gaming. When I got picked up last September 2019, he was never advertised to me as the CEO. MVD was advertised as captain. Bear was advertised as manager. Omni was advertised as social media director... Everyone had their clear roles. Christian was advertised to me as an employee who's job was to grab talent (like me). I'm not going to pretend to know the job a CEO does. Like most people, I just assume the "CEO" means they run the place. However, Christian never seemed to be the guy with such influence while I was at Thunder studios. That's when I met Rodric, the actual owner of Thunder studios and Thunder Gaming. I found out quickly he is the one that runs the place. I say all that to make this point:

Christian Bishop, whatever past he had or did not have, is not indicative of Thunder Gaming as a whole, at least from what I have seen behind the scenes in the past months.

The person who cuts our checks is not Christian Bishop

The person who sets up the studio and information is not Christian Bishop

The person who starts our meetings is not Christian Bishop.

The person who calls the shots for tournaments is not Christian Bishop



So if Techncials's criticism is for Christian bishop behavior, that is something he and christian will have to deal with, with each other. Thunder Gaming is separate from that.



Why is THUNDER GAMING involved with beef and who are they?

So if Thunder Gaming is separate from Christian Bishop and Technicals beef.... why is TG on defense? Well because the video said "CEO of Thunder Gaming" which implies that any content in the video is about Thunder gaming as a whole, but in reality it was about Christian Bishop and his "past". Nothing in tech video alluded to the fact Rodric or any TG shareholders were doing anything shady. It was all about Christian Bishop. Semantics aside, Christian stepped down from CEO over a year ago, well before Thunder Gaming created a Esports team. I have been told that, He. Is. Legally. No. Longer. CEO. Of. Thunder.Gaming. And no amount of "yes he is." is going to make that reality any less true. The PR team for TG is lacking right now, which again, happens cause of growing pains. I told them they need to work on it and they said that is a plan moving forward. Updating websites with correct info, making things more readily available etc etc.

The friendship Christian holds with the upper management is really no concern to anyone unless parties are in fact being influenced to scam the workers; in other words, me, or anyone else that works for them. From what I have seen behind the scenes in the past 4 months... TG legitimately just wants to create a stronger Esports environment for Smash and other games. They dont seem to have any ulterior motive. If im wrong, then I will eat that humble pie, but since I've been with them, they seem like they are in it for the long haul.

Does their social media skills need a tune up? Of course. Should they keep blocking people as liberally? hell no. Do they need to fix the way they communicate with the community? Absolutely. And they have told me that they are willing to do all of that. It's a new venture for them, and growing pains are bound to happen.



(P.S, Not sure if this is common knowledge but the money that they have to invest comes out of their pocket cause these guys are millionaires lol. They arent getting loans iirc or jabbing others for money. They own Thunder Studios and thats a multi million dollar company. )



DOXXING

I didnt know how to segue into this cause uhhhhh.... i included this topic at the last minute. This seemed to be a popular buzzword last night, and we all know how viral buzzwords can get when a mob starts. "Doxxing is an illegal act in the U.S. if it's used to harass or intimidate someone to any extent, according to law firm Brickfield & Donahue. ... When a person is doxxed for any other reason, if the doxxer used illegal methods of obtaining private information, it also becomes illegal."

To my knowledge, TG was not threatening any harm to anyone. They were requesting him to stop making invalid statements about their company, and they legit were trying to make peace by inviting him to TG. (No torture chambers are there from what I saw lol) Techncials stated that his legal name had been on his fb and other avenues of the internet, so no illegal method was probably used to get that info. It's a company, not a youtuber or personality. A company is going to send formal letters with your Gov. name on it, not your smash tag lol. I cant speak as to why the notice was not sent to him prior to the tweet, but I can only assume it's for legal reason that none of us can really understand. But yea thats all i have to say about Doxxing I guess.



SMASH COMMUNITY

Not much to put here really. I know you all want Nintendo and other big companies to invest 100's of thousands into the community, so smash can be more respected and lucrative as an esport, but then when a company comes to do that, you meet it with skepticism. i love you guys and I want the best, but sometimes it feels like the community cannibalizes itself when it comes to topics like this. But I do not fault the community fully, because I have told TG, that they could do better with their transparency. Im not trying to change anyone's mind with this letter. This is just a perspective from someone who has worked deep with Thunder Gaming for 4 months. For those who watch my videos, you know I started with smash. Since then I have branched off to other content but I will always love smash and the community. That is why i want you all to thrive.

I just hope for the best and wanted to clear some things up. i dont want to see technicals get sued and I dont want TG to be seen in a way that is not genuine to who they are

Point. Blank. Peridottttt.



If anyone wants to have a discussion with me about their own personal questions, im glad to talk. I am Mightykeef. (no pun intended)

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