I haven't rushed to pile on Mission, because it doesn't involve me, and I haven't wanted to rush to judgement before he had his say.
But here are some initial thoughts. Wasn't Mission fairly recently working as a night auditor at a small rural motel? (something like that). That doesn't scream a guy who has a lot of "extra" disposable money to me. So why he would be funding the prize money for a contest doesn't make sense to me. Maybe it is something he enjoyed.
That said, reneging, and that is what this has been so far, is a bad quality. But again, I would like to hear from him what was up with that. Maybe the contests ending in February, when Christmas spending bills are coming due wasn't good timing for him. Maybe something else required his money at that particular time. But now 3 months later, it certainly isn't a good look.
I would think if there was something in his life that would require him to delay on paying, but he still intended to pay, he would have contacted someone, maybe Shackleford. There probably would have been several members at WoV that would have been willing to help him out.
All that said, and all that on Mission, this isn't a good look for WoV and the Casino Bonus group either. While Mike nor the LCB group sponsors that contest, it is billed as the WoV football contest, so again, I would have thought someone would have had a desire to step in and lend some money or whatnot to avoid this really bad look for the forum.
Just some thoughts on the matter.
I always liked Mission, even though I sometimes disagreed with him and hope he is alright.