10 Comments
Mar 14, 2023Liked by Richard Lewis

Very insightful read! I had no idea it was the same scummy publication who put out that piece on s1mple after he gave his emotional 2022 IEM Katowice Speech, I genuinely hope that they get their karma in the end and that we stop seeing these disgusting hit pieces and smear campaigns put out on popular players for the sake of drumming up clicks and further dividing the scene.

Expand full comment
Mar 14, 2023·edited Mar 14, 2023

Keep calling them out. It is a travesty that people believe such obvious lies, but they do. The propaganda machine is strong on both sides. People need to start to think for themselves and judge if something makes sense or not and If you are not informed enough then it is better to be silent than to take a side blindly. It is such a disgusting trade to earn your money by creating so much needless discord.

Expand full comment

Combination of quality reporting, knowledge of the media and eSports space, and a pinch of humor (what a title!), exposing another bad actor while helping an innocent player clear his name. This is RL at his best, a force for good we need more of.

To quote Clive Tyldesley, witnessing Zinedine Zidane pull off a perfect pirouette during the final tournament of his career:

"Please don't give up the game."

I hope an article like this about a popular player will win over some fans who don't yet see the importance of good journalism.

Expand full comment
Mar 14, 2023·edited Mar 14, 2023

There are click-bait publications and apparently there are also gun-trigger inducing publications...

Expand full comment

Worth noting that one of the many tragedies of war is how ardent nationalism can result in intense bias like this, where there's a very real chance that a completely innocent person from a non-participating country can be a victim of real violence, and is perceived as 100% just

But what's worse is that it's almost understandable...Ukraine is really IN IT, on top of being invaded by a much larger aggressor, they're being used for weapons trafficking and money laundering by the US government and are likely to succumb to Russia without direct involvement by NATO

Not excusing this publication at all, clearly this behavior needs to be put in check, but in trying to see things from their perspective this just lines up with what unfortunately always happens in major conflicts

Expand full comment