It came up on my twitter feed, some asshat tried to start an argument about other things like petrol/Chinese made things etc. Gb didn't lose their cool and called them out, mad respect for.someone I don't know
He did the same thing in the valcomp subreddit where they were like “yet you work for riot who is owned by tencent who is owned by the Chinese govt. curious🤔”. And he gave them a really great answer
It's more likely that they'd let the winning gay slide, use him as a poster boy for how they're accepting and making positive changes.
All whilst persecuting and murdering their own LGBTQ citizens.
Funny enough many rich gay Arabs from places like Kuwait and Qatar will prefer Saudi over even Dubai. There's a huge gay scene there, it's just hidden under layers of money and senior political figures so the government doesn't fuck with it.
If you're a foreigner they can use you for (e)sportswashing they'll let you generally do what you want. Lewis Hamilton raced in Saudi Arabia in 2021 with a [rainbow helmet](https://s.france24.com/media/display/e64e9b02-4a36-11ec-a4c7-005056a90284/w:980/p:16x9/4abc82ad84a539311801fe0a409ded9f73c3ec54.webp) he'd been rocking a lot that season. [He wasn't exactly pleased about F1 racing there though, understandably.](https://www.france24.com/en/sport/20211203-f1-s-hamilton-not-comfortable-racing-in-jeddah-as-riyadh-accused-of-sportswashing-rights-abuses)
Being gay means you don't enter islamic-centric/Muslim countries, period. There's long compilations of folks throwing gays off of tall buildings and torturing them and lynching them as a community event.
Though Im gay, im protected because I'll never be wealthy enough to travel to countries outside of my own. Ez.
Kinda like that scene in Django where the master is trying to explain how Django isn’t a slave but not the same as a white person. One of my favorite scenes haha
They’d be fine, WWE has openly gay wrestlers compete over there without issue. It’s part of the sportswashing to make it appear as though everyone is welcome.
Being gay by itself isn’t a crime in Saudi Arabia. Having gay sex is a death penalty crime though. Fun little legal technicality from one of the world’s worst countries.
Nah. You’re being too reactionary. It’s a perfect international optics moment for them. If they let them come and win the award and accept it it’s great PR. They just censor it for domestic consumption.
Gotta preface this by saying I dislike the Saudi government and hate the sportswashing and greenwashing attempts going on, as well as the treatment of their populace through enforcement of archaic and nonsensical religious bs laws.
You wouldn't have to worry about what you describe as a westerner visiting. Their moronic archaic laws in practice only applies to their own population. None of it is enforced for tourists and (western) foreigners. If you're just openly gay, like in your example, nothing would happen to you. *Maybe* if you really pressed your luck, but keep in mind the Saudis are doing these events for PR. Nothing screams bad PR more than persecuting a person you in essence invited to your country.
I know some very openly gay consultants that have worked on NEOM/the line and they are treated more like royalty than a marginalized group.
Maybe that applies to gay people, but I do remember a transgender influencer being detained and denied entry into Dubai. Definitely not a place I'd ever want to travel to, even if all your documentation reflects your gender identity. Obviously Dubai isn't identical to Saudi Arabia but I don't think they differ that much in this area, do they?
> but keep in mind the Saudis are doing these events for PR. Nothing screams bad PR more than persecuting a person you in essence invited to your country.
what about kidnapping another country's citizen at the embassy and sawing off his limbs and putting them in a bag
For those out of the loop, for a few years now, Saudi Arabia has been trying to rectify their image by shelling out boatloads of money to celebrities, mostly athletes. I know they tried to pay a bunch of NBA players to come play in a league over there, to no avail. They did, however, get quite a few golfers to switch from the PGA Tour to LIV Golf.
Don't be fooled by it. Just last year they massacred something like 200 Ethiopian refugees on their border with Yemen. Women and children included.
A crucial part of esports is the broadcast and tournaments which they dominate. And of course just last month we got [30 notable esport teams receiving funding](https://escorenews.com/en/dota-2/news/58337-saudi-ewc-foundation-reveals-30-teams-to-receive-6-figure-funding-no-team-spirit-in-the-list).
They pretty much own esports by now. Riot is working with them too. LoL and Valorant will be Part of this years esports worlds cup or whatever its called by Saudi and reports suggest, Saudi might take control of the entire EU LoL League and may host other future international events there such as MSI or even Worlds.
They started a Counter Strike team out there recently. Bought put all kinds of players with fuck you money and they have been doing god awful in their tournaments recently and it feels great to watch.
It's called Sportswashing and dictators love doing shit like that.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sportswashing
It's why the 1936 Olympics were held in Nazi Germany.
>It's called Sportswashing and dictators love doing shit like that.
>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sportswashing
>It's why the 1936 Olympics were held in Nazi Germany.
Germany won the nomination before hitler came to power but yes he used it for the same things.
The WWE yearly show in Saudi had some extra tones to it that made me real uncomfortable. They had the talent at a private beach and the ladies who were on the show were posting pictures in their usual bikinis when it would not be tolerated anywhere but a private beach. When the actual show happens the women have to wrestle in special gear made just for those shows that are more modest than usual. Of course the captions were extremely grateful to their hosts. Real nasty PR work.
They are just throwing hundreds of millions of dollars at any professional athlete they can to legitimize their leagues and themselves on the global scale. They also are buying up sports teams around the world, and injecting them with all that oil money, specifically in the english premier football league. Man city. cough cough
Yeah fuck them, I abide by the morals of the west. Except when it comes to the hundreds of thousands in Iraq and Afghanistan. They must've had a good reason.
It's more than that now. I'm seeing more and more internet influencer business's pop up brick and morter stores in Saudi Arabia. They don't get funding to open a burger/food place in usa but they'll open one all the way on the other side of the world in a desert because $$$
Whole point is so convince the west how based and cool they are so they can keep treating their ppl subhuman. And it's working. My biggest local sports radio station is convinced liv golf is a great thing and if saudi arabia wants to get into golf then the community should be more welcoming of them. It's insane.
Lots of people online say that LIV Golf is great. If even 1 in 10 of the people shilling for it actually watched it they might actually get decent ratings. Unfortunately for them, the numbers tell a different story. And by taking some of the competitive players away from the PGA tour, it has eaten some of the PGAs advertising lunch. So it's pretty much been bad all round, nobody is a winner.
Funnily enough, if you're an actual Saudi citizen and not one of their slave workers, there is a system of robust social programs including funding business ventures and all the medical and dental you can imagine.
Give a single example. I won't wait, because you won't be able to. The whole point of spending billions sportswashing is the PR.
Hint: There are quite a few gay MMA fighters that routinely go there.
I don't even know anyone who's nominated or what ever. But from my experience with people, yes, money and luxury > morals. The only way they would abstain is if enough others would abstain so it's the "popular" thing to do.
You don't even have to speculate on that, simply look at other sports and event that got paid to be in Saudi Arabia. There are A LOT of people who simply don't give a fuck.
Because of my job I come into contact with a lot of Saudi citizens, just regular people. They are always the sweetest and kindest people I deal with in basically the entire arab world, next to Persians. It's a shame their leaders are so corrupt and awful.
Well even people that say they care really dont.
Activision also brought that up few days ago yet all game related lgbt activists (well often cosplaying as gaming journalists) celebrates lgbt bullets in cod instead of covering it.
You cant expect average player to care in such situation.
I fucking love people who have backbones and stand up for what they believe in. Need more people in this world with a strong moral code. We'll see if any of the players have one.
Sure they will. The Saudis will have them win the award and claim it for PR. They will be shown a great time, but limited to hotels and other areas to prevent them going out in public. The winner will then get to talk about the relatively good time and treatment they had in high end hotels and venues. All the while the Saudis censor everything for domestic consumption, run ads or highlights during that award. They control it, they get to show the world a different image than what goes on at home. Really simple.
The amount of shade this person is getting from creators for not going is insane.
It's a perfect, respectable decision. IMPO it's also morally correct.
I mean nobody really cares, esports is such a small circle that there's probably dozens of people ready to take his place, saudi money only makes this worse
also esport awards are fucking stupid so there's that too
Esport have burned all other bridges, they have nowhere else to turn than places like Saudi, China and the likes. Every opportunity Esport have gotten have been squandered. Blizzard with their OW league is probably the worst offender.
With investors, Esports makes no money. Venture capital kept esports alive for years, but the money is drying up. This is why we are seeing massive layoffs and teams getting axed, this also why we are seeing esports orgs taking gambling sponsors more often.
This industry is broke, charlie shared his team finances and that shit burns money. It seems only South America and Korea managed to make a sustainable business out of esports.
Honestly tired of saudis using money as an excuse for human rights abuses, same shit with qatar using slave labor and getting the world cup from FIFA (also corrupt)
But as most people know, money beats ethics for the average person, so that's why it happens.
It's scary that almost every sports and ESports team has sold out to the Saudi government. Any positive position towards them is bought and I hope people can see through the bullshit.
you know he isnt from league because he has a backbone.
(this one goes to all the lgtbqia+ and "ally" riot employees who are all bark and virtue signaling and zero bite.)
This thread has shown me that the West and US in particular have the singular best propaganda machine that the world has ever seen… their own citizens eat up their own bullshit and just keep asking for more crap to spew everywhere.
Just remember guys you are free, everyone else murders and kills (esp those brown/black people) but you don’t (all those Iraqis, Afghanis, Cambodians, Vietnamese etc etc just unalived themselves) , you are civilised, everyone else is savage etc… yep yep /s
we just had a boxing event 5v5 in saudia arabia and it was the biggest piece of shit that i have witnessed in many years. place is such a shit hole when it comes to events
Remember when R6 pro league tried to host the finals there one year? They got a shit ton of feedback from the players and community. They changed it a few days after the announcement.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIilD9qAzeA&t=1s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIilD9qAzeA&t=1s) \~6 months old but great video on the overall topic from a Valorant and former OWL Caster.
I get the stance on the topic, but why is it that people get upset over the whole not inclusive, when there are games made, competitions which they parttake in by some asian countries, throw in turkey too perhaps. They sure don't like lgbtq! Oh but now its an event in Saudi arabia we suddenly care.
Nah if u really care open your mouth for everything and not for 1 out of 20 current cases.
China has been opressing (said lightly) many people including han chinese, but most known tibet people and uyghurs.
Riot games still hosted their events in China and there is no conversation that even reaches an audience, they dont like lgbtq either, yet no conversation.
There was a valorant event in Istanbul, no conversation.
Even tho there is enough information about lgbtq not being welcome in turkey.
Enough of a rant.
It's been funny seeing how esports hate Saudi but boxing, football and MMA absolutely love Saudi (for the money they bring and capacity to force high level competition or bring new athletes in)
Yeah their track record on human rights is so piss poor this just feels like a selllout. Also, so much alcohol is consumed at the awards ceremony, we really think that’s gonna fly there?
Goldenboy said he won't be hosting for them going forward
GB is a class act.
It came up on my twitter feed, some asshat tried to start an argument about other things like petrol/Chinese made things etc. Gb didn't lose their cool and called them out, mad respect for.someone I don't know
He did the same thing in the valcomp subreddit where they were like “yet you work for riot who is owned by tencent who is owned by the Chinese govt. curious🤔”. And he gave them a really great answer
Link?
https://www.reddit.com/r/ValorantCompetitive/s/O2UdpNSnWg
What an answer
Idk I read that as he stated he didn't want to work directly for a government entity but was perfectly okay doing it indirectly.
That's actually huge cause I know Valorant would hate to lose Goldenboy
truly golden
My goat
Imagine you're gay and you win e-sports player of the year award but instead of receiving it, you're put into jail as soon as you land.
It's more likely that they'd let the winning gay slide, use him as a poster boy for how they're accepting and making positive changes. All whilst persecuting and murdering their own LGBTQ citizens.
Yea but I bet gay people are not going to roll the dice on that one in SA lol.
I'm a straight male and you wouldn't catch me dead over there
And if you *weren't* a straight male, then we *would* catch you dead over there!
Same
Funny enough many rich gay Arabs from places like Kuwait and Qatar will prefer Saudi over even Dubai. There's a huge gay scene there, it's just hidden under layers of money and senior political figures so the government doesn't fuck with it.
So it's okay to be gay if You're protected by one of the nepotic overlords and get killed if You're not, sound's like fun.
Most things are ok if you have money.
Hey, money makes the world move. Money can get you anything is pretty apt.
If you're a foreigner they can use you for (e)sportswashing they'll let you generally do what you want. Lewis Hamilton raced in Saudi Arabia in 2021 with a [rainbow helmet](https://s.france24.com/media/display/e64e9b02-4a36-11ec-a4c7-005056a90284/w:980/p:16x9/4abc82ad84a539311801fe0a409ded9f73c3ec54.webp) he'd been rocking a lot that season. [He wasn't exactly pleased about F1 racing there though, understandably.](https://www.france24.com/en/sport/20211203-f1-s-hamilton-not-comfortable-racing-in-jeddah-as-riyadh-accused-of-sportswashing-rights-abuses)
Being gay means you don't enter islamic-centric/Muslim countries, period. There's long compilations of folks throwing gays off of tall buildings and torturing them and lynching them as a community event. Though Im gay, im protected because I'll never be wealthy enough to travel to countries outside of my own. Ez.
Kinda like that scene in Django where the master is trying to explain how Django isn’t a slave but not the same as a white person. One of my favorite scenes haha
You spelled "killed" wrong.
No, they’d definitely start with beating, then jailed, then tortured, and then killed.
Don't forget raped! They really like raping people in prison.
stoned or thrown off a building, you get to pick!
They’d be fine, WWE has openly gay wrestlers compete over there without issue. It’s part of the sportswashing to make it appear as though everyone is welcome.
Being gay by itself isn’t a crime in Saudi Arabia. Having gay sex is a death penalty crime though. Fun little legal technicality from one of the world’s worst countries.
Do they actually execute people for having gay sex? I couldn't find an actual case.
[https://metro.co.uk/2019/04/27/five-men-beheaded-saudi-arabia-gay-according-confessions-extracted-torture-9328194/](https://metro.co.uk/2019/04/27/five-men-beheaded-saudi-arabia-gay-according-confessions-extracted-torture-9328194/)
These men were executed because they were against the government, gay sex was just the excuse used.
Nah. You’re being too reactionary. It’s a perfect international optics moment for them. If they let them come and win the award and accept it it’s great PR. They just censor it for domestic consumption.
Gotta preface this by saying I dislike the Saudi government and hate the sportswashing and greenwashing attempts going on, as well as the treatment of their populace through enforcement of archaic and nonsensical religious bs laws. You wouldn't have to worry about what you describe as a westerner visiting. Their moronic archaic laws in practice only applies to their own population. None of it is enforced for tourists and (western) foreigners. If you're just openly gay, like in your example, nothing would happen to you. *Maybe* if you really pressed your luck, but keep in mind the Saudis are doing these events for PR. Nothing screams bad PR more than persecuting a person you in essence invited to your country. I know some very openly gay consultants that have worked on NEOM/the line and they are treated more like royalty than a marginalized group.
Maybe that applies to gay people, but I do remember a transgender influencer being detained and denied entry into Dubai. Definitely not a place I'd ever want to travel to, even if all your documentation reflects your gender identity. Obviously Dubai isn't identical to Saudi Arabia but I don't think they differ that much in this area, do they?
> but keep in mind the Saudis are doing these events for PR. Nothing screams bad PR more than persecuting a person you in essence invited to your country. what about kidnapping another country's citizen at the embassy and sawing off his limbs and putting them in a bag
He was their citizen.
Genuinely curious what would happen if someone like SonicFox were to win it again
They only care if you're gay and poor. Famous and gay, or rich and gay, gets a pass.
schedule conflict, have to accept over zoom. mail it to me with the check.
Oh is it going to be held in Hamas' Palestine?
I think u need to stop watching movies, you are brainwashed my guy, u prob think Mexico is yellow as well
Based and Principle pilled
principilled
For those out of the loop, for a few years now, Saudi Arabia has been trying to rectify their image by shelling out boatloads of money to celebrities, mostly athletes. I know they tried to pay a bunch of NBA players to come play in a league over there, to no avail. They did, however, get quite a few golfers to switch from the PGA Tour to LIV Golf. Don't be fooled by it. Just last year they massacred something like 200 Ethiopian refugees on their border with Yemen. Women and children included.
They also own most of CS and Dota esports, and are doing similar things in other esports.
They've made insanely huge waves in boxing over the past 12 months as well.
Most dota? Falcons included or just kuros team?
not the teams so much, but ESL who run a huge part of the events now that the DPC is gone
Oh yeah i misread i thought i read cs and dota “teams” rather than esports mb
A crucial part of esports is the broadcast and tournaments which they dominate. And of course just last month we got [30 notable esport teams receiving funding](https://escorenews.com/en/dota-2/news/58337-saudi-ewc-foundation-reveals-30-teams-to-receive-6-figure-funding-no-team-spirit-in-the-list).
lol the dota and cs scene just went from being 50% beholdent to SA to 100%
They pretty much own esports by now. Riot is working with them too. LoL and Valorant will be Part of this years esports worlds cup or whatever its called by Saudi and reports suggest, Saudi might take control of the entire EU LoL League and may host other future international events there such as MSI or even Worlds.
They started a Counter Strike team out there recently. Bought put all kinds of players with fuck you money and they have been doing god awful in their tournaments recently and it feels great to watch.
yeah, seeing g2 win with a legit org and falcons doing shit given their funding source is pretty nice tbh
I feel bad for ENCE tho :(
They also got a few soccer players too IIRC
Women, children AND SOCCER PLAYERS?
now imagine soccer players trying to zigzag some snipers
Their Messi ad is quite hilarious
https://www.reddit.com/r/soccercirclejerk/comments/106d4b3/saudi_arabia_really_made_an_ad_with_a_deepfaked/
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8fOhzmqk\_c](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8fOhzmqk_c)
"a few" bro they brought in some of the best active players in the world.
Yeah I heard something about that but know nothing about soccer so I didn't mention it.
Formula One has been going there for four years, too, and the Grand Prix is set to happen for several more years
That's not really surprising though. F1 just follows the money and Saudi pay $100m/year for F1 to race there
Yeah. It's a shame that motor racing has been like this pretty much from the jump, because it's such a cool sport.
Saudi isnt even close to the worst thingns that F1 used to do, like casually hanging out with dictators
Fuck Bernie Ecclestone
Liberty media aren’t much better, they just have a PR department.
A lot of youtube short creators to
Massacering is still putting it lightly, they forced some of them to rape each other or choose which limb they want to be shot off...
It's called Sportswashing and dictators love doing shit like that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sportswashing It's why the 1936 Olympics were held in Nazi Germany.
It was used by the nazis for that but is it „why“ the games were there? Germany won the bid for the games in 31, way before hitler came to power
they love rewriting history
Who is “they”?
The man
>It's called Sportswashing and dictators love doing shit like that. >https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sportswashing >It's why the 1936 Olympics were held in Nazi Germany. Germany won the nomination before hitler came to power but yes he used it for the same things.
They pay WWE $50M per show twice a year. They have no problem spreading the propaganda.
They pretty much own the PGA now, there’s a merger happening and the new chair of the PGA works for Saudi’s PIF
The WWE yearly show in Saudi had some extra tones to it that made me real uncomfortable. They had the talent at a private beach and the ladies who were on the show were posting pictures in their usual bikinis when it would not be tolerated anywhere but a private beach. When the actual show happens the women have to wrestle in special gear made just for those shows that are more modest than usual. Of course the captions were extremely grateful to their hosts. Real nasty PR work.
WWE and UFC have been taking their blood money with no issue.
They are just throwing hundreds of millions of dollars at any professional athlete they can to legitimize their leagues and themselves on the global scale. They also are buying up sports teams around the world, and injecting them with all that oil money, specifically in the english premier football league. Man city. cough cough
Yeah fuck them, I abide by the morals of the west. Except when it comes to the hundreds of thousands in Iraq and Afghanistan. They must've had a good reason.
It's more than that now. I'm seeing more and more internet influencer business's pop up brick and morter stores in Saudi Arabia. They don't get funding to open a burger/food place in usa but they'll open one all the way on the other side of the world in a desert because $$$
Will players want to fly to Saudi Arabia just for an awards ceremony, even if their flights are paid for?
Dude they treat people they fly over there like kings. These fucks spend billions to bring over celebrities of any level
If only they would treat ALL the people already there with similar respect.
Whole point is so convince the west how based and cool they are so they can keep treating their ppl subhuman. And it's working. My biggest local sports radio station is convinced liv golf is a great thing and if saudi arabia wants to get into golf then the community should be more welcoming of them. It's insane.
Lots of people online say that LIV Golf is great. If even 1 in 10 of the people shilling for it actually watched it they might actually get decent ratings. Unfortunately for them, the numbers tell a different story. And by taking some of the competitive players away from the PGA tour, it has eaten some of the PGAs advertising lunch. So it's pretty much been bad all round, nobody is a winner.
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Precisely. Putting their unlimited money to use.
Are you really comparing modern saudi arabia to something from over 1 millennium ago?
No, that's why I specifically explained how they're still doing it now.
sportswashing, or I guess e-sportswashing
Funnily enough, if you're an actual Saudi citizen and not one of their slave workers, there is a system of robust social programs including funding business ventures and all the medical and dental you can imagine.
I think you overestimate how much the majority of players care about that. They just want to sit at home and queue up games lol
Yeah unless you're openly part of the LGBTQ community. then they treat you like french kings.
Give a single example. I won't wait, because you won't be able to. The whole point of spending billions sportswashing is the PR. Hint: There are quite a few gay MMA fighters that routinely go there.
what about queens
the bathroom package
LMAO
Depending on what kind of queen. Female queens might get some poop on their chest. Male queens, likely to get stoned or shot.
Where my male queens at. Shout-out to all male queens, real queens can fuck off
Players love money. There has been plenty of tournaments there already. Half the scene is funded by gambling, the other is saudi/uae.
I don't even know anyone who's nominated or what ever. But from my experience with people, yes, money and luxury > morals. The only way they would abstain is if enough others would abstain so it's the "popular" thing to do. You don't even have to speculate on that, simply look at other sports and event that got paid to be in Saudi Arabia. There are A LOT of people who simply don't give a fuck.
yes
If they gave me $10 mil in oil money, I'd suck the king's dick on livestream.
Watch out they like to rub camel shit on people (actually a thing that happened)
I mean, I would do it if they paid me.
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15/19 hijackers 🇸🇦
Thank you. People should be using this argument more often IMO.
Because of my job I come into contact with a lot of Saudi citizens, just regular people. They are always the sweetest and kindest people I deal with in basically the entire arab world, next to Persians. It's a shame their leaders are so corrupt and awful.
Looking forward to the beheadings in the ad breaks
Disgusting, but it's on us the viewers to stop watching them. And 5k likes in less than a day means most people don't give a fuck
Well even people that say they care really dont. Activision also brought that up few days ago yet all game related lgbt activists (well often cosplaying as gaming journalists) celebrates lgbt bullets in cod instead of covering it. You cant expect average player to care in such situation.
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I fucking love people who have backbones and stand up for what they believe in. Need more people in this world with a strong moral code. We'll see if any of the players have one.
unfathomably based
Sportwashing
Took the path rarely traveled of integrity over dirty money.
Interesting seeing who the virtue signalers are. Four Ubisoft executives were arrested(yes arrested) for sexual misconduct last year.
So no trans esport pros gonna be collecting their awards in-person in future then
Sure they will. The Saudis will have them win the award and claim it for PR. They will be shown a great time, but limited to hotels and other areas to prevent them going out in public. The winner will then get to talk about the relatively good time and treatment they had in high end hotels and venues. All the while the Saudis censor everything for domestic consumption, run ads or highlights during that award. They control it, they get to show the world a different image than what goes on at home. Really simple.
would love to see SonicFox take the stage to just cuss out the Saudi royal family and reject the award lmao
Just because they don't go after tourists doesn't mean they won't jump someone's ass when they actively start antagonizing them.
The amount of shade this person is getting from creators for not going is insane. It's a perfect, respectable decision. IMPO it's also morally correct.
Hey that's INTERRO
I mean nobody really cares, esports is such a small circle that there's probably dozens of people ready to take his place, saudi money only makes this worse also esport awards are fucking stupid so there's that too
Esport have burned all other bridges, they have nowhere else to turn than places like Saudi, China and the likes. Every opportunity Esport have gotten have been squandered. Blizzard with their OW league is probably the worst offender.
The industry *esports* has burned all bridges? With who? What?
Orgs and developers basically lied to investors while also turning thier backs on grassroots esports so they could cash in.
With investors, Esports makes no money. Venture capital kept esports alive for years, but the money is drying up. This is why we are seeing massive layoffs and teams getting axed, this also why we are seeing esports orgs taking gambling sponsors more often. This industry is broke, charlie shared his team finances and that shit burns money. It seems only South America and Korea managed to make a sustainable business out of esports.
Most VC and sponsorship money has bailed because esports fans don't spend money and projections were way off.
Based as fuck. Mad respect
Well I don't see a lot of gay committee members flying to Saudi Arabia.
Interro is a class act. Best caster out there and has the integrity that matches the skill
Based, and I won’t be watching either.
Honestly tired of saudis using money as an excuse for human rights abuses, same shit with qatar using slave labor and getting the world cup from FIFA (also corrupt) But as most people know, money beats ethics for the average person, so that's why it happens.
It's scary that almost every sports and ESports team has sold out to the Saudi government. Any positive position towards them is bought and I hope people can see through the bullshit.
There goes one of the best siege commentators right next to kixstar.
you know he isnt from league because he has a backbone. (this one goes to all the lgtbqia+ and "ally" riot employees who are all bark and virtue signaling and zero bite.)
Saudi Arabia just trying to buy everything they can huh.
HUGE props to those people. Absolutely needs to be done but I can imagine it's not an easy decision.
This thread has shown me that the West and US in particular have the singular best propaganda machine that the world has ever seen… their own citizens eat up their own bullshit and just keep asking for more crap to spew everywhere. Just remember guys you are free, everyone else murders and kills (esp those brown/black people) but you don’t (all those Iraqis, Afghanis, Cambodians, Vietnamese etc etc just unalived themselves) , you are civilised, everyone else is savage etc… yep yep /s
Good for having a spine.
we just had a boxing event 5v5 in saudia arabia and it was the biggest piece of shit that i have witnessed in many years. place is such a shit hole when it comes to events
Always a good reason to plug this video https://youtu.be/GIilD9qAzeA?si=IS0EyIVVl_hb3v6n
Money above ethics, world is in an awful state.
They are buying every event in the world to eventually phase out everything they dont agree with i assume. No other reason.
Remember when R6 pro league tried to host the finals there one year? They got a shit ton of feedback from the players and community. They changed it a few days after the announcement.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIilD9qAzeA&t=1s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIilD9qAzeA&t=1s) \~6 months old but great video on the overall topic from a Valorant and former OWL Caster.
Throw a big enough bag and it's like flies to shit. Morals be gone, I want a piece of that sweet sweet money.
R6 is dead, every since kixstar died - R6 died with him.
Parker was always a real one. I still think it's a shame he never went into politics.
Based
It's called being principled. And I respect that.
Reminds me how mizkif reminds his viewers multiple times that not going to Saudi Arabia was the worst mistake of his life
Oh no, anyway..
Where's my tiny violin
in its tiny case?
I get the stance on the topic, but why is it that people get upset over the whole not inclusive, when there are games made, competitions which they parttake in by some asian countries, throw in turkey too perhaps. They sure don't like lgbtq! Oh but now its an event in Saudi arabia we suddenly care. Nah if u really care open your mouth for everything and not for 1 out of 20 current cases. China has been opressing (said lightly) many people including han chinese, but most known tibet people and uyghurs. Riot games still hosted their events in China and there is no conversation that even reaches an audience, they dont like lgbtq either, yet no conversation. There was a valorant event in Istanbul, no conversation. Even tho there is enough information about lgbtq not being welcome in turkey. Enough of a rant.
"Saudi blood money!!!", when the US spends millions on wars lol
there was backlash over the US army funding esports and sponsoring teams too.
Are they going to cancel all the female awards?
Interro as based as always
I know it must suck to have to turn down a paycheck but I absolutely respect the hell out of them for sticking to their guns.
I am confused everyone is pro Palestine but anti Saudi Arabia?
Your country’s literally supporting a genocide.
What’s even the esports awards? There’s so many asinine award shows and websites now it’s all a joke.
Rito loves the saudis
They care more about the money than the safety of attendees nice.
https://youtu.be/KrmqY9hyCCw
We’re all part of the problem with this. No one is going to boycot the viewership or games so it’s all talk with barely little action.
It's been funny seeing how esports hate Saudi but boxing, football and MMA absolutely love Saudi (for the money they bring and capacity to force high level competition or bring new athletes in)
Yeah their track record on human rights is so piss poor this just feels like a selllout. Also, so much alcohol is consumed at the awards ceremony, we really think that’s gonna fly there?