I understand what you are getting at, but just because what the owner did what was perfectly legal does not mean it was fair. ADWCTA and Merps fucked up and agreed to be paid less than they should. They have stated that their reason was that they were motivated more by passion than money. Now that HearthArena is a big success because of them, they are looking to actually be a part of HearthArena (in terms of equity) moving forward. This is completely normal and happens all the time in start-ups. Honestly, in terms of contribution alone, I have no doubt that they deserve more than 33% stake between them. Why should they stick around if they are clearly not respected as members of the organisation?

You should realise that the website is nothing special. The idea is nothing special. The algorithm is special and something that only a handful of people are capable of creating. ADWCTA and Merps are the USP of HearthArena. They drove its success by treating it like a full time job on top of their serious full time jobs. The website itself would probably have never even left the ground if it wasn't for the free advertising from the pair's stream and their networking with other pros. To me it is blindly obvious that they got fucked. You might be livid if one of your employees turned around and publicly called you out, but I would be even more livid in their situation. Besides, just like the owner was perfectly within his rights to cast his employees by the wayside, I am perfectly within my rights to stop going to his site. If you don't agree then feel free to keep going there - I'm not going to stop you.

However, despite feeling like the owner is being arrogant and greedy in this situation, that's not even the main reason I am going to stop using HearthArena. I fully believe ADWCTA when he says that no one else will be able to take over HearthArena's algorithm. For a start, very few have the same level of arena knowledge that they do (ADWCTA and Merps are confirmed top 20 players), but even if the owner finds someone that does, there is no way they are going to be able to maintain the algorithm in its current state because, to be honest, it's probably a completely chaotic, delicate mess that will be total crap by the time an expansion or two is released.