Passion UA on the Brink of Liquidation: Players and Staff Owed Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars

Passion UA on the Brink of Liquidation: Players and Staff Owed Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars

The Ukrainian organization Passion UA , founded with the involvement of Oleksandr Zinchenko, is on the brink of closure. According to HLTV, the organization may owe former players and coaching staff between $500,000 to $600,000, with a significant portion related to sticker payments after the PGL Major Budapest 2025.

In recent months, Passion UA has effectively ceased operations: the Counter-Strike roster was disbanded, employees began seeking new jobs, and the organization has not posted news on social media since June. Several sources expect the company might file for liquidation.

From a promising Ukrainian project to a financial crisis

Passion UA emerged in 2023 as an ambitious Ukrainian esports project. One of the main faces of the organization was footballer Oleksandr Zinchenko, who expressed a desire to build a world-class Ukrainian esports organization.

Initially, Passion UA focused on Ukrainian players. This roster managed to qualify for the European RMR for PGL Major Shanghai 2024, defeating Virtus.pro , Spirit , and Astralis . However, by 2025, the organization began gradually changing its development direction.

The most expensive move — signing the core of Complexity

In August 2025, Passion UA acquired four players from Complexity — JT , hallzerk , Grim , and nicx . Along with them, coach T.c joined the team, with Munstur becoming his assistant.

This transfer radically changed the organization's model. Previously built around Ukrainian players, the company now had an international roster with much higher expenses. According to sources, from this point, the project's profitability ceased to be a priority.

From this point, profitability took a back seat. People thought it would be a good investment. And it would have been if everything had been done correctly.

With the acquisition of the roster, salaries, tournament expenses, accommodation, and transfers increased. Additionally, Passion UA had to pay Complexity a significant amount for the player transfer.

The team reached the Major, but problems only accumulated

Despite financial difficulties, the team's sports results were strong enough. Passion UA managed to qualify for the PGL Major Budapest 2025, reaching the third stage of the tournament. However, it was during this period, according to sources, that serious payment issues began.

Initially, salaries were mostly on time, but later became irregular. Prize money and sticker revenue remained separate issues. The organization even promised each of the five players and two coaches a Rolex if the team reached Stage 2 of the Major. Passion UA fulfilled the sports condition, but after the tournament, management never revisited the issue of the watches.

Passion UA was supposed to receive about $618,000 from stickers

The biggest problem became the payments from the sale of digital items from the PGL Major Budapest. According to estimates provided in the material, Passion UA earned approximately $618,000 from team digital items after the Major performance. However, players and coaches never received their share of these funds.

According to two sources, Passion UA CEO Artemijs Ryabovs explained the delay by stating the organization was opening a new bank account in Dubai to receive funds from the stickers. This was allegedly part of a plan to transfer the organization's operations from the UK.

Meanwhile, as HLTV notes, Valve did not respond to several inquiries regarding the payment situation.