Gaimin Gladiators ask for 7,500,000 Canadian dollars in damages from their Dota 2 team

Gaimin Gladiators took the dispute with their Dota 2 team to court.

According to a report by Richard Lewis, Gaimin Gladiators have officially sued four of their Dota 2 team members. The Canadian organisation filed the lawsuit in the Ontario court system, asking for 7,500,000 Canadian dollars in damages. The players named as the defendants in the lawsuit are Quinn "Quinn" Callahan, Marcus "Ace" Christensen, Erik "tOfu" Engel, and Alimzhan "watson" Islambekov.

Gaimin Gladiators' drama became public once the organsiation decided to withdraw the team from The International 2025 in August 2025.

A few days after the announcement, Gaimin’s co-founder and President, Nick Cuccovillo, and Quinn Callahan made contradicting statements on X regarding the decision. The former stated that the players requested to terminate their contracts and compete as an independent team, while Quin stated that the players “explicitly communicated, in writing, that they are ready, willing and able to compete in The International under the Gaimin Gladiators banner.” “Gaimin Gladiators, however, refused to allow us to do so,” Quinn added.

Read more: Conflicting statements from Gaimin Gladiators and their players on TI 2025 withdrawal

Gaimin Gladiator seek to recover monetary damage from breach of contracts

In a statement for Richard Lewis, Gaimin Gladiators declared that the conflict between the organisation and the players deepened when Quinn made some comments in a public match, comments that led to a “loss of a sponsorship in the mid-seven figures” for the organization.

While the organisation does not go into specifics in its statement for Lewis, it is believed that the sponsor in discussion is Winline and that the issue started in 2024 when Quinn criticised a player in public match making by saying, “I guess you’re just Russian. It’s not your fault you’re born in a trash country.”

Additionally, Gaimin Gladiators also mentions that the players failed to meet “social media and sponsorship deliverables for 18 months.” More so, the organisation now claims that the players themselves cancelled the TI 2025 bootcamp, “less than a week before it was due to start, at significant cost to us; threatened on August 4th that they “may not perform due to the issues”; and on August 7th communicated that the team wished to exit their agreement and compete at The International independently.”

Since Richard Lewis’ report, neither the organisation nor any of the four players named in the lawsuit made any official statements.