Call of Duty legend James ‘Clayster’ Eubanks has claimed that New York Subliners tried selling him to rival franchises in the 2022 CoD League season for a fee of up to $1m, meaning he was left playing in Challengers for the rest of the year with no other franchise willing to fork out the fees.
Clayster is one of the biggest names in CoD esports. A three-time world champion, he’s been competing for well over a decade and has earned his status as one of the GOATs of Call of Duty.
For that reason, his stock has long been incredibly high, as a dominant AR player and vocal leader capable of turning the tide and making any team capable of contending for championships.
Not only has his stock been high, but he’s also commanded some notable payouts in his time at the top, as he explained in a recent livestream — but the Subliners may have placed a slightly-too-hefty price tag on him when they dropped him during the Vanguard season.
As explained during a Valorant stream, Clayster said: “I got sold from eUnited to [Dallas] Empire for $250,000. I got sold from Empire to New York for what was going to be $400k … New York then tried to sell me for half a million to $1m.”
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Clay went on to say that he’s now a free agent, meaning that he’s “way cheaper” for any prospective teams that may want to bring him in for Modern Warfare 2.
He also mentioned that CDL players are entitled to 25% of their buyout fee, meaning he could have pocketed around $100k from his move to the Subliners, though he opted to waive 75% of his cut, so the New York team only had to pay $325k instead.
There have not yet been any reports regarding Clayster’s potential new team, though he likely has a number of teams at least enquiring. You can keep up with all of the confirmed roster changes in our 2023 CDL rostermania hub.