07/21/2015
Hello everyone! This is Brad and Billy from Bonafide Clothing Company and what once was Arena Gaming League.
We are here to make an official statement in regards to the continually talked about and, what in some people’s minds is an, unresolved issue in regards to us being “thieves”, “untrustworthy” and “scam artists”.
The short version:
AGL 10 was cancelled due to hotel ballroom power issues.
Billy and Brad lost a substantial amount of upgrade and event expense money
The entire community exploded with rage and spite
Brad and Billy were so distraught over losing the years of hard work put into AGL that we disappeared from the scene completely.
We put Bonafide back into full force to earn the money lost from AGL10 to be able to pay the players.
Partnered with Smite for clothing knowing we would be paying the players back soon
Paid the players back in March 2014.
All debt is resolved and Hi Rez continues to do business with us because of the quality of our product, our professionalism and our relentless desire to completely please all of our customers with zero room for fraud or deceit.
Full Story:
In regards to our last cancelled AGL event:
AGL 10 was positioned to be in Indiana. We were working with the only available hotel ball room in the area which was at a Marriott branch hotel. We signed the rental agreement for the hotel ball room weeks in advance and the week before the gaming event was suppose to take place, the technicians emailed us stating there was an insufficient amount of power due to the large conventions being held at the hotel all at the same time. In order to make our event feasible, there was a cost to upgrade their hotel room electricity circuit to accommodate our power needs but was too expensive to pursue from our already tight financial situations. With this issue along with the consistent negativity surrounding how we (Brad and Billy) were running our gaming league, we took this as a sign to stop doing Arena Gaming League.
The reason we first got into competitive halo competitions was because we absolutely loved Halo. We traveled to countless MLG events and when we saw halo get dropped from the circuit it really made us distraught. So our passion for Halo made us pursue opening Arena Gaming League in order to continue on the Halo competitions that were inevitably going extinct. Never in our wildest dreams did we think our league would gain the momentum we had nor did we care. The only drive was to bring halo back to how we knew it when Final boss, Triggers Down, Carbon, Str8 Rippin, etc. were in their prime.
For the entirety of Arena Gaming we both sacrificed every finance and job obligation we had in order to make the league succeed. Brad worked countless and countless hours on improving the stream, getting sponsors to give out free product and continuously make the events bigger and more successful. Since we are getting personal, Brad started Arena Gaming driving a 2013 Brand New Honda Civic (this was bought through his previous job). Through the year, Brad was forced to sell the car to have no car payment and finished the league driving a 2000 Toyota Camry with 120,000 miles (because he needed all of his time to work on AGL to make sure it was the best thing that could ever happen for the fans). That was the extent of the sacrifices that were made to put all the effort into improving Halo competitions. Every dollar made was sacrificed and put back into the gaming league.
When the final AGL event was called off, the amount of disappointment and discourage made us completely disappear from the scene because our vision, hard work, money and all of our resources were lost on that day of that one event cancelled announcement. The hate and rage was too much to handle combine with those feelings. Which is why an official statement was not made to clarify it all. That was wrong of us but we don't regret this because that was the choice made at the time so we can’t change the past. We would do it differently in the future.
When we cancelled the event, many expenses were lost that were not recoverable such as caster plane tickets, equipment upgrades, clothing investments, merchandise, event marketing gear and others. Since our league did not have financial supporters and backers that helps a competitive game succeed (such as how Hi Rez pays for Smite competitions and Activision pays for Call of Duty - which is the reason why these games are still being played competitively with a large following), there was no way for us to recuperate and regenerate financially from a cancellation of this size. We were basically using every last dollar we had to stretch out and cover every event. Some of the the prizing from the previous event was fronted to pay for these expenses and then they would be repaid after passes sold for the next event. Was it the smartest way to run an event? Absolutely not. At the time and circumstances, we had no other choice and Halo mattered more than our own individual dignity. So we were going to do sacrifice whatever we had in our power to make Halo and AGL live on as a gaming competition.
After we went into our disappearance from disappointment, we knew the players would get paid but we did not know how. We are forever grateful of the players coming to our events and would never allow their support to go without notice. We went back to what we knew and loved which is clothing. We became positioned through Hi Rez Studios as the provider and merchandiser for Smite Clothing and other clothing ventures. We made them aware of our debts and our past situations and our intent to pay this back when we gained enough money to do so. And they saw our vision and our honesty and hard work ethic which they highly respected and honored our word. So after much hard work and clothing sales, we were able to sacrifice all of our Bonafide revenues to pay all the players back right before the Smite Launch Tournament. All of the pro players will attest for getting paid and being squared up with us. We made a personal guarantee of that.
As of March 2014, Smite and Hi Rez knew we were square with our previous debts which is why we have not had any issue being their clothing provider. For over a year we have fulfilled every single order from customers, company and anyone in between. There is no room for a lack of integrity in our business plan nor with how we run our business and operation.
Additionally, we both attended Iron Gaming Atlanta event this year 2015. We saw many of the players and supporters of our league and new faces as well. We went to the event to support Halo, the players, Iron Gaming and all of the fans. Because deep down, it is one of our passions and a game that never gets old to us. There is nothing that beats an across the map no scope or multi-kills strung together. We will continue to support Halo as we always have.
For those that still question that we are not telling the truth, do you think a company as large and reputable as Hi Rez Studios would continually do business and have Bonafide Clothing represent their company if we were illegitimate.
Ponder that…
And I’ll answer it for you,
NO.
They were upfront and extremely harsh in their stance that if we had the money and didn’t take care of our business our partnership would be over. And do you think thieves survive in business? NO. They do not. Word spreads fast and they are wiped away. So for anyone to think that we are still thieves and robbers trying to make a quick deal and run away with a few thousand dollars must not know who we are as people.
Let us clarify what Bonafide stands for:
Our mission for Bonafide has been since the beginning: Provide the highest quality clothing available with the most amount of designs so that each consumer will be able to buy and wear exactly what design, shirt style and color they want to ensure they feel the best they can about themselves each and every day.
Bonafide by definition means: Sincere, Make with good faith without fraud or deceit; real
Source: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bona%20fide
We chose our company name because we live and breath by these definitions. We only produce what we have found to be the highest quality clothing. We honor every customer as our highest priority because they supporting us means the world to us. And every decision we make is to ensure that our customers are one step closer to 100% satisfaction. We want and love to make people feel good and we express that through our clothing.
Thank you for everyone who has supported us throughout all the adversity. Only you know who you are and we truly thank you. You are special and know our true intentions and our relentless effort to do the best we can for our consumers.
Love,
Billy and Brad
In Reference to:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Smite/related/21dp8c/a_warning_to_the_smite_community_bonafide/
adjective | \ˈbō-nə-ˌfīd, ˈbä-; ˌbō-nə-ˈfī-dē, -ˈfī-də\ | See the full definition...
