Renowned gamer and former player in games like Hearthstone and TFT, Park “Jinsoo” Jin-soo, revealed that he has not yet received over half of the prize money from his victory in the Auto Chess Invitational 2019. Despite persistent attempts to communicate with the developers and organizers, the matter remains unresolved even after three years.

Back in October 2019, Jinsoo Park participated in the invitational tournament, which granted him entry through an invitation. He emerged victorious in the Grand Finals, securing a prize of 1M USD, which amounted to approximately 520M KRW at that time.

However, the prize money owed to Jinsoo was never fully delivered. The tournament organizers, ImbaTV, informed him in April 2020 that due to legal issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in China, the prize money distribution was delayed. Despite this explanation, Jinsoo claims that proper payment has not been made even until now.

According to Jinsoo's disclosed account records, only a portion of the prize money has been confirmed as paid. Two payments were made in November 2020 and May 2021, each amounting to approximately 148M KRW and 74M KRW, totaling around 222M KRW. This amount falls short of half of the total prize money, and the outstanding 300M KRW is yet to be paid.

Jinsoo attempted to discuss the matter with ImbaTV's Global Business Deputy CEO, Yang Sun-il, through various messaging platforms. He also tried to reach out to Dragonest, the game's developer, via email and a Chinese messenger platform. However, Dragonest did not provide any response to his messages.

ImbaTV claims to have conveyed the matter to Dragonest, but the response did not satisfy Jinsoo. Reviewing the messenger exchanges, it was discovered that ImbaTV first contacted Jinsoo in January 2021 and did not contact him afterward until April, when Jinsoo inquired about the remaining prize money. Only on May 25 did Yang Sun-il share messenger exchanges with Dragonest, mentioning that the payment would be made within the week. The amount received by Jinsoo at that time was 67,470 USD, which constituted the second installment of the prize money, paid in May.

In June, after Dragonest shared that they will be regarding the issue, there were no more messages sent to Jinsoo. There was a response from Dragonest in September, implying that there was not much progress on the matter, and in October, they re-checked the matter.

Jinsoo continued to inquire about the prize money in March and June 2022, but he did not get much of an answer. Yang Sun-il gave the email address of Wei Wang, VP of Dragonest, and told him to try contacting him directly.

Later on, until Jinsoo contacted again in August and October, ImbaTV did not contact him about the issue. There was an answer in October that Dragonest will respond within the week, but they did not give any further responses.

In November, Jinsoo contacted Dragonest once more through his management company (MCN), but received no reply. In May 2023, the MCN directly requested information on the unpaid prize money through Yang Sun-il.

Yang Sun-il stated that the responsibility for prize payment lies with Dragonest, who organized the tournament. ImbaTV asserted that they were only responsible for tournament operations and communication. They also provided Ray Wang's contact information for direct communication with Dragonest. Nevertheless, Jinsoo received no reply from Ray Wang either.

MCN then inquired through the Auto Chess official homepage customer inquiries. Auto Chess replied that they can’t provide the contact of the person in charge, but said that the payment responsibility lies with ImbaTV. On the other hand, ImbaTV again asserted that as part of the prize money was paid by Dragonest, they are responsible for paying the rest.

The Auto Chess consultation suggested that the payment responsibility lies with ImbaTV — Dragonest and ImbaTV kept shifting the responsibility back and forth regarding the unpaid prize money.

Notably, the contract for the Auto Chess Invitational 2019 clearly states ImbaTV's obligation to make the payment. The contract stipulated that ImbaTV must disburse the prize money within 90 days after the finals.

In June this year, Jinsoo sent proof of the contract's content via email, but received no response. When he inquired with Yang Sun-il via messenger on June 20, ImbaTV claimed that they had already done their part as they distributed the prize money through Dragonest, and all they can do is ask for responses to Dragonest. However, they also stated that due to their inability to communicate with Dragonest, they could not facilitate prompt payment.

On June 26, Yang Sun-il stated that he had a meeting scheduled with Dragonest's CEO that week, and he would provide a response after the meeting. However, the meeting did not take place, and Yang Sun-il explained that he would address the issue through a call later. Nevertheless, no contact was made by July 7. Jinsoo asked how it was being progressed via email, and ImbaTV replied that they will inquire again.

As Jinsoo asked for an answer, inquiring which party was responsible for the payment between ImbaTV and Dragonest, he claimed that he did not get an answer. He got an answer that Yang Sun-il will request ImbaTV’s COO to reach out to Dragonest, but there weren’t any answers to that either.

Jinsoo's side believes that based on the contract signed with ImbaTV as a participant in the tournament, ImbaTV should bear the responsibility and resolve the issue promptly.