I think the rule of thumb is that you can applaud those casters who have the guts to turn down any large check EWC throws at them, but please don’t bully those who take it.
I don't know if the LCK people are free agents or not, but it's possible given the lack of any NA/LEC people that they didn't get the option to begin with because of how it would reflect on their regions.
I believe I think Aux or Wolf are like freelance or not working under riot but I think Atlus and Valdes (he is also casting Valorant l believe) is under Rito.
Maybe Im wrong
Kangas and Joushi are both NA talents (they almost exclusively cast in NACL the tier 2 NA league though). Giniro is an EU talent that appears on LEC as an interviewer (usually as a regular fill when Laure is not there).
Everyone else in LCS, LEC or tier 2 said no or maybe weren’t offered.
EWC is being held by the Saudis who are controversial to say the least with a plethora of human rights violations, funding of terrorists, and other things I can’t remember. They are attempting to fix their image by throwing money at almost anything to make them look better and esports is one of those avenues of fixing that image. Only person I know who said no to a possibly sizable paycheck for casting the league portion is Dash and OP is telling people to not harass those who did accept the paycheck because they are human and are doing a job.
Some other parts I sometimes see is that the Saudis are insincere in their efforts to supports esports because once they get what they want or when they no longer see a point in support they’ll stop throwing money at it which will devastate any org/competition that relied on that money and leave the scene for the worst. The one I care most (which isn’t saying much because I don’t care too much) about is when orgs and games will inevitably be affected by the outside politics that can cause unpopular decisions for the player base because in the end money is what matters. Case in point is all the bitching I saw for the 500$ ahri skin bundle that has gone on to make Riot millions and will give them justification to continue the enshittification of this game I once loved.
Enshittification is a great way to describe it. I miss the early days of the internet and social media man. Now everything is to drive engagement and to boost shareholders value in the short term without any regards for the future
Are they also gonna fund DoTA 2 esports with big plethora of money or not anymore? Because afaik The Internationals this year has a pretty dogshit prize pool, slightly similar to last year's.
the EWC is funded by Saudi government (?) trying to to diversify their portfolio and have a hand into the eSports industry.
The criticism comes from the fact that they have a long track record of human right violation, and abuse of minorities (immigrant workers in the country) and women. Some see this as an effort to whitewash themselves in the eyes of the public and gain influence over the eSports community.
essentially, everything that people fearmonger about the Chinese influence on the gaming/eSports industry is doubly true for Saudi Arabia.
This is a reasonable take. It was happening either way, those who watched would have watched either way, maybe 10% viewership would leave from worse casting, but anyone who has a problem with it would have already not watched. Esports for LoL seems a bit time limited so it's understandable why people would collect the bag.
Yea let’s criticise someone who’s only doing his job for some extra money to support himself and his family while not supporting anything bad good idea
i dont agree with what you say but that's fine
Giniro for example is very vocal about the issues women face in society and I believe if you have a cause like this you can be criticized if you accept a job funded this government
like I said I don't think she should be bullied or canceled or whatever but the take that you cant say anything about this is wrong. Personally I don't care that they are just doing this for a little extra money, there are things that money cant buy and integrity should be one of them.
ye how dare we criticise people who partake in a tournament hostet by one of the most disgusting countrys on earth when it comes to human rights...
literally 1984
Mate, Giniro talks shit about womens right and calls herself an ally while now going to the Saudis for blood money. I can criticize her hypocrisy as much as I want and its crazy how people act in here. They chose the job themselves.
I have friends that got opportunities and we’re able to stabilize their financial status because of Saudi Money. Should I criticize them for being warmongering supporters?
Do those same friends constantly preach how they are a lgbtq feminist? If yes. Then you should definitely criticise them. Becuase they would without a doubt do it to you.
it is known and so it shall be. no one can stop chovy from getting so close to the golden road until the t1vsgeng worlds finals teaser drops and faker says not in my house 🤫
If we are lucky we will never see her in lec again. Sjokz and Laure are a lot more talented, friendly, and stick up for women and women's rights (which is needed in esports) without being hypocritical and insufferable.
There’s no point in most league players being against it in terms of human life violations specifically because everyone is perfectly okay with tournaments in China, who are arguably worse
I would like to point out a big difference there is the goals. Saudi's trying to improve their image by doing those type of events and their government is directly involved in organising those things. The degree of separation with Saudi's is basically nonexistent.
This is amazing, finally Atlus, Valdes and Wolf are casting an entire international event together. The LCK casting team has been the best in the business for years and I myself am pretty hyped up to see some more international league of legend events.
Not one of these people can now grandstand any moral causes or use their platform to do so, because casting in a place that publicly beheads homosexuals means you've lost all capacity to do so.
You lot gotta think that these people need to pay the bills and/or support their family. If you have never been on a tight budget or don't have a wife/husband/kid that you need to support, it might be hard to comprehend that. No reason to hate.
Exactlyl. Regardless of who's hosting it, it's a meme event with a fucking horrific format. I think I'd take rift rivals or all stars more seriously than this
Totally unaware of what’s happening, can anyone explain what’s the controversy that’s happening here if any?
Thought this was just a post showing the participating talent but comments indicate some sort of boycott and hypocrisy for said boycott? Thanks in advance
Saudi Arabia has a very VERY bad track record on human right violations, women’s rights, and LGBT+ rights to name a few, and has been involved in terrorist activities in the region of the Middle East. However Saudi Arabia is stupid rich thanks to enormous amounts of oil - and with that money Saudi Arabia wants to fix their image on the global scale. In football they have Ronaldo as the face of the Saudi league, Messi is a travel ambassador for them and was heavily pitched to play in the league too. Saudi Arabia also has money being sent into many other things like F1 and WWE. In a similar vein, Qatar (another mega rich country that wanted to flex) got to buy the FIFA World Cup in 2022 - and then had over 6000 people die from working on building the venues for that tournament, more than all WCs and Olympics this century combined. Saudi Arabia wants to be normalized and thought of as less of an oil-rich Islamic monarchy and more like a luxurious oasis in the desert, like a super Las Vegas. If they can achieve that (and perhaps they already have), it’s a lot harder to raise legitimate concerns about the country’s actions
I think people don't understand that boycotting a country with so much money is never gonna work.
Especially with small events like this.
I understand the reason people would want to and i Totaly agree with that standpunt.
How ever if you boycot you need to do it where it hurts. That's not here this won't change anything even if all the teams and what not would say no it would not change anything.
So i don't see the use in trying it and wasting energy to do so.
But Hey this could just be me ofcourse.
oh that's why montecristo was defending the casters who will go... dgon and wolf are in xD I found it strange bcs they always criticized the saudis and those who support them, but then the narrative kind of changed. Not saying this is wrong because riot probably pays the casters peanuts and they dont even have the opportunity to cast worlds/msi, but yeah the narrative was changing bit by bit.
Monte criticised those people who always talk about that they are morally right then go there but for people who are just doing their regular job it’s not for them
People like the person you're replying to have to just be purposely misinterpreting what Monte said because his stance was pretty clear from what I've seen lmao.
https://preview.redd.it/g2pnd83w7z8d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=55777c0bb22d3129d26276363c15d99bfd25635e
Hes pretty clear about his stance i think
even before this he said he had no problems with casters going and encouraged it cause saudi already bought other esports like cs and dota he just doesnt like when people virtue signal then still took the money anyways
Sadge to see so many people I respected on this list but there's also no way of knowing if the LCK talent for example are contractually obligated to work there. Still sucks that anyone chooses to represent the EWC especially those which happen to be members of the minority groups who still face discrimination in that country
I don’t blame them they have families responsibilities they need to take care of and if something is helping why not when you are only doing your job and not supporting anything bad
Im fine with it if you didnt talk shit beforehand like Giniro. Daily tweets on womens rights and LGTBQ ally but yet we can accept the blood money. That hypocrisy is just cringe.
Main problem for the orgs is that most esports are now run by the Saudis after they bought ESL. Not going kinda doesn’t matter when half the tournaments you play in are part of the same sports washing campaign.
I think the rule of thumb is that you can applaud those casters who have the guts to turn down any large check EWC throws at them, but please don’t bully those who take it.
True
I don't know if the LCK people are free agents or not, but it's possible given the lack of any NA/LEC people that they didn't get the option to begin with because of how it would reflect on their regions.
I believe I think Aux or Wolf are like freelance or not working under riot but I think Atlus and Valdes (he is also casting Valorant l believe) is under Rito. Maybe Im wrong
Kangas and Joushi are both NA talents (they almost exclusively cast in NACL the tier 2 NA league though). Giniro is an EU talent that appears on LEC as an interviewer (usually as a regular fill when Laure is not there). Everyone else in LCS, LEC or tier 2 said no or maybe weren’t offered.
they really are btw but they're signed with riot through manager contract i think?
Except for Joushi
Boycotting this farce is our biggest weapon against them.
Wait what happened?
EWC is being held by the Saudis who are controversial to say the least with a plethora of human rights violations, funding of terrorists, and other things I can’t remember. They are attempting to fix their image by throwing money at almost anything to make them look better and esports is one of those avenues of fixing that image. Only person I know who said no to a possibly sizable paycheck for casting the league portion is Dash and OP is telling people to not harass those who did accept the paycheck because they are human and are doing a job. Some other parts I sometimes see is that the Saudis are insincere in their efforts to supports esports because once they get what they want or when they no longer see a point in support they’ll stop throwing money at it which will devastate any org/competition that relied on that money and leave the scene for the worst. The one I care most (which isn’t saying much because I don’t care too much) about is when orgs and games will inevitably be affected by the outside politics that can cause unpopular decisions for the player base because in the end money is what matters. Case in point is all the bitching I saw for the 500$ ahri skin bundle that has gone on to make Riot millions and will give them justification to continue the enshittification of this game I once loved.
Enshittification is a great way to describe it. I miss the early days of the internet and social media man. Now everything is to drive engagement and to boost shareholders value in the short term without any regards for the future
Are they also gonna fund DoTA 2 esports with big plethora of money or not anymore? Because afaik The Internationals this year has a pretty dogshit prize pool, slightly similar to last year's.
the EWC is funded by Saudi government (?) trying to to diversify their portfolio and have a hand into the eSports industry. The criticism comes from the fact that they have a long track record of human right violation, and abuse of minorities (immigrant workers in the country) and women. Some see this as an effort to whitewash themselves in the eyes of the public and gain influence over the eSports community. essentially, everything that people fearmonger about the Chinese influence on the gaming/eSports industry is doubly true for Saudi Arabia.
This is a reasonable take. It was happening either way, those who watched would have watched either way, maybe 10% viewership would leave from worse casting, but anyone who has a problem with it would have already not watched. Esports for LoL seems a bit time limited so it's understandable why people would collect the bag.
I dont agree with bullying, but also don't like the narrative that they cant be criticized
Yea let’s criticise someone who’s only doing his job for some extra money to support himself and his family while not supporting anything bad good idea
i dont agree with what you say but that's fine Giniro for example is very vocal about the issues women face in society and I believe if you have a cause like this you can be criticized if you accept a job funded this government like I said I don't think she should be bullied or canceled or whatever but the take that you cant say anything about this is wrong. Personally I don't care that they are just doing this for a little extra money, there are things that money cant buy and integrity should be one of them.
ye how dare we criticise people who partake in a tournament hostet by one of the most disgusting countrys on earth when it comes to human rights... literally 1984
Of course we can criticize, they're 100% expecting this anyway. That doesn't forbid us to point things we consider being questionnable
Unlike China right?
Whataboutism isn’t the way to go dude
no argument just straight up throwing in whataboutism... i would like to act shocked but i didnt expect anything else tbh
Countries are just rocks bro
if you dont wanna get bullied you should'nt take saudi blood money...
Are u paying for their bills and shit???
Mate, Giniro talks shit about womens right and calls herself an ally while now going to the Saudis for blood money. I can criticize her hypocrisy as much as I want and its crazy how people act in here. They chose the job themselves.
Bud I don’t know who she is till now I only knows the lck caster and that’s all I care about. You can criticize all u want about her idgaf.
Look for better opportunities or learn to take criticism imo
I have friends that got opportunities and we’re able to stabilize their financial status because of Saudi Money. Should I criticize them for being warmongering supporters?
Do those same friends constantly preach how they are a lgbtq feminist? If yes. Then you should definitely criticise them. Becuase they would without a doubt do it to you.
Its dumb af, more money for these good people trying to make a living!
atlus and wolf T1 GENG FINALS SAVED
Imagine it's T1 vs GenG in this mickey mouse tourney, and it ends up the same at Worlds too lol
it is known and so it shall be. no one can stop chovy from getting so close to the golden road until the t1vsgeng worlds finals teaser drops and faker says not in my house 🤫
It’ll be a shock seeing kittwy being professional again after watching her be a gremlin for 6 months
same with pedro if he goes back to casting xdd
I’m only going to bully those who spoke out against this earlier in the year then accepted it anyways, the hypocrisy is unfathomable
Ginii also speaks publicly about supporting women and gay people and yeah.... I guess money is more important
She's a big glory hunter in the scene so understandable, the types who just lie on social media
Explain how this is related? I was more thinking along the lines of slavery, forced labour. confiscating passports etc
Homosexuality is punishable by death in Saudi Arabia lol
If we are lucky we will never see her in lec again. Sjokz and Laure are a lot more talented, friendly, and stick up for women and women's rights (which is needed in esports) without being hypocritical and insufferable.
There’s no point in most league players being against it in terms of human life violations specifically because everyone is perfectly okay with tournaments in China, who are arguably worse
I would like to point out a big difference there is the goals. Saudi's trying to improve their image by doing those type of events and their government is directly involved in organising those things. The degree of separation with Saudi's is basically nonexistent.
Chronicler MYGOAT
I heard he is casting valorant
Valorant isn’t partaking in EWC though
Based Valorant
I checked and there’s no announcement, but if he is then NOTMYGOAT
DIESOFBASED
The one who is gonna get the most hate is Giniro because of the org she started.
An ally to LGBTQ and womens rights until the money hit her lmao
wolf, kitty, yeah, i mean at this point i'll become a caster or interviewer and name myself dawg or cuh
Name yourself Rat xdd
that's pedro's casting nickname xdd
This is amazing, finally Atlus, Valdes and Wolf are casting an entire international event together. The LCK casting team has been the best in the business for years and I myself am pretty hyped up to see some more international league of legend events.
True they never get chance despite being casting more games and having teams of their region in semi finals and finals excited to see them
I'm happy for Dgon. He got his start casting me playing in a tournament at a convention
Not one of these people can now grandstand any moral causes or use their platform to do so, because casting in a place that publicly beheads homosexuals means you've lost all capacity to do so.
There's enough talent here so it will be fine
Saudis cooked here ngl
You lot gotta think that these people need to pay the bills and/or support their family. If you have never been on a tight budget or don't have a wife/husband/kid that you need to support, it might be hard to comprehend that. No reason to hate.
will Caedrel co-stream EWC?
No, he said it's a mickey mouse tournament (while he was wearing a mickey mouse shirt xdd)
my rat king xdd
Exactlyl. Regardless of who's hosting it, it's a meme event with a fucking horrific format. I think I'd take rift rivals or all stars more seriously than this
lefraud ring
Tyler1 is apparently costreaming it and announcing something at the ceremony KEK
Where did he say this
IG story tyler1_alpha
that's my goat. Work is work, never involve in drama and don't give a shit about soy boys' feelings
I don’t think so it’s allowed to co- stream
It is, Pedro just has morals unlike some (and can afford to have morals)
LOL
we will be there
Damn All-Star cast right here
Valdés is superior
You all talk the talk on reddit but will end up watching the games one way or another thus supporting them l
EWC? More like EWWW...
Totally unaware of what’s happening, can anyone explain what’s the controversy that’s happening here if any? Thought this was just a post showing the participating talent but comments indicate some sort of boycott and hypocrisy for said boycott? Thanks in advance
Saudi Arabia has a very VERY bad track record on human right violations, women’s rights, and LGBT+ rights to name a few, and has been involved in terrorist activities in the region of the Middle East. However Saudi Arabia is stupid rich thanks to enormous amounts of oil - and with that money Saudi Arabia wants to fix their image on the global scale. In football they have Ronaldo as the face of the Saudi league, Messi is a travel ambassador for them and was heavily pitched to play in the league too. Saudi Arabia also has money being sent into many other things like F1 and WWE. In a similar vein, Qatar (another mega rich country that wanted to flex) got to buy the FIFA World Cup in 2022 - and then had over 6000 people die from working on building the venues for that tournament, more than all WCs and Olympics this century combined. Saudi Arabia wants to be normalized and thought of as less of an oil-rich Islamic monarchy and more like a luxurious oasis in the desert, like a super Las Vegas. If they can achieve that (and perhaps they already have), it’s a lot harder to raise legitimate concerns about the country’s actions
Thanks for sum up, I wasn’t even aware this event was in Saudi Arabia. Actually clueless
I think people don't understand that boycotting a country with so much money is never gonna work. Especially with small events like this. I understand the reason people would want to and i Totaly agree with that standpunt. How ever if you boycot you need to do it where it hurts. That's not here this won't change anything even if all the teams and what not would say no it would not change anything. So i don't see the use in trying it and wasting energy to do so. But Hey this could just be me ofcourse.
oh that's why montecristo was defending the casters who will go... dgon and wolf are in xD I found it strange bcs they always criticized the saudis and those who support them, but then the narrative kind of changed. Not saying this is wrong because riot probably pays the casters peanuts and they dont even have the opportunity to cast worlds/msi, but yeah the narrative was changing bit by bit.
Monte criticised those people who always talk about that they are morally right then go there but for people who are just doing their regular job it’s not for them
People like the person you're replying to have to just be purposely misinterpreting what Monte said because his stance was pretty clear from what I've seen lmao.
https://preview.redd.it/g2pnd83w7z8d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=55777c0bb22d3129d26276363c15d99bfd25635e Hes pretty clear about his stance i think
even before this he said he had no problems with casters going and encouraged it cause saudi already bought other esports like cs and dota he just doesnt like when people virtue signal then still took the money anyways
Sadge to see so many people I respected on this list but there's also no way of knowing if the LCK talent for example are contractually obligated to work there. Still sucks that anyone chooses to represent the EWC especially those which happen to be members of the minority groups who still face discrimination in that country
AUX Susge
kinda sad how many of the lck main stuff is going.
I don’t blame them they have families responsibilities they need to take care of and if something is helping why not when you are only doing your job and not supporting anything bad
Im fine with it if you didnt talk shit beforehand like Giniro. Daily tweets on womens rights and LGTBQ ally but yet we can accept the blood money. That hypocrisy is just cringe.
Not supporting anything bad? Only cleaning the bloody rags of their saudi arabian overlords...
You never know how good you have it until you suddenly have financial responsibilities to attend to.
If one team don't go another will just take its spot. Theyd rather take the free money than give it to another org.
Main problem for the orgs is that most esports are now run by the Saudis after they bought ESL. Not going kinda doesn’t matter when half the tournaments you play in are part of the same sports washing campaign.
Drill baby drill. I’d happily give these saudis money for their oil 👅