2024: The Year Of The Sellout

2024 was a year that proved that even integrity is for sale in esports. Shame then that there was only one buyer.

And then everybody clapped… On command

Esports is an industry that collectively lacks vision. Despite its foundations being the largely innovative notion that you could smash together sports competition, entertainment and video games into one cohesive package, the overall direction the business moves in is the unsteady shuffle of the blind leading the blind. Any time there is a glimpse of originality it is replicated ad nauseam, hurtling from exciting to tedious to boring at the speed of light.

In that sense this year was one of “consolidation.” Many obviously terrible ideas, such as the Overwatch League, that were at one time lauded as the next big thing were quietly swept aside. Mass layoffs were next, a necessary evil dubbed the “The Esports Winter,” which wasn’t a freak downturn in economic weather but rather a totally avoidable market correction that was largely created by the same people lamenting its existence. This perfectly paved the way for all the justifications to sell everything of value to the Saudi Arabian state in 2024. “What else can we do” they all shrugged… “If we say no, our competitors say yes. Surely, it’s only fair we still get to win despite having brought our businesses to the point of ruin through terrible accounting.”

It’s no surprise that we’ve once again had to stand back and watch as the same collection of self-appointed “thought leaders” have sold out everything to the highest bidder. In 2024 this was the prescribed wisdom, that after years of them breaking the esports economic model they concluded that esports economic model is broken and the only way the numbers can work is by aligning your business to the human rights violator with the biggest checkbook.

That was always going to be the final destination of an industry where the only prevailing economic sensibility is the greater fool theory… These owners and tournament operators weren’t building things to run, they were building them to sell and right now there’s only one type of buyer. In shouldering the burden of an irreparably broken industry Saudi might be the greatest fools of all but I’d argue that title belongs to the lifelong fans like you and I, our hobby forever tied to ideologies of hate and murder.

On one level you can laugh at how pathetic the hypocrisy of it all is. After spending years paying lip service to American progressivism to raise money in the name of diversity and inclusion those same people have now sold an estimated 40% of the esports market to a government that sees those values as a total affront. That still hasn’t stopped them trying to claim that an affiliation with Saudi Arabia doesn’t compromise their values. We’ve reached a stage where literal state funded propaganda is being used to pump out these inane explanations of why it’s OK to surrender one’s principles for fistfuls of cash just as long as you just pretend that’s not disqualifying. This is how you end up with journalists who are being paid to attend opulent events with no expenses spared publishing interviews from team owners who publicly came out as gay seemingly to insulate the Saudi Arabian state from criticism of their LGBT rights record. This is how you end up with Rolling Stone’s games vertical, now wholly funded by the Saudi Arabian state, telling you that ESL (also owned by the Saudi Arabian state) are plucky underdogs that not only changed the industry but are also committed to safe environments for women. That’s how you end up with any independent publication critical of these arrangements, this one included, being blacklisted by all operations in the hope we slip into irrelevance. I suppose it’s better than being slipped into a suitcase.

All of this selling out is being done in the name of sustainability. That word used to mean the ability to maintain a certain level by achieving a balance of income and costs. To those pulling the levers of esports they believe they technically have held true to this definition. Unfettered spending has made the average sponsorship a drop in the bucket for operational costs, even when that sponsor is an unlicensed betting platform that operates through a network of shell companies. They will still take those sponsorship deals of course but that gulf between what they bring in and expenditure will now be underwritten by a government that only views esports as a means to an end.

Let’s look at some of the incredible ways that esports organisations found “sustainability” in 2024. There was the Esports World Cup Club Program, a mechanism through which the Saudi Arabian state literally paid organisations to run teams in competitive titles that would feature at their marquis event in Riyadh. It still hasn’t been explained to me why companies that the surely reliable Forbes valued in the hundreds of millions couldn’t raise money from anywhere other than the Saudi Arabian state. Participating in the Esports World Cup is one thing but having the project fund your teams is another entirely, especially at the expected quid pro quo that come down the line. A financial “stimulus,” as it was labelled by its operators, is designed to promote economic growth only when something is in freefall. How could that possibly apply to the world’s biggest esports organisations that continued to hire across the pandemic many of whom were also claiming from the Paycheck Protection Program designed to keep small businesses afloat during the lockdowns?

Photo courtesy of Steve Arhancet’s Instagram

Yet if you look at the 2022 Forbes top ten highest valued organisations every single one of them lined up outside the Crown Prince’s palace with a begging bowl the same size as the one Davey Blunts uses for cereal. A quick recap of each of these organisations and their theoretical valuations… TSM $540 million, 100Thieves $460 million, Team Liquid $440 million, FaZe Clan $400 million, Cloud9 $380 million, G2 $340 million, Fnatic $260 million, Gen.G $250 million, NRG $240 million and T1 $220 million… That’s the entirety of the top ten most valuable organisations in the world. What you’re supposed to believe that not one of them could find a good reason to say no to being partially owned by a government that gunned down hundreds of migrants fleeing a war zone, jailed women’s rights activists under Orwellian counter-terrorist laws and have engaged in the largest number of state executions in decades.

For these organisations it gets even better. Prize pools, a term which has always been understood to mean “what the players can win at an event,” are now starting to include a split for the organisations solely to guarantee their attendance. Now this “prize” can be comically high just to filter more money to the organisations, the tournament operator getting all the benefit of advertising an increased reward for players when in fact the events are simply other ways to filter more money to the organisations benefiting from the player’s efforts. It’s a great convenience that the professional players association was dismantled before all of this went ahead.

In addition to all that the calendar being dominated by Saudi programming has ultimately acted as both shackle and gag for all the broadcast talent that want to continue to earn real money from their profession. Only a handful have been afforded the luxury of being able to articulate mild criticism and still get hired but even those few voices understand it was a one-time deal. The choice now is either turn down the offers in silence, your absence doing most of the talking, or slap on the shit-eating grin and accept the economic realities of end stage esports.

To keep the illusion of normality ongoing it was also necessary to buy out the mechanism through which genuine excellence in esports could be recognised. Already a slippery slope with the cult-like Riot Games exerting their influence, 2024 was the year that saw The Esports Awards enter into a three year deal with the Esports World Cup as well. Now the criteria for winning is so much simpler than before. As long as you’re “in” you’ll get yours and it doesn’t matter how ridiculous it is. After all, the Saudi organisation Falcons was given “Organisation Of The Year” despite having exactly one functional team and a string of expensive failures everywhere else. It doesn’t matter. Everything is for sale now.

That’s very much the sign of the times. 2024 saw a brutal streamlining of the esports where anything surplus to the requirements of those in the Saudi bubble was shuttered. The belief is there is no longer a requirement for the institutions that have largely held esports together by pushing back against the rapacious. Unions obliterated, modders litigated against, journalists bought and social media manipulated. All of this done in the name of keeping something that deserves to die alive.

None of this will last forever. You may think that’s the best part but for me it represents the worst… I am already in the future listening to the pathetic excuses served up by the decision makers who brought us to this, listening to them play down the vileness of their actions while promoting their next big grift. We’re only a few years from that. All metrics have pointed to the esports components of Project 2030 having failed thus far. Viewership has been low, attendances pitiful and the attempts to unlock a supposed vast new fanbase seem laughable at this juncture. The second stage of the Faustian bargain, to open offices in cities in Saudi and agree to hire Saudi Arabian staff for the organisations C-suite, has yet to come into reality and most likely will never see completion. There is no sustainability, not even basic profitability, the Saudi state investors already learning the hard way that a shitty mobile Monopoly game will make you more in a year than esports ever could. The rumours are abound of impending budget cuts, more layoffs and entire shutdowns of projects that don’t deliver on getting more bread and circuses for Saudi nationals. You sold the soul of esports but hey you’ll always have 2024. I hope for you all it was worth it.