SK Gaming have wielded the axe down upon their Call of Duty 4 squad and the harsh realities of being involved with a pro-gaming team have come to light. MYM are rumoured to be next under the guillotine unless they can prove themselves worthy at The Experience this weekend and it all leaves a very sour taste in the mouth for onlookers.

Having heard of SK's fate I was going to write this column yesterday ranting and raving about how short sighted it was, but the longer I waited the louder another voice in my head became that perhaps agrees with SK. With this writer clearly suffering from schizophrenia tell me which voice is right?

Generically an average pro gamer will earn around 1100 Euro a month from their salary with a squad (typically a G7 squad). Thats 5 players at 5500 Euro, minus all associated costs of bootcamps and trips. In 6 months that amounts to 30,000 Euro in salary alone. 6 months being the timeframe that SK.CoD4 were there. Now in the same period that SK's CoD4 team were there, they achieved as little as SK's CS team without the massive cost. So why apply the "they've not lived up to our expectations" rule on CoD only? Because whilst I limit my comparison to 6 months, the reality is SK haven't been a force in CS for quite a while. Extend that across to their recent Quake 3 additions, and well the logic for signing the Americans Zero4 and Rapha escapes me. I can only imagine it was Carmac's rose tinted glasses that persuaded them to make the signature (though I'll concede the costs associated to them will be much lower). Lets also not forget that SK had just TWO opportunities to prove themselves, CDC4 and AEF were their only major LAN events whilst their competition have all been much better rehearsed for such a big stage. Even from the back end of CoD2, the 'champion' status was changing hands on an event by event basis and it has continued in CoD4, so to expect SK to deliver in just 2 attempts was crazy.

However there's a lot more to a squad's worth than just results, something SK's CS team have in abundance. The star power that generates traffic is there too, something a German team should have generated for SK. Fnatic and Dignitas are proof as to what CoD teams can do for your site. Fnatic's CoD4 fragmovie starring leader mint was their videostreaming partner, wipido's, biggest traffic generator to date. From a 'how to keep a partner happy' perspective, Their CoD4 team delivered for them. However did SK make such an attempt? Well sort of, but they did it wrong. SK hired evan to lead their Call of Duty section, and whilst his enthusiasm has won me over, his credentials are weak. His opinion isn't respected within the scene and he has been guilty of inaccuracies, and whilst Gotfrag's CoD downfall has clearly left SK a golden opportunity to pickup a lot of traffic, it hasn't and probably wont ever recover to rival TeK-9 in a way sk's rival, Gotfrag, did.

The other voice however says, if I'm TheSlash (SK's leader) and I'm investing any of my own money and not seeing a return then I'm going to want to know why, I have a reputation to uphold. The 6 Devils were given a golden opportunity and responsibility to lead the Call of Duty 4 scene into its golden age. What did they do with that? Well they blundered it away, their preparation for AEF should have been much better. If you're only focusing on one event then you've got to deliver, you are SK, you are the biggest organisation out there and you must make the most of your opportunity.

To use the mint example against the SK CoD4 team, mint loves fnatic and works hard to promote it and its endeavors. Whilst it may only be a minor thing, the fnatic side could be seen all named as their sides 5 sponsors at AEF. The team and general manager, Joe Miller, get on like a newly wed couple. They are proud and that pride see's them out playing for their brand, I can remember chatting to mint a while back and he stated, 'if we dont do well here then I have to consider what I'm doing because a team like fnatic deserve the best'. Can you say the same of SK? No.

So which voice is right? With great power comes great responsibility, it was true in Spiderman and its true today. Now that Call of Duty 4 is being picked up by the likes of SK and MYM (as the same reasoning could be applied to MYM) are involved they're going to want their monies worth otherwise they will be more than to dump the players & teams back into the second tier of Multigaming Clan's that they poached them from.