VALORANT site TheSpike.gg looks to have finally been sold, according to former owner Artur "m1nac" Minacov. Under the new ownership, Minacov claims all former employees will be paid the monies owed to them following reports earlier in the year that he owed as much as $40,000 to content creators and site developers associated with TheSpike.

The story initially broke on Twitter in May of 2021, as a number of writers from the site went public over unpaid wages and erratic management from Minacov. The wage situation had apparently been an issue since at least November 2020, with more than one writer publicly claiming Minacov had been mismanaging company funds and not meeting their financial commitments.

Minacov has a chequered past in esports, with his old org EnVision also at the center of a dispute over unpaid wages and much of his success based around his ownership of OPSkins. The latter was a skin trading site that eventually shut down as a result of legal threats from Valve, following attempts by Minacov to circumvent skin trading regulations aimed at controlling the rampant skin gambling situation.

There were also allegations that Minacov contributed to a toxic work culture for some writers, with claims he would use discriminatory language in staff channels that reportedly made some creators at the company uncomfortable as a result. The new owners are undisclosed at the time of writing and will need to revive the brand, which had fallen behind the competition prior to the revelations breaking and has only suffered reputationally since.

Minacov himself claimed on Twitter that he would be exiting the esports space entirely following the sale of the website, which will end a colorful career in the space. Inven reached out to him for comment on the sale and his time at TheSpike, and will update the article accordingly should Minacov respond to our request.