The World Team Championship is dealing with a very public dispute involving one of its founders, Isik Belul.
At first glance, the argument looks like another hobby-event personality clash. However, the underlying story involves money, governance, business relationships, and the troubled 2025 event in Leoben. More importantly, several different disagreements appear to have accumulated before the working relationship finally collapsed. This summary is the result on analyzing recent posts made by the WTC team so please bear in mind this is just one side of the story.
How a Successful Warhammer Event Ended Up With a Serious Leadership Split
The WTC began in 2019 as a community-run successor to the old ETC format. Its first event finally happened in 2022 after COVID delays. Since then, attendance has reportedly grown from roughly 370 people to around 1,600 across multiple games. That growth also created a much larger organization built largely around volunteers rather than full-time event staff. After co-founder Neil stepped back, day-to-day leadership increasingly fell to Isik and Tom. However, the remaining organizers say disagreements over responsibilities, priorities, and decision-making became increasingly difficult to resolve.
One major issue involved Isik’s simultaneous role with Weyland Yutani, a commercial supplier to the WTC. The WTC reportedly purchased more than €26,000 of terrain and mats through that company. The organizers acknowledge the relationship brought genuine value, including better terrain and production standards. Nevertheless, they believed clearer boundaries were needed whenever WTC purchasing decisions could also benefit Isik’s business. Similar disagreements emerged around sponsorships, licensing, other projects, and the proposed creation of an Austrian company.
That company was intended to give the growing event a proper legal structure. However, the organizers could not agree on ownership, responsibilities, or governance. A proposed 10% shareholding for a lawyer also raised concerns among other team members. By 2026, several organizers reportedly felt they could no longer continue working with Isik.
The eventual vote to separate therefore appears to have followed years of accumulated friction rather than one explosive argument. WTC leadership lists conflicts of interest, accountability, teamwork, trust, and interpersonal conduct among its reasons. Those are serious allegations, but they remain the WTC’s characterization of a disputed relationship.
Why the Leoben Finances Became the Breaking Point
The 2025 move from Mechelen to Leoben sits at the center of the financial dispute. Leoben initially looked extremely attractive because venue costs appeared dramatically lower. Early projections suggested the event might generate roughly €75,000 to €125,000 in surplus. However, those projections depended on several assumptions that did not survive contact with reality.
Kill Team and X-Wing communities largely rejected Leoben, so their events moved to Belgium. The WTC disputes claims that this move caused the overall loss. Its financial breakdown says stronger sales elsewhere largely compensated for those missing ticket revenues. Instead, several smaller problems piled on top of one another. Warmaster attendance fell roughly 130 players below projections, creating an estimated €10,820 shortfall. Planned Age of Sigmar and painting events never happened, representing another projected €25,850 gap. Merchandise sales missed expectations by roughly €7,500.
Meanwhile, €18,000 of expected secondary hotel income never materialized. Another €16,250 in anticipated subsidies also disappeared. Costs moved in the opposite direction. Hotels came in about €15,000 above expectations, while venue-related expenses exceeded projections by roughly €13,645. That figure included approximately €7,500 connected to air conditioning. Furthermore, previously unbudgeted taxes added roughly €9,900. Lunches cost around €29,000 because food had been incorporated into tickets.
The bar became another major point of contention. Early planning had assumed substantial bar revenue, but those profits ultimately remained with the venue. On the gross figures presented, income reached about €218,000 against roughly €238,000 in expenses. That implies a shortfall near €20,000, although tax treatment complicates any simple comparison. The bigger issue for the organizers appears to be communication rather than the existence of a loss itself. They say detailed financial information arrived too late for the wider team to react. They also question why some commitments were not reduced once side-event attendance problems became obvious.
Another point of friction involved €3,500 paid for leftover merchandise inventory. The organizers argue WTC funds had originally financed that stock, effectively creating a double-payment concern.
What Happens to the WTC Now?
Despite the controversy, the WTC says it remains financially viable and has maintained positive balances outside its startup year and Leoben. It also rejects claims that 40K subsidizes Kill Team or X-Wing. For example, those systems reportedly generated around €27,500 in 2026 ticket revenue. Prize and trophy spending was also relatively modest across all three games.
Going forward, the organizers plan a more structured process for evaluating future host venues with the Captains Council. They also acknowledge that previous oversight and decision-making were not always robust enough.
Overall, this looks less like one scandal and more like several organizational problems colliding at once. Rapid growth exposed weak governance, while Leoben exposed weaknesses in budgeting and financial communication. Meanwhile, overlapping business interests made existing trust problems considerably harder to manage. The WTC has now publicly accepted that mistakes were made and promises stronger oversight. However, this remains one side of a contentious breakup. WTC leadership explicitly disputes Isik’s account, so the personal allegations should not be treated as independently proven facts.
