Monte and Bymas trade public statements over unpaid salary and stickers

Bymas, who played a year for Monte before leaving in early July, has said publicly that his former Counter-Strike 2 team owes him money. In a post on X on Wednesday, August 26, 2026, he said the organization owes him tens of thousands of dollars in salary, prize money and bonuses, and a share of the team's sticker revenue from the IEM Cologne Major, HLTV reported that evening.

Monte answered the same evening, on X and in a statement to HLTV. The organization accepts that salary payments were late, but says it did not cause the delays, and calls the amount Bymas claims a complete lie.

No ruling, no contract and no figure beyond the player's own phrase has been published. What exists are two public accounts that contradict each other, and both are set out below as each side gave them.

HLTV, August 26, 2026, for the claim and Monte's answers; Dot Esports, July 23, 2026, for the split Valve requires on Major sticker revenue.

What Bymas says he is owed

Bymas's post lists four kinds of money, according to HLTV: missed salary, prize money, bonuses, and his share of the revenue from the team stickers of the IEM Cologne Major, whose sticker sale was still running. The Major, one of the championships sponsored by Valve, the publisher of the game, was played in Cologne from June 2 to 21 for a prize pool of US$1.25 million, and Team Falcons won it on June 21. He put the total at tens of thousands of dollars and gave no more precise figure.

He also said he was not the only one. To his knowledge, he wrote, several former Monte players and the coach are still owed substantial amounts, HLTV reported.

The player tied the dispute to his departure. He wrote that late payments had been a recurring problem that never changed, that this had broken his trust, and that re-signing would have meant committing to an organization the players no longer trusted, according to HLTV.

None of these points has been tested by a court, a league or a tournament organizer. They are the player's account.

Monte's answer

Monte replied twice. On X, its answer referred to a two-week delay in salary payments and said that the post read as if it had been approved by the player's agent, HLTV reported. In its statement to HLTV, the organization went further, point by point.

Monte's explanation for the delays points to money it was itself waiting for: payments due on transfers and from sponsors, which it says arrived late. It did not say which players were fined, for which breaches or for how much, in HLTV's account.

The two sides agree on one thing: salaries were paid late. They disagree on how late, on who is responsible and on how much, if anything, remains owed. Monte's answer on stickers gives no figures.

A video that came first

Bymas's post did not come out of nowhere. HLTV writes that it came minutes after Monte published a video on YouTube in which its chief executive, Dmytro Vovk, criticized Bymas, afro and AZUWU, and their agents, over the way the three players left for Luminosity.

In the video, according to HLTV, Vovk suggested that the players had kept the organization, and their teammate Gizmy, in the dark about their agreement with Luminosity while contract extension talks were going on. HLTV noted that the video did not mention unpaid wages or any other obligation to the players.

Gizmy, Monte's captain, had given his own account on X when the move was announced. HLTV reported on July 1 that he wrote that the core of the team told him after the Major that they were leaving, and that they had already signed before it.

How the Monte core left

The departure behind both statements was announced on July 1, 2026. Luminosity returned to Counter-Strike 2 that day with a roster built on four Monte players and the Brazilian captain lux, HLTV reported.

The four did not leave on the same terms. Bymas, afro and AZUWU joined on free transfers, because their Monte contracts had expired. Rainwaker, the fourth, had to be bought out of his contract, according to HLTV. A free transfer costs the new team no fee, while a buyout is the price a new team pays to end a contract early. HLTV also reported that Monte's management had tried to negotiate extensions with the three players before the Major, and that after Monte's elimination the players told the organization they intended to leave.

Gizmy did not follow them, and lux took his place as the team's captain.

How Major sticker money is shared

Sticker revenue is one of the four lines of the claim, and it is the one that works most differently from a salary.

At a Counter-Strike Major, Valve sells digital stickers carrying the logos of the teams and the autographs of their players, and shares part of the proceeds with them. According to Dot Esports, writing on July 23, 2026, about Valve's new system, teams receive a 50 percent share of the sticker pool. The tournament organizer takes 5 percent off the top, and the rest is divided among the teams according to each team's position in the Valve Regional Standings, the ranking Valve uses for invitations, and how far it advanced at the Major. The 50 percent share itself is not new, the outlet noted: what Valve changed is the way the pool is divided among teams.

The scale depends on the result. Dot Esports reported that a team knocked out in the first stage at Cologne earned about US$60,000 from stickers, or about US$120,000 counting the players' share. Teams that went further earned more, scaled by their ranking, according to the same report, which gave no figure for them.

Dot Esports set those figures against earlier Majors. Citing HLTV data relayed by Esports Insider, it put the average for an early exit at about US$600,000, and the average per team at the Paris Major of 2023 at about US$4.5 million.

The rule sets the share. It does not show whether the money in dispute here has been paid, and neither Bymas nor Monte has published a figure for it.

Benched at Luminosity two days earlier

Bymas's post came two days after a setback at his new team. On August 24, Luminosity announced that he had been benched, following two straight last-place finishes for its international roster, at the XSE Pro League in Guangzhou and at the Esports World Cup, HLTV reported.

The team moved quickly. On August 25, Luminosity signed yxngstxr from HEROIC to take his place, HLTV reported, and named a roster of Rainwaker, afro, lux, AZUWU and yxngstxr, with kakafu as coach and Bymas listed on the bench. The new player is due to make his debut at Roman Imperium Cup VIII, scheduled for September 10 to 13.

In his own post on that move, Bymas thanked the organization and wished the players well, according to HLTV. He wrote that he was disappointed not to have performed at the level he wanted in official matches lately, and that he would work to become the player he believes he can be.

His status at Luminosity, benched rather than released, is separate from his dispute with Monte. The claim concerns money he says Monte owes for the year he spent there.

Not the only case this month

The Monte dispute follows another one this month. On August 17, HLTV reported that the whole Counter-Strike roster of Passion UA had been let go, that the organization had been silent on social media since June 23, and that its players and staff are owed significant sums. HLTV added that the organization had ended its team's season early on May 18, and that several of its employees had announced on LinkedIn that they were looking for new jobs.

The two cases differ. At Passion UA, HLTV described an organization that had stopped communicating. Monte answered the same evening, conceded that salaries had been late and contested the rest.

For now, the matter between Bymas and Monte stands where the two statements left it. HLTV's report mentions no step by either side toward a court or any other body.

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