Gamers Without Borders—the qualifying tournament for Gamers8—has concluded, deciding the sixteen players who will compete at the $400,000 main event in Riyadh. The StarCraft II portion of Gamers8 will take place during August 3-6. The exact format of the main event has yet to be announced.
The qualifiers were held during April 14-23, with the top 24 finishers from IEM Katowice 2023 competing for 16 main event spots at Gamers8.
Jamal Khashoggi was assassinated and hacked into small pieces inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2 October 2018 by agents of the Saudi government, which ensured the real perpetrators were never investigated or punished.
On April 24 2023 08:53 Crocolisk Dundee wrote: Jamal Khashoggi was assassinated and hacked into small pieces inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2 October 2018 by agents of the Saudi government, which ensured the real perpetrators were never investigated or punished.
Gamers8 and other esports events are sportswashing investments by the Saudi government in an attempt to overshadow its horrific human rights abuses.
Yeah but all the non-Saudi money is coming from China! What are we supposed to do about that!!
The reality is that almost everything you consume, whether it be media or competitive video games that are past their prime, it's probably owned / run by some shitty person. You favorite sports team: shitty person owns it.
If you want, you can still consume this content and still shit on Saudi Arabia. They aren't mutually exclusive! And what's great is that, given how completely unprofitable SC2 is, it's almost guaranteed they're losing money on it. So if everyone still hates SA after the event, and we got a free BW/SC2 tournament out of it, then we come out okay..!
On April 24 2023 08:53 Crocolisk Dundee wrote: Jamal Khashoggi was assassinated and hacked into small pieces inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2 October 2018 by agents of the Saudi government, which ensured the real perpetrators were never investigated or punished.
Gamers8 and other esports events are sportswashing investments by the Saudi government in an attempt to overshadow its horrific human rights abuses.
The blunt truth is, where are the "cleaner" sponsors when we need them ? The offgaming side of the problem should be its own separate topic in the Community section.
Speaking about the tournament, sad that neither Astrea or Special qualified, but I was guessing it was likely to happen, no surprises otherwise.
On April 24 2023 08:53 Crocolisk Dundee wrote: Jamal Khashoggi was assassinated and hacked into small pieces inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2 October 2018 by agents of the Saudi government, which ensured the real perpetrators were never investigated or punished.
On April 24 2023 08:53 Crocolisk Dundee wrote: Jamal Khashoggi was assassinated and hacked into small pieces inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2 October 2018 by agents of the Saudi government, which ensured the real perpetrators were never investigated or punished.
Gamers8 and other esports events are sportswashing investments by the Saudi government in an attempt to overshadow its horrific human rights abuses.
One way to look at it is: it is not a federally funded tournament. It is being ran by a citizen of that nation. If players and fans were to stop consuming their hosted events, its possible that the citizens may be frustrated with their government. While the Saudi government remains the same, because it is not a democracy. Not even F1 or UFC leaving would make a mark. I think regimes like Saudi Arabia take revolutions to change, because there are no other avenues of change in an authoritarian regime.
On April 24 2023 08:53 Crocolisk Dundee wrote: Jamal Khashoggi was assassinated and hacked into small pieces inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2 October 2018 by agents of the Saudi government, which ensured the real perpetrators were never investigated or punished.
Gamers8 and other esports events are sportswashing investments by the Saudi government in an attempt to overshadow its horrific human rights abuses.
Who gives a shit?
Everything we consume is related / from to some sort of human right / labour abuse
Just some people need to say what they think and then go and buy products made by literal slaves in some 3rd world country. That's hypocrisy in my eyes.
On April 24 2023 08:53 Crocolisk Dundee wrote: Jamal Khashoggi was assassinated and hacked into small pieces inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2 October 2018 by agents of the Saudi government, which ensured the real perpetrators were never investigated or punished.
Gamers8 and other esports events are sportswashing investments by the Saudi government in an attempt to overshadow its horrific human rights abuses.
Yeah but all the non-Saudi money is coming from China! What are we supposed to do about that!!
The reality is that almost everything you consume, whether it be media or competitive video games that are past their prime, it's probably owned / run by some shitty person. You favorite sports team: shitty person owns it.
If you want, you can still consume this content and still shit on Saudi Arabia. They aren't mutually exclusive! And what's great is that, given how completely unprofitable SC2 is, it's almost guaranteed they're losing money on it. So if everyone still hates SA after the event, and we got a free BW/SC2 tournament out of it, then we come out okay..!
"Completely unprofitable"? If its so "completely unprofitable", why are there still events popping up?
Kung Fu Cup $1500 Weeklies Wardi with a $10000 tournaments, Wardi doing weeklys [WTL 2023] $87000 Korean Starcraft Leagaue $400 Weekly
Just to name a few. Are they just enjoying losing money? Or are they doing that out of courtesy?
On April 24 2023 08:53 Crocolisk Dundee wrote: Jamal Khashoggi was assassinated and hacked into small pieces inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2 October 2018 by agents of the Saudi government, which ensured the real perpetrators were never investigated or punished.
Gamers8 and other esports events are sportswashing investments by the Saudi government in an attempt to overshadow its horrific human rights abuses.
Yeah but all the non-Saudi money is coming from China! What are we supposed to do about that!!
The reality is that almost everything you consume, whether it be media or competitive video games that are past their prime, it's probably owned / run by some shitty person. You favorite sports team: shitty person owns it.
If you want, you can still consume this content and still shit on Saudi Arabia. They aren't mutually exclusive! And what's great is that, given how completely unprofitable SC2 is, it's almost guaranteed they're losing money on it. So if everyone still hates SA after the event, and we got a free BW/SC2 tournament out of it, then we come out okay..!
"Completely unprofitable"? If its so "completely unprofitable", why are there still events popping up?
Kung Fu Cup $1500 Weeklies Wardi with a $10000 tournaments, Wardi doing weeklys [WTL 2023] $87000 Korean Starcraft Leagaue $400 Weekly
Just to name a few. Are they just enjoying losing money? Or are they doing that out of courtesy?
They're doing it out of passion and receiving funding from crowdfunding and sponsors. It doesn't mean they're making profits, or not enough to do it for a living. It also doesn't mean that sponsors make enough value back for their investments.
On April 24 2023 08:53 Crocolisk Dundee wrote:
So should we also avoid US tournaments, and any country that has committed war crimes and human rights violations? If you think so, then I'm fine with your view.
Are they just enjoying losing money? Or are they doing that out of courtesy?
The saudis want the PR boost, plus maybe some of the higher-ups likes to watch e-sports.
Community tournaments like the wardiTV tournaments, Scboy events and other third-party sponsored smaller events are mostly to promote the sc2 ecosystem. They are "losing" money to support the players, sure, but if the scene is dead then they all lose their jobs.
On April 25 2023 17:55 Yoshi Kirishima wrote: So should we also avoid US tournaments, and any country that has committed war crimes and human rights violations? If you think so, then I'm fine with your view.
A similar question came up in a previous thread about Gamers8. Personally, I try to avoid events sponsored by organisations lilke U.S. Army Esports for example. I still enjoy watching World Team League because SCboy is not the Communist Party of China.
I would say hes more on HM level at the moment in term of the build and sharp timing. Basically you have to really beat him straight up, cant just expect him to roll over and die because of some bad mistake. From the Wardi tournament today, I do feel that Byun and Solar under-estimated him and did some pretty bad fight that allow Spirit to just get ahead and snowball it later.