Sources: Evil Geniuses Lodged Complaint With ESL After Broadcast Segment
For an organisation that tries to lean into the fun side of "being evil" they don't appear to have much of a sense of humour
Sources have informed this publication that North American organisation Evil Geniuses lodged a formal complaint with ESL after the tournament operator broadcast a segment that poked fun at them. The segment, entitled “Deleted Scenes,” was part of the revised ESL Pro League format where the broadcast is designed to be less serious than a traditional sports broadcast, even including skits and backstage access.
The segment, which took place on the 24th February, was an improvisational comedy segment in the style of popular British comedy show Whose Line Is It Anyway. Members of the on-air talent pool were invited to come up and say the first funny thing that came into their head about a number of scenarios. These included “things the commentators would never say when casting FaZe,”things you’d never hear in Outsiders comms” and “things you would not hear at an EG bootcamp.” You can see the segment for yourself at 06:41:15 of this link.
In response the jokes that were told were:
“Guys I think these season’s going to be fine… I’ve spoken to the management and they’ve put out a series of tweets that are going to put us in a strong position this year. Everything’s probably going to be fine.”
“Hey it sure is getting cold in here. Has anyone got anymore money we can burn?”
“No but seriously guys I think if we just add 14 more players I think we’re on to something.”
“Alright guys I’d like to introduce a new member to our staff. It’s Kassad.”
“Good news Wiz we went over it and you’re getting a raise”
“Congratulations everyone, we won a match.”
Sources familiar with the inner workings of the ESL broadcast said that this was enough to trigger a response from Evil Geniuses management who lodged an official complaint with ESL saying that he mockery was potentially “damaging to their brand.”
“They were furious after the segment aired” one source said “and all the broadcast talent was told to take it easy on Evil Geniuses after that. It was also agreed that ESL would not repeat the segment again for the rest of the event.”
The same source said there were a few hairy moments on the broadcast when production forgot to take the segment out of the rotation and it started playing again. This incident did not generate another response from EG management.
Evil Geniuses have currently found themselves beleaguered with a series of negative headlines lately including allegations of alleged player neglect and managerial incompetence. Their recent addition of a sponsorship from oil giant Chevron was also met with derision from the esports community. If that wasn’t enough their CS:GO team continued to disappoint at the ESL Pro League event itself, finishing joint last for the fourth time out of the past five seasons. Under the terms of ESL’s Louvre Agreement the team’s participation in the league should be “subject to review.” Instead it seems ESL have rewarded the organisation by inviting them as “local heroes” to IEM Dallas.
Although this is a silly overreaction to some very mild jokes at the organisation’s expense it does show just how sensitive they have become to the constant criticism. Although they have not been drawn into public comment around reporting of their handling of Kyle “Danny” Sakamaki, they did recently put a statement out on Twitter acknowledging the performance of the CS:GO team had “been a miss” for the organisation.
Our sources indicate that no other team complained about the jokes made at their expense on the broadcast.
American not handling joke's. Name a more iconic duo.
Now then guys, back on't road again. Today we went to a place named EG but unfortunately we couln't find anything to eat.