Kronten Jonathan GodLike benching: FIR filed, spy claim

GodLike Esports co-owner Kronten has gone back over the Jonathan GodLike exit, saying on a live stream on 7 November that the organisation's management never benched the player. The stream, on his Kronten Gaming YouTube channel, was titled "Truth can't be hidden | hard, but its time to talk", went live at 8:03 pm IST and ran 101 minutes. By Sunday it had passed 455,000 views.

What Kronten said on stream

In clips that spread on X, Kronten — Chetan Chandgude — said GodLike's management had no role in the decision and that Jonathan had planned his move away from the org well in advance. Viewers who posted the clips summarised his account the same way, saying Jonathan and the people around him had planned the exit together in Goa.

About six minutes in, he called the bench story "completely false", said GodLike "did not bench anyone" and described the episode as "part of a plan". Later he swore on Mahakal that management had "no role" in it. He claimed the player had a shoot booked on the day he sat out, and that the idea was for Godz to play in his place.

More than 20,000 people were watching live by around 9:30 pm IST.

Kronten also spoke about Spower, who stayed at GodLike after Jonathan left. Viewers posting clips said he praised Spower for turning down an offer to leave. He said GodLike kept paying its BGMI squad full salaries through the 2022 ban.

Kronten never said Jonathan's name in the broadcast. The bench at BGIS 2026 and the timing of the exit he described match Jonathan's departure, and viewers in the live chat discussed it on that basis.

The FIR, the manager he called a spy, and Hades

Kronten referred to legal action three times. Around 16 minutes in, he said he had looked into Hades's information and then "even filed an FIR". At 32 minutes he said he had known about the plan for "two to three months" and that "even an FIR is registered". Later he said he filed a case only after collecting more evidence of his own.

• He did not say against whom the FIR was filed, at which police station, or what it alleges, and he did not show a copy.
• He said he was "legally bound" not to show proof, had shared only "10 to 15 percent" of what he knows, and promised the material would become "public data" within about 20 days.
• No complaint, notice or FIR has been publicly confirmed with a document by either side.

Kronten said his first hint that something was wrong came from Hades, who had left India to work and repay money he owed. According to Kronten, Hades reached co-owner Amar while the bench rumours were spreading, Amar pulled Kronten into the call, and Hades sent screenshots, call logs and details of conference calls along with word that a plan to leave GodLike had been made during a trip to Goa. Hades had been due to join that trip but skipped it, and he asked Kronten to record the call.

Kronten said he had given Hades around ₹10 to 15 lakh when Hades was in financial trouble and does not want it back. He said Hades was ready to return to India and back his account in public, but blocked him before coming back and later told him on a call that he had found a job. Near the end of the stream, Kronten asked fans not to send Hades any hate and said his door remained open.

The harshest words were for an unnamed GodLike manager, described as one of Kronten's two closest friends, who he claimed had worked "as a spy" since 2024, passing on details of GodLike's plans and of Kronten's own life. He said the manager denied any link "until the end", and that he grew suspicious when the manager posted about a new car and got congratulations from people he claimed not to speak to. The manager was not named, which has left viewers guessing in public.

Kronten also put numbers to the player's place in the company for the first time. He claimed the player held "almost one-third of GodLike" on paper, more than co-owner Amar, and that his salary was ₹80,000 a month when he first joined. He argued that anyone with that stake should have left "legally, in good faith", after clearing the accounts and books as their agreement required.

Two further claims reach back before BGIS. Kronten said he has a recording of an early-morning call from around Christmas last year in which he was allegedly pressed to split things "50-50", which he will play "when the time comes", and that he offered to step aside entirely rather than live with the stress. He said the player had not come to the bootcamp for eight to nine months before BGIS, and that his "I'm leaving" message arrived around 28 February, during the qualifiers.

The Goa claim is Kronten's account. Neither Jonathan nor Team Apex Gaming had responded publicly by the time of the stream, and neither has since. On Saturday, TAG announced an EA FC Mobile duo and teased a chess signing, while GodLike's account said nothing about the stream.

How the Jonathan GodLike exit actually ran

Jonathan joined GodLike in August 2021 with the former TSM roster and spent more than four years as the face of the org.

The break came on 16 March 2026, when he sat out Day 1 of the BGIS 2026 Survival Stage in Hyderabad. GodLike fielded Manya, Admino, Spower and Godz and topped the standings that day. Captain Manya said afterwards the call was purely strategic, and Jonathan left the venue on 17 March for a shoot in Mumbai.

Jonathan returned for the Grand Finals in Chennai from 27 to 29 March, where GodLike finished fifth. He told fans on Instagram that "very new changes and crazy things" were coming, and confirmed on a livestream in early April that he was leaving. On 7 April, Kronten said Jonathan had been making the decision "for the past three to four months" and had shared his future plans during BGIS 2026. TalkEsport has reported that GodLike's "higher ups" knew about the plans "around November 2025", that the players were told in January 2026 that BGIS would be their last event together, and that the decision "didn't take place post Jonathan getting benched".

Jonathan launched Team Apex Gaming on 12 April 2026. In his TAG launch video he presented the move as ambition rather than grievance: "A whole community that has given me so much, to represent them globally, I had to grow more." His latest YouTube upload went live on Saturday evening and does not mention the stream.

Where the accounts differ

The versions of events overlap more than the online reaction suggests. Both sides have described the GodLike BGIS 2026 benching as a team decision rather than a punishment, and both Kronten and Spower said in April that Jonathan's plans were known before BGIS ended.

The dispute is over motive, and over who shaped the "benched" story fans believed. Kronten now says it was used to put GodLike in a bad light; Jonathan's side has not given its version of the Goa claim, the stake, or the alleged spy.

In his March comments, Jonathan framed the benching as his own choice, made with the team's best interest in mind.

The week before the stream

The stream came two days after a row involving TAG, when former GodLike figure Hades said he was "guilty" over unpaid loans — an allegation that first surfaced in December 2025 — and confirmed he had worked on projects with Jonathan's organisation. On the afternoon of 7 November, hours before Kronten went live, Hades posted a longer public apology to the people he said he had let down. On 5 November, the day the row broke, Kronten posted two words on X: "All politics".

Before Kronten went live, a message from an admin of the TAG fan community "ON TOP ARMY" was circulating on X asking supporters to stay calm. It asked them to ignore any mention or dragging of TAG into a discussion, and warned against personally targeting anyone, using morphed images or doing anything that could lead to cyber complaints or legal action.

None of Kronten's claims has been independently verified, and no document behind them has been shown publicly.