UPDATE – Excel Esports Co-Founder Perusing Legal Action for Wrongful Dismissal

The Excel Esports co-founder had been pursuing legal action against the company, now they’ve managed to settle.

The ongoing story of the co-founder of Excel esports has had a new development this week. It seems the co-founder and his former team have managed to settle and come to an agreement. This comes just a little while after it was made public that the Excel Esports co-founder perusing legal action was happening.

The co-founder left the company a little while ago. In the time since, it came to light that he was pursuing legal action for unfair dismissal. This latest news brings the saga to an end, in what looks like a decent settlement for all involved.

Update – Excel Esports Co-Founder Settles Legal Action

The planned employment tribunal to settle the unfair dismissal was due to take place this week. However, there’s been a new development. It now seems that Kieran Holmes-Derby and Excel Esports have reached an entirely separate settlement.

The hearing has not gone ahead. This is public knowledge as the parties have settled the case via arbitration. They went through the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service.

The two involved with the case have even issued a joint statement, rather than individual ones. This is what was said about the case and its conclusion.

“Both Kieran and Excel Esports are pleased that we’ve been able to find a solution to the reported case. We share a joint passion and ambition for Excel Esports and look forward to collaborating on its continued success.”

This statement doesn’t make clear what the settlement was. Specifically, if anyone received financial compensation for the unfair dismissal, however, they have managed to agree ahead of the case being tried in a tribunal.

Holmes-Darby’s case coming to a close will clear things up for followers of the org, which has had some problems since they parted ways with the founders of the org a little while ago.

Original Dispute

One of the co-founders of Excel esports left the company back in January. Kieran Holmes-Darby is no longer with the company. While the break between the founder and the esports org seemed smooth at the time, we’ve got a clearer picture a little while after. Thanks to some documents obtained by Jacob Wolf, we knew that things possibly didn’t come to an end as smoothly as thought. The Excel Esports co-founder is pursuing legal action against the company, reportedly for wrongful dismissal.

Excel Esports Co-Founder Perusing Legal Action

Excel Esports co-founder Kieran Holmes-Darby left Excel in January. This was while the org had climbed to an impressive position, with major teams involved in League of Legends, Fortnite, FIFA, and Valorant. On leaving the company, the co-founder originally said “I will no longer be an employee at Excel and will not be involved in the day-to-day operations of the brand”. It now seems the departure wasn’t entirely clean, though.

Holmes-Darby is perusing legal action against Excel Esports. He’s specifically looking at wrongful dismissal. We don’t have full details just yet, though. Under British media laws, the details of employment tribunal cases aren’t publicly available until a tribunal has heard the case.

The case is going to be Holmes-Darby against Excel Esports. It’s due to be held on October 11^th. That will be at the Central London Employment Tribunal. This information is out there as the case has reached the docket. A source provided by Jacob Wolf says it's over wrongful dismissal. Holmes-Darby, however, didn’t respond to the request for comments by Wolf.

CEO of Excel Esports did give a statement regarding the case, “A case has been filed by Kieran against EXCEL LEC Ltd”. He confirmed the case. However, he didn’t give much more information. They did say “it would not be appropriate for me to comment on the case at this stage.’

Excel Esports Co-Founder Leaving Org

Holmes-Darby originally left Excel back in January. The organization was founded initially by Holmes-Darby and his brother. He later served as CEO. However, he left that position in January 2020. He was replaced by a former CERO or Fanatic, while staying with the company for a longer period, serving a new role. Although, he eventually left in January 2022.

Since then, Holmes-Darby has become a part of Formula E. He came on board with the racing company as Gaming Director. Formula E has organized Esports series called Formula E: Accelerate. The first season of this was held between January and March 2021, with official teams participating. Talking about that new position at the time, Holmes-Darby said “For me, being able to bring my expertise into the sporting world is an absolute dream. Formula E are so incredibly well-placed to capitalize on the blending of the physical and digital worlds and I am thrilled to be able to bring gamified experiences to motorsport fans!”.

It was a bit of a jump from his past experience, but definitely, a fresh change compared to running an esports org.  Even if the Excel Esports co-founder perusing legal action now complicates how he left the prior role.

Excel Esports

The org will defend itself against the Excel Esports co-founder perusing legal action. It’s too early to tell how this will affect them. Like suffering any backlash. Especially if it is found that they were unfair in their treatment and dismissal of employees, including even a co-founder of the org.

Excel Esports has active teams in quite a few games. Including League of Legends. Their LoL team joined the in 2018, taking part in the LEC 2019 Spring Split. Outside of their LoL team, the org has competed in Fortnite, Valorant, and more, with even a World of Warcraft squad having competed for the team.

Concluding the case with their co-founder leaves the org free to focus on esports. It's unfortunate that it leads to legal action. However, it seems like all parties are satisfied with the outcome without having to move through to a full tribunal.