A Farewell To Harms: EG Finally Change Their CEO

Evil Geniuses CEO Nicole Lapointe-Jameson is "stepping down" from her role and her replacement has already been found. For me, it's too little too late.

Rare cause for celebration in the world of esports happened the other day. The news that Nicole Lapointe-Jameson will step down as CEO may well be publicly lamented by the esports Twitterati but the rest can breath a sigh of relief and dare to finally pop some corks.

The writing had been on the wall for some time. A string of high profile failures across their various teams, a string of scandalous exposes on this website among others, lawsuits with former players and haemorraging sponsors were all indicative of a failing organisation. Then suddenly her Twitter account was deleted, unfathomable given how much energy the organisation had diverted into building her brand. Behind the scenes the talk was that she was out and had simply wanted to deactivate the most obvious vector for the incoming ridicule. All that remained was it for to be officially announced.

Of course, because the announcement came via a mainstream access journalist, there was an embarrassingly inaccurate framing of Lapointe-Jameson as a victim of harassment. Weird how that “accountability culture” gets reframed when its one of their allies isn’t it? In reality it’s hard to imagine how she could have enjoyed more privilege and protection. Airlifted into a CEO position by a venture capital group she had interned at after a stint at an Ivy League school, she was given near total autonomy despite zero experience in esports. She presided over disaster after disaster, dismantling successful teams and spending wastefully. Her reign took the most respected name in North American esports and turned into a joke of memetic proportions. Then, finally, when it was revealed there was more to the story than just incompetence, that she had in fact been accused of workplace bullying and playing a role in the neglect of a vulnerable player, her journalist and industry cronies all moved in lockstep to declare her actions as evidence of “systemic problems.” In short the industry narrative was that she couldn’t fail but only be failed by others and, based on her self aggrandising exit statements, it’s a narrative that she wholly believes.

In truth she was given one of the dream jobs in esports… Total control of a legendary esports organisation that had fallen on hard times and a seemingly blank checkbook to boot. Her inexperience didn’t have to be a factor as she was surrounded by good people with long tenure. All it would take to succeed was to listen to wise counsel from her subordinates and the many people who would extend smart consultation for absolutely free. She instead chose to spurn all this and make her reign a fuck-you to an industry that had never done anything to her as she’d only just arrived here.

Rejecting traditional ideas for new ones can be the way to pioneer but to reject what works simply to be different reeks of the type of deluded narcissism that tanks companies. The culture of peacocking for every minor success but radio silence post failure also made this new EG inherently unlikeable. She wasn’t the only EG executive to fall afoul of this but she was the proud progenitor of the “Live Evil” culture that was intended as playful snark but ultimately came across as insufferable, unwarranted arrogance. This plays out even worse when you prove you cannot take a joke and use corporate influence to try and censor any criticism.

Understand I wanted Nicole to be successful. At first she appeared a breath of fresh air in the scene. Energetic, combative, willing to test new ideas in a space that had long stagnated… I had asked her to be a guest on my podcast so sure I was that she was going to be successful. In my mind it was getting to know someone who was going to be around for a long time and did indeed represent a pleasant change to the dudebro CEOs I’ve had to interact with the past two decades. How terribly that would have aged had it happened.

It’s just true now that no-one comes to esports with good intentions. They’re here to make money, to hold dominion over young adults, to live out their vapid sports team owner fantasies or to play at being a celebrity. An industry at one time populated by enthusiasts whose excellence had pushed them into positions of influence is now a carnival of hucksters and grifters whose only real interest in esports is how it can be used to benefit themselves. Step right up corporations, adoring wealthy teenagers await inside, all your future customer dreams will come true for a one time fee of $20 million… Buy the ticket, take the ride and absolutely no refunds.

As I’ve said for some time if it’s true that politics is showbusiness for ugly people then esports is politics for dumb people. We simply don’t attract good people anymore. No, we burned them so bad they are all on therapist couches right now trying to make sense of it all. We used to have Rick Foxes. Now we’ve got Rickrollers, masters of the bait and switch that burn through other people’s money while fudging the numbers just long enough for another cash injection. Then when there’s no one left to lie to they walk away mostly unscathed… C’est la vie. Esports is the problem. Nicole was at least installed by her paymasters so in that sense they got what they deserved but she still represents that new wave of people that gravitate to esports for all the wrong reasons.

There was fun along the way for sure… The time that EG was so furious with the fans telling them a rebrand was shit they went so far as to publish an explainer as to why the replacement design was wicked smart. It’s like a bit from The Office and when I eventually get round to writing my esports themed sitcom I will lift the incident verbatim. Ultimately though it is worth remembering that a lot of what went on under Lapointe-Jameson’s watch wasn’t funny.

I have interviewed dozens of people who worked at EG during this time and the story they all tell is one of ruthless corporate executives that couldn’t tolerate mistakes or dissent. It sounds like the kind of nightmare that in the real world leads to investigations and dismissals but in esports, where the only oversight is the handful of people who can still be bothered to call out bullshit, it will largely go unnoticed and unpunished. As she leaves Riot Games still have not concluded their investigation into player treatment during her tenure and assuming they do decide to publish their findings as they have on every other occasion there will at least be a permanent stain on her record that could not be easily dismissed.

Of course the likelihood is that her legacy in esports will be written by herself and her apologists. Her own parting statement celebrated their recent VCT win as having been done “the EG way – through equity of merit, inclusivity of infrastructure and going against the grain with scrappy believers.”

That reads like “see, I was right all along and now I’m not around to be right anymore. Enjoy it suckers.” I doubt she cares but it also undercuts the work of the players and coaching staff, as well as the fact they seem to have unearthed a generational talent for that particular game. Even as she leaves she has to take credit for the success.

I’m sure she’ll turn up again somewhere soon, probably at another part of the Peak6 portfolio and on the speakers circuit hosting TED style presentations on what she learned during her time in esports dealing with the filthy peasant gamers. She’s set for life so I won’t be complying with the behavioural dictate of my colleagues that proclaim celebrating someone losing a job is going too far. Instead I’ll spike the football and do the TikTok dance. She sucked and made work suck for a lot of people who tried their best to make her not suck. It’s good that she’s gone and it restores my faith to some degree that on a long enough timescale the remaining esports grifters will fail in the same way.