I think if anyone has issues with this, they ought to question why TL or any other org participated in this tournament in the first place. By being involved in any way, they’re all complicit in tolerating the unethical practices of Saudi Arabia, in exchange for financial gain. Team Spirit could give every dollar they earned in winnings from this tournament to charity and they’d still be guilty of playing for this dirty money.
It’s an uncomfortable truth to think about, and that extends to the esports scene at large with the increasing reliance on betting as the main influx of money, so I think calling TL out here for hypocrisy is in itself a red herring that pulls attention away from the bigger, more sinister and insidious problem of an unethical esports structure.
It’s interesting in a way, because Team Liquid is the only one that did a kind of “we have problems with this but we also want the money”, which is objectively better than just being completely quiet. Yet they are called out more because of it.
I think if anyone has issues with this, they ought to question why TL or any other org participated in this tournament in the first place. By being involved in any way, they’re all complicit in tolerating the unethical practices of Saudi Arabia, in exchange for financial gain. Team Spirit could give every dollar they earned in winnings from this tournament to charity and they’d still be guilty of playing for this dirty money.
It’s an uncomfortable truth to think about, and that extends to the esports scene at large with the increasing reliance on betting as the main influx of money, so I think calling TL out here for hypocrisy is in itself a red herring that pulls attention away from the bigger, more sinister and insidious problem of an unethical esports structure.
It’s interesting in a way, because Team Liquid is the only one that did a kind of “we have problems with this but we also want the money”, which is objectively better than just being completely quiet. Yet they are called out more because of it.