Report Reveals Hamster Kombat Faces Legal Action From Early Investors

Hamster Kombat, the Telegram tap-to-earn gaming sensation, is facing legal woes in Russia stemming from conflicts between its alleged creator, Eduard Gurinovich, and one of its early investors, Ad.ru, an IT holding company. According to reports from Lenta.ru, a popular Russian online newspaper, Gurinovich created Hamster Kombat using a company named Arenum, of which Ad.ru owns 25%.

Hamster Kombat Faces Legal Actions From Alleged Early Investors

Hamster Kombat, the tap-to-earn game that has garnered support from over 300 million users, is embroiled in a legal fight that involves its alleged creator Eduard Gurinovich, and one of its first angel investors, Ad.ru, an IT holding company.

According to a now-deleted article published by Lenta.ru, a popular Russian online newspaper, Gurinovich produced Hamster Kombat using Arenum, a company in which Ad.ru owned 25%, having invested $600,000. Arenum was allegedly pitched to Ad.ru in 2020, a portal destined to offer games and esports to its visitors. However, funding dried by 2021, and Arenum had to resort to an initial token offering to continue working towards this goal, raising $10 million.

Nonetheless, the money was not shared with investors. The company kept working on its portal for two years having only shared reports with Ad.ru. Then, in 2024, the article details that the company launched Hamster Kombat, getting instant attention and acclaim.

Ad.ru CEO Anton Gorshkov told Lenta.ru that while Gurinovich acknowledged its participation in the Hamster Kombat project, he denied this relation later. Gorshkov stated:

At first, he said, don’t worry, by autumn there will be enough money for everyone. And then suddenly: You have nothing to do with the project. Yes, we used a team, but the name is different.

The relationship between Arenum and Hamster Kombat was confirmed in documents reviewed by the newspaper, with a corporate email from Arenum being used to register the game’s domain. The email was ap@arenum.games, reportedly corresponding to Alexander Pasechnik, Arenum’s co-founder.

Gorshov stated that Ad.ru would take this conflict to court to find a reasonable solution to this controversy. “We have filed a pre-trial claim and naturally want to seek justice and defend our interests within the framework of the law, within the framework of the court,” he declared.

Almost nothing had been known about Hamster Kombat’s founders before, as they decided to remain anonymous in an interview given to crypto media in July. Also, the team had reported having rejected numerous offers from venture capital firms to invest in the game but did not disclose their links with Ad.ru or any other angel investors.

The project is set to release an airdrop in the future, and it is still unclear if this might cause a delay or even the cancellation of this distribution event.