Saudi Arabia hosts $62 million e-sports tournament – ​​one team gets to wear Pride jerseys

earthpressnews

The 2024 Esports World Cup, a huge event, is taking place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, starting today, July 4th. Until August 25th, there will be a prize pool of $62.5 million to compete for: League of Legends, Starcraft II, Street Fighter 6, DOTA 2, Apex Legends and many other games. One team has now been allowed to wear rainbow Pride jerseys.

That was the big discussion about the event: It is the same discussion that was held at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar:

  • An important sporting event is taking place, with a lot of money and fame at stake – but the host country is – from a Western perspective – highly problematic
  • Is it morally okay for athletes to participate when the ruling regime is so difficult?
  • Can and should you as an athlete make a statement there or will it come back to haunt you like the German national football team’s “One Love” armband (via spiegel)?

    • In the past, there had always been countermovements when Western companies wanted to do business in Saudi Arabia, such as with Rot Games in 2020.

    Disclaimer: Webedia, the parent company of MeinMMO, is also active in Saudi Arabia and operates the portal saudigamer.com, among others.”

    LoL also tells beautiful, less controversial stories:

    A 67-year-old grandfather becomes a legend in LoL and a nightmare for Riot Games

    More videos

    Autoplay

    Pride jerseys in Saudi Arabia

    This is the news now: As reporter Rod Breslau reports, the US team Team Liquid has been allowed to wear rainbow Pride jerseys. All teams that Team Liquid sends to Riyadh will therefore be wearing Pride jerseys.

    The permission is unusual because Saudi Arabia actually has a hostile environment for the LGBTQ+ community; among other things, same-sex love is forbidden in Saudi Arabia.

    “Team Liquid” is one of the most famous and successful e-sports teams in the world. They are represented in an extremely large number of games, have won 5 championship titles in LoL in the USA, but also have strong teams in, in our opinion, exotic games such as Mobile Legends: Bang Bang.

    This is how it is discussed: On English-speaking Twitter, the news is received very differently:

  • On the one hand, this is seen as a “massive and unexpected victory” for Team Liquid and as a sign that even in Saudi Arabia the signs are pointing towards change
  • Others react cynically to the news – and see it as an empty gesture that does not change the real conditions in the country

    • In general, the e-sports event in Saudi Arabia is viewed critically by many as an attempt by an unjust regime to gain more prestige and relevance through “sport”. This is referred to as “sport-washing”.

    But the permission to wear the Pride jersey seems to be an example of an effect that supporters of such events have always wanted, that such events not only increase the reputation of a country, but also bring about change. If you want to read more about gaming in Saudi Arabia, we recommend the GameStar Plus report on the topic: Savings are being made everywhere, but Saudi Arabia is investing a lot of money in video games – this is what’s behind it

    mmod-game