Disclaimer: I am by no means an expert on some of the following topics. I am not a legal professional; while I have worked in the legal world for some time and have spoken with many lawyers, the following is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.

So you have been offered a contract from an eSports organization. You don't have much experience with this and really don't know what to do. People have been signing all the time recently, but how do you know if you are getting a good deal or not? You certainly don't want to sign your life away. Hopefully, I can help you. As mentioned: I am not a lawyer, I have had lots of dealings in the legal world (where I got a ton of advice myself), and I have a huge interest in eSports, especially the money behind it. This leads me into my first piece of advice.

Talk to a lawyer or legal professional.

There is a reason lawyers exist: you pay them some money upfront to prevent paying lots of money later. A lawyer can help you understand a contract offered to you. Fees can range from free to several thousand dollars. For our eSports contract (which probably doesn't require a ton of research or explanation) I think the most you can expect to pay is around $150 to $300. A lawyer will look at the contract and explain what it means for you and your future. They understand the legal mumbo-jumbo so you don't have to. They can tell you what a non-compete clause is and how long yours is for. They can tell you how much you will actually be getting from the organization monetarily—these numbers are sometimes obfuscated by shady organizations so you don't know your rights. Paying some money upfront to a lawyer will potentially prevent you from paying a lot more money down the line when you want to break your contract because you found out your terms were awful. Some places will give you free legal advice when you buy a hot dog and some will charge an arm and a leg just to say hello; be smart and do some research on a law firm before you commit to paying and remember you get what you pay for usually.

Remember there are shady organizations, they do exist.

Some organizations are nothing but money laundering schemes designed to hide money from the government. I can't give you a list of every single organization that is suspected of being a laundering front, but remember to do some research into the organization. Find out who the owners are. Was the owner arrested 15 years ago on drug charges? Might not be a good idea to engage with him. Where do they get their money from? Do they have venture capital support or maybe a lot of really good sponsorships? These are legit sources of money. Some of these organizations will offer you the world because they plan on just getting that money back anyway, you are just a cost of "cleaning" their money.

Not all organizations have illegal ties, but some do want to take advantage of you. All the contract language is firmly in their favor. They offer under-market deals just because you don't know better. They may lock you into a 4-year contract that ultimately pays you nothing, and if Pokemon explodes as an e-sport they reap all the benefits while you continue working for raviolis. This all ties into the first point I made earlier: a lawyer will be able to see through these contracts aiming to take advantage of you. These shady organizations prey on people not doing research and not knowing what these contracts mean. Be informed and this should not happen to you.

Now before I say anymore, let me show you what a good contract looks like. I'm not saying these terms are necessarily good—that's up to the person signing the contract to decide, but the legal terms are pretty solid. Keep that contract in mind for some of my following points.

--contract here--

Make sure obligations for you and the organization are in the contract.

The previous contract pretty clearly states what the organization expects from the player and vice versa. I've seen contracts that just say something along the lines of "the player plays for us" and that was the extent of the obligation. That isn't good enough—you need to know what you're supposed to do and what they're supposed to do. While personally I think the company's obligations are a little vague and ambiguous, they are there and combined with the rest of the contract they actually do a decent job of telling you what the company is supposed to do. It is very important that your duties to the organization are there in case they accuse you of breaching the contract because you weren't aware of your obligations. Slightly confusing, but just make sure you know what you can and can't do while being a representative of the organization.

Make sure compensation is clearly stated.

Don't accept vague promises of money when the company can afford it. The previous contract very clearly states how much the player will be getting and when. It even has a section for expenses that the player might incur and states they will be reimbursed up to a certain amount without approval and more with approval. The contract clearly states how much money the player gets directly from the organization, how much prize money the player keeps, and how much money from streaming and donations the player keeps. While in the previous contract the player is keeping the competition and stream money, this isn't always the case. Some organizations want a cut of player earned money, and once again that is up to the person signing. Make sure the monetary terms work for you.

Be very wary of contracts that promise to pay you "when financially able". Either they don't have money, period, to pay you, or if they do they just plan on never paying you ever. You want exact figures of compensation, not promises.

Make sure the termination, non-compete, and renew clauses are all reasonable.

Auto-termination clauses are pretty common and usually are there to protect the company's investment in you. Some auto-termination reasons include illegal activity or failure of the company to pay the player within prescribed deadlines. Other termination reasons may include mutual agreement to terminate or bankruptcy of the organization. These are all relatively basic and are included in most contracts; just make sure they are reasonable and don't auto-terminate you for not getting first place at a tournament (as an example).

Non-compete clauses seem kind of rare in the e-sports world, but they do exist. I would be wary of non-compete clauses for the simple fact they tie you up with no opportunity to resign with another organization for a period of time after the contract is up. If there is a non-compete clause make sure the time frame is reasonable for you—6 months is a long time, and in an ever-growing and changing e-sports environment that could mean the difference between a chance at a large contract and nothing.

Renewal clauses can be a double-edged sword. They can keep you in a comfortable relationship for a long time, but if you're in a bad one or wish to renegotiate it can lead to some trouble for you. Some contracts will auto-renew without proper notice to terminate: generally those terms are thrown into bad contracts by bad companies to keep you locked in for a long time. Mutually renewing the contract with your organization is great, but auto-renewing because you didn't give the organization notice that you didn't want to continue under their banner 3 months ago is not.

Sometimes the sponsorship is in name only.

In other words, there is no real "benefit" to either party. You put their name on your stream and wear their shirt to events and they give you some money up front or nothing at all. Sometimes, these don't really involve contracts and are just verbal agreements. Ultimately, it is up to you if you want to agree with this. (But let's be real here: there isn't really anything to be gained from these types of deals. You may feel like there is some prestige behind these kinds of deals, but being sponsored doesn't make you a better player and may actually hinder real organizations from approaching you. Make sure this is something you actually want before agreeing to it.)

Don't get pressured into a deal.

If an organization is saying things like "this deal won't last" or "the contract offer goes off the table in x amount of time" they are potentially trying to lock you into a bad deal. Much like a car salesman, they want to seal the deal before you realize you have better options. They prey on the uninformed player to lock them into poor deals that benefit primarily them. Tell them you need time to look over the contract and discuss it. There is no reason for a legitimate organization to pressure you into a deal with threats of timetables.

Non-disclosure agreements exist.

I don't know the best information to give regarding NDAs. They exist to hide information from the public at large and usually for good reason. They can be used for bad though—by making sure you can't talk about the terms of your deal, you may not realize you are getting a bad deal. Try not to sign an NDA prior to signing with the organization—you need to discuss contract offers with your lawyer and other advisors.

Make sure the organization is Pokemon brand appropriate.

This is a major one. TPCi will not like vulgar, pornographic, violent, or other mature imagery present at their events. This will limit your organization's exposure and will likely upset them greatly if they are unaware of TPCi standards. Remember these tournaments are put on by TPCi and they ultimately decide if what you're doing is okay or not; they can limit your participation or straight up remove you. Wearing a jersey with guns and knives might be fine for a CS:GO team, but will definitely not fly at a Pokemon event. Make sure you can comply with all TPCi rules and regulations even beyond jerseys and such. TPCi is the ruling body of VGC and they control your fate at the end of the day.

In a perfect world the best players get the best contracts offered by the best organizations, but in the world we live in there are plenty of issues surrounding e-sports and these perfect contracts may not always exist. There is no perfect contract, and you should be prepared to negotiate with organizations to better the terms for you. If I had only one piece of advice, it'd be what I started with: talk to a laywer. Beyond just that, though, talk to people who are experienced in eSports, experienced with the organization approaching you, and/or experienced with life in general. Signing a contract is a big life step and needs to be researched and discussed with the right people. Get all the information you can get before committing; don't let a shady organization pressure you by saying a deal won't last. Be careful and be prepared to say no to an organization if it doesn't feel right—being sponsored doesn't automatically make you a better player.