Just five months ago, this company, which launched gaming reward apps and esports lounge projects, drew attention by signing players such as ScreaM, Nivera, and vicu.
"We're not just developing an app. We're also building a team."
On April 2nd, when Clutchain ventured into esports by signing Pigeons, their commitment to the industry appeared sincere. This top female team was formed by core members of the former Imperial Valkyries roster.
Six days later, this feeling was further reinforced: Clutchin announced a French lineup that included Adil "ScreaM" Benrlitom, a two-time HLTV Top 20 player of the year, as well as the former Vitality duo Nabil "Nivera" Benrlitom and Jayson "Kyojin" Nguyen Van.
The announcement of the women's lineup received overwhelmingly positive reactions, but the feedback for the men's lineup was completely opposite. Many on social media labeled Clutchchain as a "scam" project and heavily criticized the players for participating.
This all originated from a video uploaded on March 21 by French content creator and jewelry website owner Nyouz on YouTube. The video is titled "Attention à ce nouveau projet CS (très suspect)" ["Beware of this new CS project (very suspicious)"]. It alleges "several red flags" associated with Clutchain, including lax "Know Your Customer" (KYC) requirements, a premium subscription service, a €96 founder pack to support the development of Clutchain Resort, and other projects involving its founders that also employ gamified reward systems.
"I think the most likely scenario is that they will do what Caspian did," said Nyouz. [Editor's Note: This refers to Jeromy Walsh, co-founder, CEO, and creative director of Chronicles of Elyria, an MMORPG that has been in development since 2016.]
"They'll start building or promoting their esports base, then claim major construction issues or that service providers haven't delivered, causing project delays. Eventually, the money runs out. The website shuts down, but by then, they've already collected six months, a year, or even two years of salary... and all the people who bought founder's packs end up with nothing."
"Their description is very vague. They didn't really commit to anything and shifted all responsibility."
Essentially, Clutchain is a mobile app with a reward system that tracks players' CS game performance by linking to their FACEIT accounts. Players can earn Greens—Clutchain's own currency—by eliminating enemies, completing tasks, playing mini-games, and climbing the leaderboard. Greens can then be used to fund environmental projects like tree planting and ocean plastic cleanup.
Every environmental action taken in the real world generates a Clutch, an alternative reward currency that can be exchanged for a chance to participate in a bi-monthly lottery. Each lottery offers 60 prizes, including a gaming computer worth 2,500 euros. Premium subscription tiers provide additional reward multipliers and other benefits.
However, this is only part of Clutchain's business model. The company also plans to build "luxury esports pods" in multiple locations around the world, accommodating two or five people, which users can book through an app. These pods are produced by Clutchain's local partners in China and are fully equipped with gaming computers, featuring RGB lighting both inside and outside the pod.
E-Blue Corporation is Clutchain's partner based in Hong Kong, responsible for producing these esports booths. Promotional materials for the relevant esports booths were provided to HLTV by the players.
Clutchain stated that the initial esports cabins will serve as a proof of concept, after which the company plans to expand further into a franchising model. Landowners can place esports cabins on their properties and receive a percentage of the revenue generated. According to promotional materials, the "Clutchain community" can also fund esports cabins across different locations through a "digital block system," with Clutchain promising an annualized return of up to 10%.
This was a rather unique project that also featured notable players capable of attracting the community's attention. However, just five months later, these players had already begun seeking to recover the money owed to them by Clutchain.
Negotiations between the men's team and Clutchain began approximately six months before the roster announcement. The players were introduced to Clutchain founder David Sacha by head coach Amir, who had known Sacha from FACEIT a few years earlier. Subsequently, Sacha brought all six members to the PGL Masters Bucharest, allowing them to meet in person and discuss Clutchain and its plans. The team's participation in the event also provided Sacha with opportunities to connect with industry professionals.
According to a source within the team speaking to HLTV, from the outset, a few things struck the player as odd. Sacha's business partner, Chakib Bouda, seemed reluctant to publicly associate with Clutchain at the time, with no mention of the project on his LinkedIn. There were also constant, significant fluctuations in the number of training gaming pods they claimed they would build. Furthermore, while attending the PGL event in Bucharest, Sacha asked the players not to include him in any video recordings.
The players knew this was a gamble, but with no other offers at the time, they ultimately agreed to join Clutchain. The latter promised a monthly budget of 30,000 euros, half of which would go toward salaries for the six team members—players and coaches—and the other half toward expenses related to attending offline events and training camps.
During the HLTV Awards in Belgrade, ScreaM first revealed that he is about to make a comeback to the competitive scene. "There will definitely be some players that everyone knows," he said, "It will be a French team."
The contract officially took effect on January 15. However, as Clutchain's App is still in development, the team's official announcement had to wait. It wasn't until mid-March that players began to drop hints on social media one after another.
"Very happy to join a brand new CS2 project," ScreaM wrote on X, "I'm not just back to compete. I'm also part of the team behind Clutchain. Nine professional players will join as brand ambassadors."
Around the same time, some players from Pigeons also announced that they would join Clutchain as brand ambassadors. On February 11, after these players expressed that they were still looking for club representation, Sacha proactively reached out to them via X. The team told HLTV that ScreaM's involvement with Clutchain had alleviated some of their concerns about the project.
"Joining Clutchain as brand ambassadors alongside ScreaM," Alexandra "twenty3" Timonina wrote on X, "can you guess who the other eight brand ambassadors are?"
The status of being brand ambassadors implies a deep connection between the two teams and Clutchain, but HLTV learned that they actually signed standard player contracts. At the same time, sources indicate that Sacha also asked ScreaM and Nivera to include "Co-founder of Clutchain" in their personal bios, promised to take care of them after retirement, and offered them a share of the profits from the esports facility project that Clutchain plans to build in Belgium.
The release of Nyouz's video shook all the players, especially ScreaM and Nivera. As self-proclaimed "co-founders," the two became the public face of the entire project and also the main targets of external criticism.
"ScreaM and Nivera were furious after hearing this," a source said, "Many people were saying, 'Oh, ScreaM is actually involved in something like this. It's really disappointing.'"
“They went straight to David and asked, ‘What the hell is this?’”
The relationship between the two parties deteriorated instantly. Players from both teams urged Sacha to come forward publicly and clarify the issues regarding the project, the personnel behind it, and what role the so-called "brand ambassador" truly played, but he refused. Instead, he demanded that ScreaM initiate a livestream to explain everything himself. The Belgian star player, ScreaM, rejected this demand.
The players held firm in their stance, refusing to promote Clutchain further until their demands were met. ScreaM and Nivera also removed "co-founder" from their X profiles. Under the contracts they signed, they are now merely players.
On April 9th, one day after the men's lineup was announced, Clutchain posted several threads on X, briefly introducing the app, the esports cabin, and the esports team. Four days later, Sacha finally broke his silence and appeared publicly, but many questions raised in the video remained unanswered.
Nevertheless, the relationship between both parties continued to deteriorate. Just a few days after the players participated in an HLTV-recognized match for the first time—defeating MOUZ NXT 13-7 in the Tipsport Conquest of Prague—they received their salary for March. That would also be the last time they were paid by Clutchain.
Meanwhile, the women's team Clutchain fe has secured a qualification spot for Rainhas do Clutch, a LAN event taking place in Brazil from June 23 to 26, offering approximately $30,000 in prizes along with a $20,000 club share. Following the cessation of ESL Impact, which led most clubs to withdraw from women's CS, this has become the largest offline women's CS event since then.
Around the same time, Victoria "tory" Kazieva and twenty3 had originally planned to fly to China to shoot promotional footage for the Clutchain gaming pod being manufactured locally. However, two days before departure, Sacha canceled the plan, citing that the gaming pod was not yet ready.
Before heading to Brazil, the team was supposed to undergo a training camp to prepare for the competition. Sacha insisted that the training must take place in the Netherlands, but due to insufficient time for Tory to apply for a Schengen visa, this arrangement was simply impossible to execute.
Subsequently, he agreed to send the team to Belgrade for training, yet canceled the plan a week before the training was set to begin.
"He was kind of messing with our emotions, saying, 'Oh, if you go to Serbia for training camp, the sponsors will be very unhappy with you.'" Team members told HLTV in a group call.
"This isn't even remotely our fault, because he didn't provide us with sufficient information and time to arrange the visa for Tory. We had already told him that we would not go to [Netherlands] for training without legal representation."
What made matters worse was that the team traveled to Brazil without having received their salary for May. At the time, Sacha, who was in China overseeing the production of esports cabins, sent a message to one of the players: "I will return to Europe on July 2, after which I can complete the transfer using my own money. At the very least, I can assure you that I will definitely pay."
The team indicated that although wages hadn't arrived and training conditions were far from ideal, this did not prevent Sacha from emphasizing to the players how important it was to win Rainhas do Clutch, as only then could sponsors and investors be satisfied.
Clutchain fe ultimately lost 0-2 to MIBR fe in the first round of this single-elimination tournament, then defeated Atrix in the third-place match.
"This has been really negative for us, you know?" the team stated. "It's very demoralizing. Imagine having to deal with all this bullshit while not even getting paid, yet you still have to keep competing for this trash project."
"We are truly very angry and also very frustrated. We are still trying to do our best to use these things as motivation, but the situation really is awful."
"The pressure was really immense. We kept trying to get some answers from him about what exactly happened, but there was nothing."
After the team returned home, even more bad news awaited them: reportedly, due to their failure to win the tournament, funding for the project had been cut off.
Sacha sent a message to the team on WhatsApp: "I am still looking for sponsors and waiting for their replies, but the situation is far more complex than imagined; my main investor prefers to pour money into an esports arena rather than a CS team. I have tried my best to support the women's scene, but the salaries are simply too high."
Since then, communication between the two sides has been sporadic, with Sacha largely ignoring most messages from the contestants.
For the already precarious women's CS competitive scene, this is undoubtedly another blow.
"To be honest, this is truly heartbreaking because we genuinely believed he wanted to support this arena, and he himself assured us of this," the team stated.
Clutchain's X account has not posted any content since sharing FERJEE's post about the women's team winning third place at Rainhas do Clutch on June 26. Meanwhile, its Discord server has also become nearly inactive, with ordinary users sending only three messages in total across the general chat channels since early July.
Sacha told HLTV that he made it clear from the start that the players were also marketing tools, serving to help attract users to the App.
He also stated that Clutchain's investment in the two teams ultimately resulted in "less than 30 monthly active users."
"This number is exactly the core of the problem," he said, "We spent over 100,000 euros in total on wages for two lineups, and the entire purpose of this expense was to bring exposure to this product. The result was almost nothing, because the promotional work we paid them to do never went beyond sharing posts."
When asked about the perception of ScreaM and Nivera as co-founders by the outside world, Sacha confirmed, "No player has ever held shares in the company, [nor] held a management position."
"Regarding the title 'co-founder': that was a proposal we put to him against the backdrop of Adil [ScreaM]'s return to CS," he said.
"Our idea was to bind him more closely to this project on a long-term level. But this was never formally implemented, neither in terms of contracts nor shareholders. Looking back now, I admit we should have been more cautious when communicating this externally."
The players indeed refused to continue promoting Clutchain after Nyouz's video was released, but they told HLTV that the reason was because they themselves were the ones being questioned by the public at the time. They had also requested Sacha to respond to these accusations and clarify the various misunderstandings about the project, but all such requests were rejected.
Moreover, players interviewed by HLTV also denied the claim that they were unwilling to participate in marketing activities. They stated that Clutchain had no one responsible for content strategy or coordinating with players, making Sacha their only point of contact. Following Nyouz's video release, the relationship between him and the players—especially the male team players—has been severely damaged.
HLTV reviewed two contracts from players on different rosters. One contract explicitly stated that there would be no "compulsory streaming obligation" imposed on the player, while the other stipulated that the player must stream for at least ten hours per month and must "prominently display" materials provided by Clutchain. Sources indicated that the players had requested these materials from Clutchain but received no response.
In our conversations, Sacha repeatedly expressed that he felt the players had taken advantage of his lack of experience. This may have been true to some extent, but it cannot serve as an excuse for Clutchain's repeated serious errors in managing its esports division and the lack of proper planning. "Everything rested on ScreaM, and only on him," Sacha admitted.
When asked why he was unwilling to be photographed by contestants while in Bucharest, Sacha explained that this was due to his "extreme lack of confidence in his appearance." He also firmly stated that his business partner Bouda "never said" that he did not wish to be associated with Clutchain.
“What he chooses to display on his personal LinkedIn is his own decision, and an individual's personal profile cannot measure the extent of his involvement with a company,” he said. “I have no doubt that once our first batch of gaming pods arrives in Europe, he will publicly introduce the details.”
Perhaps the most startling aspect of the whole affair is Clutchain's casual approach to his own esports assets. Faced with what he perceived as a breach of contract, Sacha could have warned the players, fined them, or ultimately terminated the contracts. Yet he did none of these things. Instead, he simply ceased all support for both teams, completely disregarding the fact that contracts had already been signed.
Insiders revealed that Sacha had informed a member of the male team that, as Clutchain is registered in the UAE, taking legal action against them would not yield any results.
When asked about the matter, Sacha refused to respond.
The women's team told HLTV that Clutchain currently owes them approximately 28,000 euros in unpaid salaries. Members including most of the players and head coach Kamen "bubble" Kostadinov have submitted their termination notices.
They are still waiting for the $2,600 prize money owed to Rainhas do Clutch. According to the team, event organizer FERJEE is currently waiting for them to disclose the dispute with Clutchain before consulting Valve on how to handle the prize money.
"Everything is just stagnant right now, you know?" the team told HLTV. "There are no matches. Training is meaningless. It's really very discouraging."
“If a competition comes up, we will still go and play. But until then, everyone has to do [other] things to make a living, like live-streaming. That’s how it is right now.”
According to sources from the men's team, Clutchain owes them approximately 40,000 euros in unpaid wages. Additionally, Sacha had previously agreed to pay 5,000 euros to acquire the ESEA Advanced slot held by OldBoys FR, but ultimately only paid one-fifth of the amount. Although he later promised to pay the remaining balance in installments, he failed to honor this commitment, leaving the players to bear the debt themselves.
"I did pay the 1000 euros, then stopped the payments," said Sacha. "Someone more familiar with this industry than I am told me that setting such a high price is itself a form of fraud, so I wasn't willing to continue making payments."
"Moreover, when this incident occurred, the things they had previously promised me were completely unfulfilled."
On September 4th, Nivera became the first player from the men's team to leave Clutchin. "I've terminated my contract today and am now a free agent, and I'll take some time to explore my next options," he wrote on X. It is expected that more players will soon announce their departure.
Sources say that due to delayed wage payments, one of the players has had to move back in with their parents, while another has stopped competing and taken a full-time job.
And judging from the current development of the situation, ScreaM's journey of returning to CS this time also seems to have been prematurely ended. Insiders say this was originally planned to be his last team.
The ten contestants are now all caught in a long wait, and they are fully aware that their chances of ultimately recovering the owed money are almost zero.
Although Clutchain's App business has almost completely stalled, the esports cabin project continues to move forward.
"The e-sports cabin has always been at the heart of our business model, from the very beginning," Sacha said. "The e-sports roster was originally conceived as a marketing vehicle for this product, not the other way around."
He added that the company's first gaming cabin "is already completed and functional at our manufacturer's facility in China," though he did not specify when this gaming cabin would be deployed in Europe. "The second one is currently in production and will be fully installed by the end of November in collaboration with a European partner. We will not disclose the identity of this partner until the joint official announcement."
Sacha acknowledged that once the community learns that such a high-profile player has been owed a large sum of money, Clutchain's reputation could take a hit.
"We did make some real mistakes—keeping the terms of the 'Founder's Pack' on the website that shouldn’t have been public at that stage, promoting a 'Co-Founder' title that was never officially established, and committing to payment deadlines that I ultimately failed to meet," he said.
"These errors are all our responsibility. But I do not accept the word 'fraud'. Fraud implies intent to deceive and abscond with funds. Our identities are transparent, our company is registered, our manufacturer can be verified, and we are still continuing to develop this product. My partner is a Dutch entrepreneur nearing 60 years old with 40 years of business experience. His identity is fully transparent, and he has never had any record of disputes. The same is true for me."
"The reality is actually much more ordinary: an entrepreneur pursued his personal dream—building a professional team in the game he had been playing since he was ten—and convinced his business partner to fund this dream. Ultimately, the business partnership behind it fell apart. It was a commercial dispute and a management failure, but it wasn’t fraud."
However, such an explanation offers little comfort to athletes whose careers and lives have been affected in the process.
"Mentally, he has completely defeated us," said a source from the men's team, referring to Sacha. "Because of money issues, he really has defeated us mentally."
"I don't think any of us will be joining a new team this year. We're really in a terrible state. It feels like he took away all our motivation."