GodLike Esports co-owner Kronten has reopened the story of Jonathan’s exit, telling viewers on a live stream on 7 November that the “benched” narrative around the split was never what it seemed. Kronten, whose real name is Chetan Chandgude, went live on his Kronten Gaming YouTube channel at 8:03 pm IST under the title “Truth can’t be hidden | hard, but its time to talk”.
According to clips from the stream shared widely on X, he said GodLike’s management never benched Jonathan and that Jonathan had planned his move away from the organisation well in advance. More than 20,000 people were watching the stream live by around 9:30 pm IST, and neither Jonathan nor Team Apex Gaming had responded publicly by then.
To understand why the stream has caused such a stir, it helps to go back to March, when Jonathan’s last weeks at GodLike began. What happened at BGIS 2026 has been told several different ways since then, by Jonathan, by GodLike’s co-owners and by their players. Most of those accounts are already on the record, and read together they explain where today’s dispute really lies.
How Jonathan’s GodLike exit unfolded, from the BGIS bench to TAG
Jonathan joined GodLike in August 2021 as part of the former TSM roster, and he spent more than four years as the face of the organisation. His first real break with that role 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 instead, and the team topped the standings that day. Captain Manya said afterwards that the decision was purely strategic, and on 17 March Jonathan left the venue for a shoot in Mumbai.
GodLike’s co-owners spoke publicly within days of the benching. Co-owner Amar first called the rumours “baseless” and said the team still dreamed of an official trophy with Jonathan, as we reported at the time. A few days later, he described the episode as “the situation” of “Jonathan getting benched”, and said a poor final day of the semi-finals was not the fault of any single player. Jonathan, for his part, said on a stream with ZGod that he had made the benching decision himself, with the team’s best interest in mind.
Jonathan returned for the Grand Finals in Chennai from 27 to 29 March, where GodLike finished fifth. He then told fans on Instagram that “very new changes and crazy things” were coming, and he confirmed on a livestream in early April that he was leaving GodLike. On 7 April, Kronten said Jonathan had been making the decision “for the past three to four months”, and that Jonathan had shared his future plans with him during BGIS 2026.
Spower added his own account on the same day. According to a transcription of his comments shared on X, he said GodLike’s “higher ups” knew about Jonathan’s plans “around November 2025”. The players, he added, were told in January 2026 that BGIS would be their last event together. He also said the decision “didn’t take place post Jonathan getting benched”. Five days later, on 12 April, Jonathan launched Team Apex Gaming.
What Kronten said about Jonathan on his live stream
Kronten’s stream went much further than his comments in April. In clips that spread quickly on X, viewers said he told his audience that the benching story had been used to put GodLike in a bad light. Several of those viewers summarised his claim in the same way, saying that management had no role in the decision and that Jonathan and the people around him had planned the exit together in Goa. TalkEsport has not been able to independently verify those claims, and they remain Kronten’s account of events.
He also spoke at length about Spower, who stayed with GodLike after Jonathan left. Viewers posting clips said Kronten praised the player for turning down an offer to leave, and fans in the stream’s live chat quickly began asking about other players who had left GodLike. The stream also came two days after the latest row involving TAG, when former GodLike figure Hades admitted he was “guilty” over unpaid loans and confirmed he had worked on projects with Jonathan’s organisation. On 5 November, the day that row broke, Kronten posted just two words on X: “All politics”.
The tension was building before the stream even began. Before Kronten went live, a message from an admin of the TAG fan community “ON TOP ARMY” began circulating on X, asking supporters to stay calm. “If TAG is mentioned or dragged into any discussion, try to ignore it as much as possible,” the message said. It also warned fans not to “personally target anyone, use morphed images or engage in anything that could lead to cyber complaints or legal action”.
What Jonathan and TAG have said, and what is still unresolved
In the statements TalkEsport has reviewed, Jonathan has not blamed GodLike’s management for his exit. His March comments framed the benching as his own choice, and his TAG launch video 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,” he said in that video. He has not addressed Kronten’s new claims, and his YouTube channel showed no live stream on Saturday night.
That leaves two accounts that overlap more than the reaction online suggests. Both sides have described the Day 1 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 real dispute is about motive, and about who shaped the “benched” story that many fans believed. Kronten now says it was used against GodLike, while Jonathan’s side has not yet given its version of the Goa claim.
No legal complaint, notice or FIR has been publicly confirmed by either side, despite the fan community’s warning. Team Apex Gaming spent Saturday announcing an EA FC Mobile duo and teasing a chess signing, while GodLike’s official account had posted nothing about the stream. Kronten’s stream was still live on YouTube at 9:30 pm IST, almost 90 minutes after it began.
