The esports project Clutchain, which signed the women’s roster Pigeons and a men’s team led by ScreaM and Nivera in spring 2026, has effectively ceased operations after just a few months. According to the players, the organization owes them more than €70,000 in unpaid salaries.
The situation was covered in detail by HLTV, which spoke with representatives of both rosters and Clutchain founder David Sacha. The parties offer different explanations for the conflict, but multiple sources confirm the unpaid salaries and termination of contracts.
Clutchain positioned itself not simply as an esports organization, but as a company built around a mobile application for Counter-Strike players.
Users could connect their FACEIT accounts, play CS, and earn in-app currency for completing tasks and their match results. The rewards they earned were intended to be used to claim prizes.
On April 2, Clutchain signed the women’s roster Pigeons, which included players from the former Imperial Valkyries lineup. Six days later, the company announced a French-speaking men’s team, with former Team Liquid player and two-time HLTV Top 20 member Adil “ScreaM” Benrlitom as its biggest star. His brother Nivera, as well as Kyojin, Python, and SHOGU, completed the roster.
According to HLTV, Clutchain founder Sacha proposed that ScreaM and Nivera refer to themselves as co-founders of the project. The idea was to more closely associate the well-known players with the brand following ScreaM’s return to Counter-Strike. However, they were not given any ownership stake in the company.
Sacha later confirmed to HLTV that none of the players owned a stake in Clutchain or held an executive position. According to him, the co-founder status was merely a proposal that was never legally formalized.
The problems began even before the teams were fully launched. French content creator Nyouz published a video questioning certain aspects of Clutchain’s operations and its application. Following that, much of the criticism on social media was directed not only at the company itself, but also at ScreaM and Nivera, who had become the project’s main public faces.
According to HLTV, the players asked Clutchain’s management to publicly respond to the allegations and explain the situation. The founder did not do so. After that, players from both rosters stopped actively promoting Clutchain, while ScreaM and Nivera removed the word co-founder from their profiles.
According to the players, organizational problems followed the dispute. Bootcamps and promotional shoots were canceled at the last minute, while communication between the teams and management deteriorated.
The situation became particularly difficult for the women’s roster. Pigeons traveled to Brazil for the Rainhas do Clutch LAN tournament even though, according to the team, they had already not received their May salaries. The financial problems only worsened after that.
According to Clutchain’s founder, the main issue was that the company’s investment in its esports rosters failed to deliver the expected results.
Sacha told HLTV that Clutchain spent more than €100,000 on the salaries of the two rosters, hoping to use the players’ popularity to attract users to the application.
However, by the summer, the platform had fewer than 30 active users per month.
The CEO believed that the players were not doing enough of the required promotional work. The players disagreed, claiming that the company effectively had no dedicated person responsible for content or coordinating promotional activities with the teams.
As a reminder, Inner Circle accused Benched Gods of using a radar hack and called on ESIC to investigate.