The significant majority of the esports industry will be in the hands of the Saudi Arabian government for the foreseeable future. Here's how we got here.
You know esports should’ve been a niche sport like darts, pool or any other sport, not as attractive but good enough to be decent enough to people to invest and watch and see it grow from the ground up. But nope you fucked it up and look it as being Saudi dog food for the rest of our lives. I hope the esports fan reading this, mine included, learns a lesson that in order to start a business it will be sustainable and organic not with and being niche is fine. Oh well here’s to Saudi esports being a thing. Oh one more thing Richard, enjoy another winter World Cup in 2034.
Fantastic last line. It is a sad state of affairs. Two questions remain for me, though:
1- Will Saudi ever get tired of Esports? I know this is part of their 2030 plan and the collective brainwashing of their youth, but with the money they're pumping into much bigger industries, will they stick to their Esports investments or just get bored of them?
2- How will they include LoL in their circuit? They own Dota, they monopolised Counter-Strike, but will Riot (Tencent) just give LoL away?
Would be interested to get your thoughts on this, hopefully you'll address it in a future article. Thanks for the consistently incredible work, Richard.
My opinion is that Saudi Arabia will keep Esports forever as it will be "cheap" upkeep costs of sports washing. Esports will remaing cheaper than traditional sports so why not keep it? It will just be a loss leader they keep to further another goal. I consider it little to no different a business model than why CostCo keeps losing money selling cheap hotdogs at their locations.
The Saudi Arabian state already had League event there in the past(after the whole NEOM deal especially), no doubt they will get many more in at some point
The League event that happened this year was the Arabian Minor Region finals, which kind of made sense. NEOM was a sponsorship, what's happening in CS2/Dota goes way beyond it.
No, League is owned by another problematic state, the Chinese one. Very simple. All in all, esports is in a relatively bad shape right now. Not as bad as Richard puts it, Saudi has some control but 90% of the control is still in the west and Valve didn’t sell the game to Saudi either. In that context League is more sold out than CS is, cause Riot indeed was sold out to China.
Good article Lewis. I noticed there was a formatting/copy-paste error at the end of the paragraph under the TSM photo. Could just be my browser messing up tho...
Great read although abit sad haha! I hope esports "dies" so it can become more community driven. That way only the real fans stay and all the plebs can go watch the next influencer boxing chess garbage fiesta or whatever.
I agree on most parts but you exaggerated wildly when you said Saudi has major control over the game now. No they don’t, they have some relevant control, don’t own significant teams, don’t own the game and 98% of the tournaments are in the west under western control. League is in a worse state due to Riot being bought by Tencent, in fact. Funny enough, it seems that League is still doing better. The control China has over the game didn’t make it toxic so far.
They own the largest esports league in the world through Savvy Gaming, at least two development studios, have significcant shareholdings in Riot Games and Activision Blizzard, have two sponsors that are PIF funded projects that are now sponsoring everything from media companies to events to create a false layer of abstraction, they run the most lucrative esports event in the world now even overshadowing Valve's TI, pretty much run the only meaningful Dota circuit and are now setting up investments in individual teams. They've also positioned members of the royal family at the head of multiple international esports federations for the purposes of taking a run at influencing the Olympics and their esports divisions. This has all happened in about a year.
Fair enough but I still think CS is highly in western control - you argumented with a lot of other games here, I mainly did with CS.
Esports is weak and the Saudis took advantage of that. Capitalism is a failing construct because it tests the mediocre character that most humans possess or the general character of humanity which is at best mediocre - which isn’t good enough for capitalism to work unchecked.
The most meaningful thing I've read on eSports in a while. eSports will remain a niche and maybe that's a good thing. My favorite eSport at the moment is – 25 years old – Brood War. Basically crowdfunded by a bunch of nerds that allow a smaller bunch of nerds to live off playing and casting this beautiful game. Real fans pay and that's what we do here. Developer has fucked off and good on them. Will it ever go on TV? No and who cares.
You know esports should’ve been a niche sport like darts, pool or any other sport, not as attractive but good enough to be decent enough to people to invest and watch and see it grow from the ground up. But nope you fucked it up and look it as being Saudi dog food for the rest of our lives. I hope the esports fan reading this, mine included, learns a lesson that in order to start a business it will be sustainable and organic not with and being niche is fine. Oh well here’s to Saudi esports being a thing. Oh one more thing Richard, enjoy another winter World Cup in 2034.
Fantastic last line. It is a sad state of affairs. Two questions remain for me, though:
1- Will Saudi ever get tired of Esports? I know this is part of their 2030 plan and the collective brainwashing of their youth, but with the money they're pumping into much bigger industries, will they stick to their Esports investments or just get bored of them?
2- How will they include LoL in their circuit? They own Dota, they monopolised Counter-Strike, but will Riot (Tencent) just give LoL away?
Would be interested to get your thoughts on this, hopefully you'll address it in a future article. Thanks for the consistently incredible work, Richard.
My opinion is that Saudi Arabia will keep Esports forever as it will be "cheap" upkeep costs of sports washing. Esports will remaing cheaper than traditional sports so why not keep it? It will just be a loss leader they keep to further another goal. I consider it little to no different a business model than why CostCo keeps losing money selling cheap hotdogs at their locations.
The Saudi Arabian state already had League event there in the past(after the whole NEOM deal especially), no doubt they will get many more in at some point
The League event that happened this year was the Arabian Minor Region finals, which kind of made sense. NEOM was a sponsorship, what's happening in CS2/Dota goes way beyond it.
No, League is owned by another problematic state, the Chinese one. Very simple. All in all, esports is in a relatively bad shape right now. Not as bad as Richard puts it, Saudi has some control but 90% of the control is still in the west and Valve didn’t sell the game to Saudi either. In that context League is more sold out than CS is, cause Riot indeed was sold out to China.
Good article Lewis. I noticed there was a formatting/copy-paste error at the end of the paragraph under the TSM photo. Could just be my browser messing up tho...
Great read although abit sad haha! I hope esports "dies" so it can become more community driven. That way only the real fans stay and all the plebs can go watch the next influencer boxing chess garbage fiesta or whatever.
Great read although it was sad haha. I hope gaming can become more community driven in the future as I think it takes away from gaming.
I agree on most parts but you exaggerated wildly when you said Saudi has major control over the game now. No they don’t, they have some relevant control, don’t own significant teams, don’t own the game and 98% of the tournaments are in the west under western control. League is in a worse state due to Riot being bought by Tencent, in fact. Funny enough, it seems that League is still doing better. The control China has over the game didn’t make it toxic so far.
They own the largest esports league in the world through Savvy Gaming, at least two development studios, have significcant shareholdings in Riot Games and Activision Blizzard, have two sponsors that are PIF funded projects that are now sponsoring everything from media companies to events to create a false layer of abstraction, they run the most lucrative esports event in the world now even overshadowing Valve's TI, pretty much run the only meaningful Dota circuit and are now setting up investments in individual teams. They've also positioned members of the royal family at the head of multiple international esports federations for the purposes of taking a run at influencing the Olympics and their esports divisions. This has all happened in about a year.
Which part did I exaggerate?
Fair enough but I still think CS is highly in western control - you argumented with a lot of other games here, I mainly did with CS.
Esports is weak and the Saudis took advantage of that. Capitalism is a failing construct because it tests the mediocre character that most humans possess or the general character of humanity which is at best mediocre - which isn’t good enough for capitalism to work unchecked.
The most meaningful thing I've read on eSports in a while. eSports will remain a niche and maybe that's a good thing. My favorite eSport at the moment is – 25 years old – Brood War. Basically crowdfunded by a bunch of nerds that allow a smaller bunch of nerds to live off playing and casting this beautiful game. Real fans pay and that's what we do here. Developer has fucked off and good on them. Will it ever go on TV? No and who cares.
"Pic unrelated" lmfao.
Amazing article as always, can't wait for part 2, assuming Rich hasn't been Khashoggi'd