Zeveron has been a popular competitive Heroes of the Storm team since their impressive performance at the World Cyber Arena 2015 qualifiers. The team was known as Murloc Geniuses prior to their acquisition by Zeveron in April.

When Tyler Liberman, one of the team’s co-founders, announced the organization’s dissolution on August 7, many in the community were justifiably shocked.

As of today, I will no longer be apart of Zeveron. It was a pleasure to work alongside its other staff as well as players. Onward! — Tyler Liberman (@tylerliberman) August 8, 2015

But it came as a shock to someone else too - the organization’s other co-founder, Jeff “Favion” Suddarth, who was also dealing with Zeveron's Heroes team.

He explains that he was told by Liberman that he could not be employed outside of the organization. Instead, he was told to focus full-time on Zeveron, but claims he was not paid a salary.

Suddarth says he received a Skype message from Liberman informing him of the company’s dissolution without any prior consultation. Suddarth also claims that the company cannot be dissolved without his signature, and that he has verified this with his legal counsel.

Liberman disagrees. In a message to theScore eSports, he stated that the LLC agreement allows him to dissolve Zeveron.

“The decision to dissolve the company was on my behalf, as a majority of the company is all that is required legally … When the decision was made, he was made aware prior to its signing. Him signing it off however was not required,” Liberman said.

The decision to dissolve the company, Liberman said, was the result of allegations that were levelled against Suddarth in a public forum that damaged the Zeveron brand. He felt that the company could not continue. Suddarth says that he checked with Liberman in a face-to-face conversation whether or not the accusatory post would be an issue, and that Liberman assured him it wouldn't.

Liberman tells the story differently. In a statement emailed to theScore eSports, he said that the conversation with Suddarth regarding the allegations did happen - but claims Suddarth told him the accusations were false. Liberman went on to say that, after personally verifying the claims against Suddarth, he came to the conclusion that they were true and dissolved the company.

Whether or not the company is actually dissolved is unclear. Liberman says it will be, but Suddarth says it can’t legally be without his signature.

“I also told [Liberman] I would be willing to buy him out and give him the money that he had already spent so he could back out safely,” Suddarth explained.

In the middle of the disagreement is the team. Closing a company is one thing, but the players are still under contract. Beyond the need for immediate payment, they have agreements for the foreseeable future.

Aside from the Heroes team, Zeveron recently added fighting game player Ryota “Kazunoko” Inoue, the CEO 2015 Ultra Street Fighter 4 champion, to their organization on a year-long contract. Suddarth says he’s trying to retain Kazunoko.

“Kazunoko and I agreed that if I could find an agreement with our sponsor to pay him what hes owed he would stick with me,” he explained. “If I cannot by the end of the month, he will move on.”

Suddarth provided an image of a Skype conversation that appeared to show Liberman saying that the players would need to challenge them in small claims courts to receive their payment, as the company had been dissolved.

But, Liberman says he is now working with the players to resolve issues of payment and that the previous comments were made when he believed that he alone would be liable for the entirety of the remaining contract amounts. Instead, he’s been able to get the Heroes squad to sign contract releases.

“When discussing the issue of payments with [Suddarth], as he claimed he was not liable for any debts or liabilities of Zeveron, the debts would have been needed to be brought to small claims court to have him pay for his percentage of the liability, however as I was able to personally work the concerns out with the players and have them agree to a release, they've been able to be paid without the need for it.”

When asked if the players would only receive the money they were owed if they agreed to sign the contract release, Liberman didn't address the question directly.

“The players were only behind on one payment, which has been included in their release. As [Suddarth] has refused to assist with the liabilities, I have had to handle resolving their concerns and paying them personally which they have been very appreciative of.”

From what Suddarth says, he’d prefer to keep the company on his own, paying out Liberman’s portion. Where exactly the organization will go from here is uncertain. Suddarth has said that, should he retain control of Zeveron, he has no intention to form another Heroes team.

“I’m not interested in getting back into the Heroes scene anymore,” he said.

The squad who would be Murloc

Even if Suddarth was interested, it doesn't look like the current squad would come back: the team seems happy to be out of the situation. Manny “Fury” Medina, the team’s warrior player, offered his perspective on what happened. He said that the relationship got off to a rocky start.

“When we first talked to Jeff about him making a new org brand, he talked to us very kindly and offered us a really nice deal compared to others for a scene like Heroes which doesn't have too much going on for NA currently. It was sketchy to take this offer but we chose to just do it and see how it went. Before we got to sign any form of contract we had about a month of a 'trial' to see how we did under the brand name,” Fury said.

That trial went well enough for the team to be signed to an actual contract and offered salaries - but not, Fury says, until other teams began to show interest in picking up some of the squad’s members. There was even talk of a gaming house, which would allow the squad to double their practice hours.

“Most of the time we talked to only Jeff [Suddarth] and not much to Tyler [Liberman], who was the chairman of the new organization. Jeff was really into the team’s progress by wanting to know how scrims went and how many games we won,” Fury said.

The team got their big break when they were invited to participate in the WCA 2015 NA Qualifiers. There, they defeated compLexity and then nearly defeated Tempo Storm in two games. A narrow game two win during a base-race for Tempo Storm saw Zeveron return to game three, which they lost.

“Once we lost to Tempo Storm, Jeff was not happy about us losing game two. It felt like after WCA, Jeff expected us to win everything - which obviously we wanted to - but we didn't show the best results after WCA,” Fury explained.

And it was after WCA that the backpedaling began, Fury says.

“Once the time came around when the house was supposed to be in the works, we were given reasons that it wasn't ready and ‘don't worry, give us more time.’ But then once the July qualifier came around, we were told the day of the tournament that we needed to qualify, or else no house. This added a lot of pressure to the players that wasn't needed at all. Sadly we lost in the round of 16 to COGnitive, who placed third for the July qualifier.”

Suddarth confirmed that, without a top eight finish, they weren't able to follow through on housing.

"We told them that if they didn't qualify for Regionals we would have to wait on a house ... We didnt feel the scene was big enough yet to warrant housing costs unless they were getting the stream time with regionals and such."

After that, Fury claims, things began to fall apart. He says Suddarth began to lose interest in the team, even claiming at one point during a team discussion that he wasn't sure if he wanted to keep a Heroes team at all. That made things worse for the players, he said, who didn't appreciate the way they were treated during July and August.

Suddarth says that, during that period, he was busy trying to expand the organization in other directions.

“That was the time where we were signing with Kazunoko and I had to focus on him and two teams that we were in talks with that we decided not to sign eventually. I felt like the Heroes scene wasn't growing in what we had hoped and I was reaching out to Blizzard with suggestions from the team and I about the eSports scene,” Suddarth said.

“I wanted the brand to grow with the scene and do what we could do help, but it felt stagnant. I kept them on because I believed in them as a team, and wanted to see them grow.”

Fury said that the announcement that Zeveron would be dissolved was a relief to the team’s roster.

“Honestly, we were happy we could move on from Zeveron due to how we were treated. I understand an organization would be upset that their team isn't winning as much as they would like, but it doesn't help that we get little to no support and Jeff doesn't believe in us anymore,” Fury explained.

“I just don't want Jeff near eSports anymore,” Fury said. “His reputation sounds like it's gone down. We just don't want any part of it and just want to move on.”

The team has already started to do exactly that. Fury says that, 11 days late, they've received payments they were promised. The squad has reverted to their old Murloc Geniuses moniker and have qualified for the August Open’s Round of 8, where they will first face off against COGnitive Gaming.

It’s an important step for the team - and one they now face on their own. Fury apologized for the team’s past performance but assured fans that, even without Zeveron, they will continue striving to be the best.

“I would like to apologize to our fans for not performing the best we could at tournaments compared to how we do in scrims. We will continue to practice and work towards becoming number one.

JUST DO IT! Right?”

Josh Bury can’t believe this Gazlowe player. Does he even know there’s more than one lane? You can follow him on Twitter.