How Team Liquid Monetised Their Apology For Their Riyadh Masters Attendance

The organisation used a tracking hashtag for a social media monetisation scheme put in place to promote the Saudi run Dota 2 event.

The Saudi Arabian Gamers 8 festival runs across July and August every year and aims to be the biggest celebration of games and esports in the world. The event is funded by the Saudi Arabian government and run by the Saudi Esports Federation, a new branch of the Council of Economic and Development Affairs founded in 2017. Given Saudi Arabia’s human rights record and laws that persecute LGBT people many attendees have found themselves in the awkward position of having to posture about subscribing to values of equality and inclusiveness but working in partnership with a state that doesn’t share those values. Many of the esports organisations have been criticised for the tonal whiplash of vocally supporting Pride Month in June only to work with a government that criminalizes homosexuality in July.

One such organisation is Team Liquid who currently have a significant number of participants in attendance and have just placed second at the Riyadh Masters Dota 2 event. They have been vocal supporters of a number of social causes and have found themselves subject to much criticism for seemingly wanting the best of both worlds. On July 14^th the organisation’s founder, Victor Goossens, released a four minute video apology and explanation about why their attendance was necessary alongside a pledge to donate two sets of $50,000 to LGBT and women’s charities. Ultimately they stated that it was now impossible to avoid doing business with the Saudi Arabian state due to their widespread investment in the gaming and esports industry and that to deliberately avoid doing that business would only hurt Team Liquid in the long run. The organisation is already a partner member of Saudi owned ESL’s Pro League, a competition where the teams partner with the tournament operator in a revenue share agreement.

While many still pointed out the hypocrisy for many fans and industry spokespeople the charitable gesture at least made their attendance more palatable. After all, many of the other attending organisations had adopted a strategy of silence and were conspicuously absent on social media during the most recent Pride events. That however isn’t the full story.

Sources who participated in the Gamers 8 event have sent this publication internal emails that confirm the existence of a social media bonus program for the Riyadh Masters. The event had put aside an additional $1,500,000 for incentivising not only performance but social media posts from the attending organisations. The top four organisations that generated the most social media engagement stood to earn approximately $75,000 each out of the $750,000 distributed. Different platforms contributed different weightings, with 50% being allocated to Twitter, Facebook and Instagram making up 35% and TikTok making up 15%. In order to track which organisations earned the most engagement they had to use the hashtag #RiyadhMasters so the numbers could be tracked by Blinkfire. We also know from the internal emails sent to this publication that this incentive program started on July 13^th and ends on August 13^th.

While the list of attendees was officially announced on the 12^th July the same sources explained teams had known of their intention to attend in the middle of June. This publication revealed the existence of the revamped circuit and expansion of the Riyadh Masters in March. Despite having knowledge that they would attend for that amount of time Team Liquid didn’t post their two public apologies until the 14^th July and used the hashtag #RiyadhMasters in them.

Initially they posted a four minute video with Team Liquid founder Victor Goossens on their brand account of 757,000 followers. This was also followed with a lengthy post detailing that they would be donating $100,000 to LGBT and women’s charities to offset their attending an event in Saudi Arabia. The follow up tweet linking to a report about Saudi human rights practices did not use the tracked hashtag. An hour later Goossens would quote tweet the apology on his own personal account of 24,000 followers, this time again using the tracked hashtag.

Team Liquid competing at the Riyadh Masters. Image courtesy of Dexerto.

It’s reasonable to say that Team Liquid were aware that many fans would point out the hypocrisy and as such those tweets would cause a stir and get engagement. As of writing this the video interview received 85 retweets, 57 quote tweets and 469 likes with Twitter’s public numbers saying it was viewed 236,500 times. The written apology received 91 retweets, 60 quote tweets and 398 likes with Twitter’s public numbers saying it was viewed just under 100,000 times. For context these numbers are higher than any other single tweet we could find from the Liquid account that used the appropriate hashtag. They did not post their apology content on their Facebook, Instagram or TikTok accounts.

Of course it would be a ridiculous assertion to make out that the “popularity” of the apology and how much it was shared would be the sole reason as to why Team Liquid would earn their share of the social media payout. However, it does beg the question as to why they would use the hashtag at all given that the prescribed internet etiquette for influencers is to publish them with no ads as a show of genuine contrition. It’s also fair to say that many who saw the tweet may have felt inclined to share it as it referenced a charity. While our sources said that teams won’t know for two to three months whether their social media qualified them for which cash bonus, we do know that Team Liquid finished runners-up in the competition and therefore netted $105,000 which goes directly to the organisation. Couple that with the organisation almost certainly taking a percentage of the $2.5 million in prize money they earned and an assumed $75,000 from a top four social media placement and suddenly that $100,000 is framed in a different context.

But there’s more. In addition to the hundreds of thousands the Team Liquid has netted through the bonuses relating to performance and social media engagement there was also a Gamers8 specific bonus pool for multi-gaming organisations (MGOs) across all tournaments. The bonus scheme distributes $5 million across attending organisations based on how they perform in any of the other main competitions, with the first prize being $1.5 million and eighth being a $100,000. A full prize breakdown can be seen in the tournament’s official rulebook but with Team Liquid entrants in Starcraft 2, CS:GO, Rocket League as well as their second place in Dota 2, Team Liquid should do relatively well. Suddenly the $100,000 pledge in exchange for the positive PR seems like a drop in the bucket.

We have reached out to Team Liquid for comment on this story. Mr. Goossens provided the following quote:

"The reason why we used the hashtag is very simple. We used it to add a contradicting voice to the conversation on the topic. That’s it. Additionally, I believe that if we had not used the hashtag I think it would have looked like we were trying to dodge bringing attention to the post, which is the last thing we wanted.

I’ve already shared that the money involved with these events is substantial, but that certainly does not come down to a single tweet. The engagement associated with this is fairly useless and we do not want nor need to get paid for it. That said, if the SEF wants to pay us to use the hashtag to speak out on these topics, then that should be a win and a good sign for everyone."

Their CS:GO team will be in action when the Gamers8 tournament begins on August 16^th.