In League of Legends there was a heavy shitstorm yesterday. The European professional league LEC announced a deal with a controversial “Mega-City” project from Saudi Arabia. This triggered a massive backlash. The employees protested. 14 hours after announcing the partnership, it was already over.
This was the announcement: Yesterday afternoon, the European league LEC announced that they had found a new main partner for the summer in “NEOM”.
NEOM is a “New Community that will be the home and workplace for millions of people from around the world who want to be part of building a new model for living and working in thriving Saudi Arabia,” it said in a flowery press release.
NEOM is supposed to encompass villages, cities, ports, and economic zones, as well as research centers, sports and entertainment opportunities. NEOM will also offer many things to tourists.
Additionally, NEOM is supposed to become an important center for esports. NEOM will now be a partner to make the LEC future-proof.
“Mega-City” allegedly violates human rights
Why did people get upset? The project to build a “Mega-City” in Saudi Arabia is viewed critically by Western media. The Guardian writes (via theguardian):
- The project is the “brainchild” of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is ruthless in carrying it out.
- It would be about the size of Belgium and would cost approximately 500 billion US dollars.
- The land on which it is to be built is the home of a tribe – at least 20,000 tribal members are to be forcibly resettled.
- The Guardian quotes an activist from the tribe with “Neom will be built with our blood and on our bones.”
- It is said that people have already been killed and the killings covered up to push the project through and suppress resistance.
- Saudi Arabia is accused of violating human rights.
All of this created a negative mood that immediately broke through as a backlash against the project. The employees and faces of the LEC were the trailblazers of the protest.
LEC casters say: “I am bitterly disappointed”
This was the shitstorm: Relatively quickly, some of the most important LoL players spoke out against the deal. For example, US star Doublelift wrote “Human Rights Violation HYPE.”
The LEC casters expressed their criticism on social media. Travis “Quickshot” Henry linked to the Guardian article stating that the billion-dollar project is “built on blood.”
Many other casters also expressed their criticism of the deal. They were disappointed with the LEC. They felt unheard and silenced.
The topic quickly came up on reddit (via reddit): It was suggested that the Chinese giant Tencent was behind this decision.
There was a general feeling that the league had sold out.
Even those who had not heard of NEOM before could quickly form an opinion based on reports like that of the Guardian: They were against it. (via twitter).
It was apparently about a lot of money
The industry insider Rod Breslau said that the employees were only informed of the partnership shortly beforehand and that there had already been noticeable internal resistance. However, Riot Games still wanted to push ahead with it.
Breslau then quoted the CEO of another company that also announced a partnership with NEOM. For them, it was a “record” deal. Breslau thus suggests that large sums from Saudi Arabia would also flow to Riot Games.
LEC cancels deal after 14 hours of shitstorm
This is LEC’s reaction: Just 14 hours after announcing the deal, they canceled it again (via twitter).
In a statement, Alberto Guerrero, the esports director for the EMEA region, said that they were “too quick to cement the partnership and that it caused a rift in exactly the community they wanted to grow.”
What it’s about: At the moment, several cities want to become “the center of global esports”. Esports is considered “future business”, which will make a lot of money in a few years when thousands of people pilgrimages to the LoL World Championship and then spend their money in the “esports” capital. They should stay in hotels, eat and drink expensively, and perhaps shop. Various cities around the world dream of becoming “the new Las Vegas of esports”.
Therefore, esports is also a pillar of the new “Mega” city in Saudi Arabia. Thematically, it would fit in well.
However, the deal between the LEC and NEOM was seen by critics as something where the LEC sold out – and that to a partner that Riot Games employees and the community completely disagreed with.
Apparently, Riot Games underestimated how loudly its own employees would make this an issue. Among them are the “faces of the LEC”, the casters and commentators who have substantial social media accounts. This had an impact that Riot Games apparently did not foresee.
Last year, Blizzard struggled with a similar situation. The company suddenly found itself embroiled in a discussion about human rights. Blizzard had banned and heavily punished a Hearthstone player who made a critical statement in a livestream regarding the conflict between Hong Kong and China.
Blizzard employees then found that this goes against the principles that Blizzard should stand for:
Hearthstone: Even Blizzard employees protest against the ban
