Month: March 2016

CMM 215: The Downside of Social Media in Esports

Posted on by SonOfJan

Pro athletes have had to deal with negativity, since the beginning of their sports. Under constant criticism from the media, it’s no surprise that they can get a little agitated by reporters on occasion.

It’s no different in eSports. However, the criticism isn’t coming from just reported, it’s coming from a whole community. Players are constantly harped on for poor performances on reddit and twitter, and there’s nothing they can do about it. Sure they can avert there eyes, but that’s almost impossible. If you play videogames, your almost guaranteed to frequent reddit. And it’s even harder to ignore your twitter mentions.

You could make the argument that they shouldn’t let it get to their head. Sure athletes don’t let it bother them, but then again they don’t see the thousands upon thousands of angry fans relentlessly abusing them on social media. They only hear it from a select few in the media. Sure they have twitters, but are they really looking through millions of comments from followers?

The point is eSport players are under constant scrutiny. And most of these guys (and gals) are younger than 25, and may not have the maturity to handle the criticism. It’s a shame that one of the fastest growing industries in the world, is marred by online internet trolls. To the players that don’t let things like this get to their head, I salute you.

CMM 215: Riot Biased Against CLG?

Posted on by SonOfJan

The Reddit world has been abuzz these past couple of days, with allegations that Riot Games is showing bias against one of their LCS teams, Counter Logic Gaming.

For one thing,  many feel the pre-match hype video for Sunday’s “game of the week,” was incredibly focused on CLG’s opponent Cloud 9.  Cloud 9 and CLG are on relatively even footing in the standings, so the fact that one team was showcased more, is a bit odd.

Another odd circumstance, is after the game (CLG won) the customary post-match interview with a member of the winning team, in this case CLG’s Aphromoo, was cut short for an interview with a member of the losing team (C9’s Hai).  Now don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with getting a fresh take from the losing team (albeit might be a little awkward). But just know that the losing team rarely gets interviewed after LCS matches.

Here’s CLG’s owner, HotshotGG’s, reaction.

CLG is one of the biggest and most historic teams in professional League of Legends history, so this perceived bias may just be one really unfortunate coincidence.  However, if it’s not, it’s really bad for everyone involved. If this bias is real, and proven, it’ll be an absolute PR nightmare for the company that produces the biggest video game in the world.  It also hurts CLG, because of the simple fact that publicity and personality equal more sponsors.  With less notoriety comes less social media buzz, and even less fans.  If Riot is intentionally snubbing CLG for whatever reason, they’re hurting them from a monetary perspective, which is completely unprofessional and unacceptable.