OPBAF: June 1st Hypocrisy Watch

June 1st is in the books and it was surprisingly quiet in esports, almost as if the industry had become ideologically compromised in some way

Riot Games artwork for Pride Month

As part of our ongoing coverage of how esports, an industry increasingly being taken over by money from the Saudi Arabian state, will approach Pride Month in 2024 we shall be monitoring the messaging from those who have taken said money. A large part of why the wider community finds the situation so repugnant is that these businesses refuse to publicly own their choices and what those choices say about their “core values.” It remains a fact that it is fundamentally incompatible to do business with a state entity that would persecute and execute the LGBT community while paying lip service to how much you truly care about the LGBT community. You must pick one and yet all through June you will see these companies attempt to “double dip,” raising money by using the LGBT community for cynical marketing exercises in Western markets while abandoning them overseas in territories where gay and trans rights are non-existent.

The real question is whether or not we will see much Pride activity at all from these organisations, which of course begs the question “what changed?” The position they have put themselves in through falsely making claims about what constitutes their “core values” while taking money that compromises them really doesn’t give them a good option. They can remain quiet this June, suggesting that actually all the commentary about how Saudi Arabian state money won’t change them as a business was all lies or they can give mealy-mouthed support for LGBT causes and be digitally lambasted for the clear empty gesture that constitutes. Put shortly, choose your profit or your principles. The world can see which you prioritise.

This is a summary from June 1^st in esports where, perhaps unsurprisingly, many of the organisations that had previously fallen over themselves to publish pre-planned and co-ordinated Pride Month material were strangely quiet.

Riot Games Remain Shameless

Obviously including Riot Games is like shooting fish in a barrel but they were the first on the timeline. It’s quite incredible how a company that has had to settle a substantial lawsuit for sexual harassment, discrimination and retaliation against complainants would continue to posture as a beacon for diversity and inclusion but they’ve never been big on self-awareness. This is the same week their lead on Valorant put out a strange video saying they were going to increase moderation of people saying mean things on the internet because she was a mother and had a nurturing instinct. As a summary of the Gaia Karen’s words “we’re going to spy on you more because the mute button just isn’t enough.”

The things these walls have seen

Anyway, their celebrations begin with themed artwork. A good initiative for the artists to be sure as it is a huge platform and likely to be seen by many parties. However I can’t help but have the nagging feeling that given that Riot decided to rescind their own rules and standards around who can and can’t run tournaments just so the Esports World Cup could feature their game, the gesture does seem ultimately performative and hollow. After all the EWC will be the next big tournament for their game and given the global format, something of a rarity in the League of Legends ecosystem, it will likely see a huge viewership. What you won’t see is any of this artwork, any subsequent in-game content created with rainbow motifs, or indeed any fierceness from staff or competitors when the tournament comes around.

A shame then that Riot have of course been gaslighting their own LGBT employees into thinking that a strategic partnership with the Saudi Arabian state is a big win for them. I published leaked Slack communications where figureheads of the Rainbow Rioters stated that by “indirectly” promoting their values they were really representing the LGBT community in the MENA region and added that if players picked canonically “queer” characters in the video game while in Saudi Arabia that really “made a difference.”

I am sure the LGBT civilians in Saudi Arabia will all enjoy applauding a Twisted Fate lock-in from their prison cells.

HEROIC: Feisty No More

Heroic’s historical approach to Pride Month has been to inflame the sensibilities of bigots, which is something I totally approve of. For instance on June 1^st of last year they posted “Happy Pride Month gaymers” (see what they did there) and then did a follow up showing a classic meme of that guy who really just wanted a hug saying “homophobic cs players in the replies when they see heroic has a rainbow logo.” A reply in June also said “wanna have gay sex to piss him off” in response to the Opera GX corporate account and after Pride Month had ended they asked “is it illegal to kiss your homies now that pride month is over” on the 1^st July, prompting a reply from NiP that they were “still here for it.” NiP are also part of the Esports World Club Program so let’s see about that later.

All of this is excellent banter and the replies it generates from morons who say things like “what about straight month” or “why are you ramming it down our throats” (phrasing) always give me great pleasure. And so Heroic were off to the races with the same shtick posting “sorry I’m late I was having gay sex.” Well, it is June after all, am I right? That tweet only lasted about 25 minutes thought before it was replaced with “sorry I’m late I was kissing one of my homies.” OK, well fair enough maybe we do need to be a bit more reserved this June all things considered and who doesn’t kiss their homies? But that was then deleted too, which seems odd given the organisation’s history with their approach to Pride.

I tweeted and asked why but received no response as of yet so I can only theorise that maybe they simply won’t support Pride causes this month at all. Or maybe it’s because their team will be competing in United Arab Emirates for a share of $400,000 in the Compass Abu Dhabi tournament. Given that the UAE has a similar approach to criminalising LGBT rights as their Saudi Arabian counterparts maybe Heroic decided to pump the breaks on exactly how many homies get kissed ahead of their attendance.

Team Liquid: Call Out Culture Is Bad Now

Team Liquid baffle me. They have been incredibly vocal on their championing of LGBT rights in the past. For instance, following a letter being written by Texas Governor Greg Abbott where he reminded the office of the Attorney General that ““sex change” procedures constitute child abuse under existing Texas law” Team Liquid’s co-CEO Steve Arhancet tweeted “We head to Texas this week. I'm proud of our team and can’t wait to see our fans IRL. But I can’t just ignore the ongoing and atrocious actions of local leadership toward the lgbtq+ community, trans community and women. Going to do our part to help.”

This is great and I love this energy but since then Team Liquid has become more and more entwined with the Saudi Arabian state. We can all talk about the various implications of competing in ESLFACEIT Group events and attending the Esports World Cup. Indeed, the other co-CEO Victor Goossens has publicly explained that reality as being effectively a necessary evil if they want to attract top competitors to the Team Liquid banner. However it’s another for the organisation, one of the world’s largest and most successful, one I would even go so far as to say as one of the best run in history, has to accept a stipend of Saudi state money for no other purpose than to expand their operations.

You see, I’m sad to inform Mr. Arhancet that conditions for LGBT people in Saudi Arabia might very well be considered worse than atrocious and so I have to wonder about commitment to the cause overall. As I’ve said repeatedly, it’s clear that bigotry exists in the US, it’s far from a mainstream position and even when there are legislative backslides, activism against those are not punishable by the state due to the many protections afforded everyday Americans. This is not true of your new business partner now, no matter where you believe they may be within ten years.

They have been among the biggest disappointments for me personally as on the one hand they have given money to charitable causes, something they seem to believe is “Robin Hood shit” based on Twitter likes, but then have monetised those statements using hashtags designed to promote events in Riyadh. So I didn’t know which way they would go this year but little seemed to have changed.

They announced a competition called “Showcase Your Pride” where people get to decorate a mural and submit their entries with the best being displayed at a later date. In jest I tweeted out the winner would be displayed during the Esports World Cup in Riyadh, which of course it won’t. This is because despite all the statements trying to convince you of sweeping reform recently state operatives confiscated toys and clothing that incorporated rainbow designs.

The replies to the competition, even prior to my own, were pointing out the hypocrisy of the promotion. As I said in my initial article this truly will be the June where people put their foot down about this performative, slacktivism bullshit that takes the genuine concerns of a marginalised community and turns them into cheap marketing tactics. However, for some reason this prompted a public response from the Senior Managing Editor who had, of course, concluded that I was in fact the real problem. Over the course of an exchange I’ll include in the Team Liquid focus it was said that ultimately there was nothing that could be done about the Saudi Arabian business dealings because a board and investors all had the final say and that it was my commentary – and not the decisions of their employee – that was actually hurting “queer” people. What’s up? I thought you all liked accountability culture.