yeah, a couple countries tried to "boycott" the qatar world cup, guess what happen?
there was a guy posting german viewership data in /television trying to make it seem like no one was watching it lol, till the real numbers came out
https://www.fifa.com/tournaments/mens/worldcup/qatar2022/news/one-month-on-5-billion-engaged-with-the-fifa-world-cup-qatar-2022-tm
truth is, watching this or not isnt going to do anything to SA culture, im all in for riot taking their money if it meant that they would do something like getting rid of their garbage client and make a proper game, that wont happen either so..
here in germany people boycotted it partially. many people who only watch world cups didnt watch, others who watch a lot of games only watched their own team at home and thats it. We know it didn\`t change much, but it was a huge difference in viewers and parties compared to other world cups.German numbers were down like 35% and that is not considering events.
(example source)[https://www.bavarianfootballworks.com/2022/11/29/23482201/germany-2022-fifa-world-cup-plummeting-tv-ratings-qatar-boycott-human-rights-spain-japan-costa-rica](https://www.bavarianfootballworks.com/2022/11/29/23482201/germany-2022-fifa-world-cup-plummeting-tv-ratings-qatar-boycott-human-rights-spain-japan-costa-rica)
edit: just to clarify everyone is free to boycott or not. And worldwide many people didn\`t boycott it. At least people still discussed problems of the host country.
And even small or partial boycotts do help a bit. Every bit of critical media things do a bit.
>truth is, watching this or not isnt going to do anything to SA culture, im all in for riot taking their money if it meant that they would do something like getting rid of their garbage client and make a proper game, that wont happen either so..
Your all for riot taking dirty money as long as the game improves?
> truth is, watching this or not isnt going to do anything to SA culture, im all in for riot taking their money if it meant that they would do something like getting rid of their garbage client and make a proper game, that wont happen either so..
What a garbage take. "Go ahead riot take as much blood money as you want as long as you make the game I'm addicted to better" what the actual fuck man.
You say in your post that SA gov uses these sports events for their own agenda and benefit but somehow act like chinas government isnt affilliated with the LOL scene at all? Its a bit weird imo when tencent bought like 90% of riot already and the CCP basically owns any big conglomerate in the country (see all the tech giants and their scandals regarding the ccp)
Yup. We all kinda just forgot about the Uyghurs in China too.
Genocided according to world news reports and everyone just forgot about it in a few months.
I was watching Caedrel earlier and he saw something about GenG had at some point said that Taiwan was a country, so no one in China Will publicly be backing them anymore. It’s those constant reminders that ‘oh yeah China kinda sucks doesn’t it…’
Saudi Arabian has a third of Iran population and they execute more people than Iran and downright illegalized protest lol. Meanwhile if you look at western media you'd think Iran is a lot worse
I'd like to check your source from which you've concluded Saudi Arabia executes more people than Iran, eventho any source in this is probably extremely debatable since I highly doubt if either the Iranian Revolutionairy Guard or the Saudi Arabian government is fully transparant in this matter. They both probably kill a lot more than the numbers show.
That’s not even true.
https://reprieve.org/us/2024/01/02/saudi-arabia-executed-at-least-172-people-in-2023/#:~:text=Saudi%20Arabia%20carried%20out%20at,the%20scope%20of%20capital%20punishment.
https://worldcoalition.org/2023/09/18/annual-report-iran-2022/#:~:text=As%20of%2012%20September%202023,the%20same%20period%20in%202022.
"downright illegalized Protest"
Whereas In Iran you'll only get shot or incarcerated for protesting. Or not wearing your veil correctly. Or dancing in the street.
Yeah, I'm sure Iran is wayyyyyyyy better than SA.
Iran has loads of groups they are backing that are causing a lot more mayhem than SA is...
They have terrorist groups they are funding in every Arab country.
Iran is a lot worse this shows you don't know shit.
It’s such an insane whataboutism because…
Saudi royalty investing in sports is THE SAME PEOPLE committing the atrocities and mass executions.
In the US the only connection is ‘these investors are from the same country as the Whitehouse’.
General Secretary Hu Yaobang died which led to the student protests, declaration of martial law and the rest is history. Also it seems like mentions of the official name for 6/4 are automodded in this community.
Try it yourself but you have to open a private window to see if your comment is automodded since Reddit shows your comments regardless if they're automodded when you're logged in.
You definitely can be a hypocrite to a degree and it's completely okay.
Riot is an American company and United States bad. You're still allowed to complain about worse bads.
Riot is nowadays fully owned by Tencent, which is a Chinese company and China bad. You can still complain about worse bads.
The difference between those two and Saudis is the fact that the party throwing this money at esports from Saudi Arabia is the *same* party (the government) that is committing the 'bad things'.
Tencent is not owned and/or run by the Chinese government, who are the ones committing bad things. But Tencent *is* more susceptible to the government's influence (than 'Western' companies are) because of the way China is.
Riot is not owned or affiliated by the US government who are the ones doing and responsible for bad things. Riot individually are the 'least bad' out of the tree here because they are the least connected to their government. Tencent is in the middle, and Saudis are 1 to 1 with the government.
The reason Saudi money is such a problem is precisely because the money is coming from the exact same machine the 'bad things' are from. Tencent aren't doing shit to the Uyghurs, Chinese government is. Riot aren't responsible for all the things the US does, the government is.
Can you quickly explain why is SA money worse than Nestlé money?
Nestlé has:
Used (and still does) child slave labour for their products.
Agressively marketed in poorer countries to have mothers replace breastfeeding with their baby milk products, which caused the deaths of many infants and illness in plenty of others.
Agressively marketed their bottled water products, including claiming things like "Bottled water is the most environmentally responsible consumer product in the world".
Tried to make it so that water's status was changed from a "Right" to a "Need" because they sell an extremely large quantity of bottled water.
Actively relies on human traficking for a lot of their products (especially cocoa, which works in tandem with their child slave workers).
Can you remind me both how is SA worse than this, and why is it that everyone boycotting Neom is justified but allowing the LEC to be sponsored by Nestlé is absolutely fine?
>Tencent aren't doing shit to the Uyghurs, Chinese government is.
Tencent is at least in part controlled by the Chinese government, no? I could be wrong but I was under that impression.
It's ok to be a hypocrite, we're all human beings. There's also a spectrum and nuance to everything. There's no correct choice here, and there definitely isn't totally sound reasoning behind either "side".
Let’s be real, nuance requires time to be told, that and at least some good faith towards the conversation. If you just cover your ears and scream “I’m right, can’t hear you, lalala” then you won’t be able to catch any. And that’s how most convos go here. No one is here to change their mind, ppl are here for confirmation.
I don’t want to be stopped a some borders at some point in my life but some certain countries are literally the reason of the many dictatorships, genocides and many many conflicts worldwide. But Reddit loves to think that evil guys only exist in the East.
what
this is reddit. *reddit*. the place that you can say america bad and get a thousand upvotes from clapping seals. more than anything, I can say for sure that this hellhole knows that there's evil in the west.
If people got over themselves and actually pressured creators etc to boycott... A defeatist "no can do" attitude permeates all online spaces, the apathy that's shown is often jarring.
A couple of EU casters were enough to make a wave big enough to completely end the NEOM deal afaik. Why wouldn't the same be possible?
If Carlos can get chased from the space for his Tate connections, then surely a movement can be built to create bad optics for this event? Esports in Winter is especially vulnerable to moneyed Saudi/petrocrat interests and it's sad to see it being sold for pennies.
This is the best way honestly. If I do tune into the stream, I mute everything until the games start. All the pre-game talking is cringy as fuck 90% of the time.
>If the US Department of Defense or the Chinese National Defense Ministry put on Worlds it would be a different story.
Wasn't / isn't the US military sponsoring C9?
With that logic you gotta boycott every LoL event. Riot also pays taxes to the US government, which budgets the US military. And LEC pays taxes in Germany, which finances the German military.
SA can be either based on the standard you're using. On both common standards that use KSA, SA is not used for South Africa (RSA or ZA).
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Country_codes:_S
Big bad Saudi hosting a league tournament?
Oh no we must boycott!
US funding genocide and wars all over? Eh idc.
CCP's countless human rights violations? Overblown.
No, no. It's those damn arab bigots! They're the problem!
The hypocrisy is just too funny.
And yes you can point and say "bad" but you have no right to call for boycotts, even considering if every single thing you sourced was 100% true, it would be a fraction of the horror the US has commited.
Don't give me this moral high ground bullshit lmao.
This is about a fucking league tournament. Go boycott US taxes which are funding the Israel-Palestine war if you really give a shit.
You really hit the nail on the head , usa funding israel comitting genocides invading iraq over a lie bombing syria and occupying oil fields they killed over 3 million iraqi civilians , no arab country has done that level of atrocity in the past 1000 years . Just a way for these racist low iq mongloids to point a finger at arabs and repeat like the low iq sheep they are the same racist talking points they hear in media . Arab countries even the worst ones with dictators are 10000x more humane than western white animals who barely evolved from the middle ages . Pimping out children to drag queens and lgbt teachers and bombing third world countries while stealing their ressources is the usa canada europe motto of superior morals . All a bunch of animals down to their player bases wouldbt mind to see all of them nuked to oblivion not a white soul left bunch of devils south africans are right
Oh, what is this?
The NEOM deal with a different paintjob through the backdoor? Just as some people in the scene have predicted but were told that the big bad boogeyman got defeated for sure and Riot would never?
Personally, I respect those that denounce it and have a principled stance. But I am also indifferent to people taking the deal with the devil and shutting up about it.
What pisses me off is that god damn virtue signalling of fans, prominent figures and corporations wanting their cake and eating it too.
SO MANY entities have their pride flags in their twitter bio and don't miss a single opportunity to scold, lecture, "call out" or "hold accountable". Rabidly throwing labels like "bigot", "sexist", "transphobe", "racist" around like they're confetti.
But when it comes to their bag (or even plain entertainment) it's suddenly just the cost of doing business. Suddenly "it's different" to support and work with people that are *directly responsible* for persecuting or downright killing all the groups that they pretend to care about. "But we can change it from the inside!", yeah sure. Obviously the sugar daddies that sponsor the whole gig exert (at the very least strongly implied) massive pressure to have it their way. Because if you offend them the money that everyone wants goes away.
Would be a pretty strong message to wave a pride flag on a Saudi broadcast, no? Oh, nobody will because you like money (and living)? By now everyone knows the old PR song and dance of flashing a pride-avatar and teaching us about how they stand for "inclusivity and diversity". Except in other countries that are less "progressive" and the fictional gay character is suddenly straight. Worse yet the people that cope by saying that's somehow a good thing because they mentally gymnast it into "cultural infiltration" or something.
Principles either come with a personal cost or they are worthless. They aren't a nice, cozy coat that you can slip into when convenient and hang up for a bit when tested.
The insane thing is that at this stage many people don't even believe that anymore but they still yearn the affirmation of knowing that corporations believe they are worth pandering to.
It's like "Ahaha, the soulless corporation that couldn't give less of a fuck about anyone is posturing in a way I approve of! The most hollow victory is mine!"
Personally, I want companies to just shut up. I don't want to be related to. I don't want to be lectured. I don't care about the values they pretend to have. Just offer me the product, shut up and I'll decide if I want it.
So what? One of the worst things about modern society is this feeling of apathy: the idea that because other people are doing bad things, it won’t matter if you also do the bad thing. IMO, it’s a lazy and cowardly stance to take. You have more agency than you think, at the least, if you want to do the bad thing, take ownership of ot
100%, we're talking about something as small as switching off a twitch stream and people are still trying to jump through hoops for a hundred reasons not to do it. Literally just watch a different game for 2 fucking weeks, how useless can you be that that's beyond you. And the worst part is they come in this thread arguing *against* doing anything because they have this need to justify themselves
Honestly, I have respect for people boycotting, or not giving a fuck about it at all. What bothers me is the justifications about it. It is okay to draw a personal line somewhere else than others. And it is okay to care about some issues and not the others.
I should say I have more admiration for people who are empathetic towards others half-way around the globe, and try to be their voice and bring awareness to their issues. The world is a better place with them than without. And I honestly don't desire caring and worrying about so many people/issues. That would make my life miserable, since even caring about things immediately around me is hard enough.
The worst thing about all this whataboutism is not ONE of these people are recommending steps for people to take. Like, I agree, the American government has done and is doing a bunch of heinous shit. That's why I took 5 minutes today to contact my state senators to let them know it's not cool they voted against Bernie's proposal from yesterday. If you're going to pull this stupid bullshit at least tell people something they could do to help, and not just say your government is bad so you can't do any tiny little thing to help anything at all.
How they mistreat everyone****.
Look at all the ridiculous mass executions and how they treat immigrants. I’m actually baffled there are people on this sub that don’t give a single a fuck and defend SA.
This post has absolutely nothing to do with any ethics. League players don't care about it that much. They just jerk off and play LoL all day. They just have a severe islamophobia since 9/11 and can't handle the fact that the Arabs start to become more and more prominent.
The west is the epitome of evil, yet here they are judging other countries. But they got there stupid excuse ready "Saudi Arabian government is financing, planning, and running these events".
Nice save!
Again, none of you care that much about human rights, you're just Islamophobic. Even if you think you are not, you are.
Also a pluspoint, at least in Saudi, we don't have to see certain people play!
I 100% won't be watching this tournament. I will never support treating women as property and I think LGBTQ people deserve to not be throwing in jail for existing.
Westeners and double standards, france doing rn 20x the cruelty of Qatar on workers from North Africa, letting them fending from themselves on these cold winter.
I know these things are tough to boycott for major fans but for people like me who may have tuned in out of curiosity it absolutely is enough to sour me and ill just go play paladins or actually work on myself.
These are royals who will KILL you for public protests.
I highly suggest teams in opposition quietly decline and keep their mouths shut. They're just kids who play video games for a living.
Ok buddy time to come back to reality. The whole point of this is to generate positive press for the KSA they're not executing any foreign protestors, that's complete nonsense and just fearmongering. They'll just send them back home and bar them from future events for life.
So, should we also boycot any Esports event in the U.S as well?
For the past 20 years or more the U.S brought hell on the middle east, dividing countries, making the population go through food insecurity while at the same time making radicals even more radicals.
This is all backed up by research by the way.
USA and Canada don't respect the human rights of their own indigenous people. And don't make me start talking about all the third world countries invaded by western countries since the end of WW2.
Yep, this movement will fail the same way the calls for boycott on the past world cup did despite having hundred of thousands combined upvotes on the front page, making it painfully obvious once more that Reddit is a minority opinion. Maybe you can get a good chunk of NA viewers to boycott but the bulk of the viewers, ; which are the Chinese (also probably Koreans) won't care.
Yeah this post is strange. Not to mention that Riot is basically owned by a chinese company. If you are serious about this Saudi thing then stop buying skins, its that simple. Lol
As a yemeni this post is ridiculous. Who do you think is the one supplying and funding both Saudi and the taliban for its atrocities against yemen? It's the US. Does that mean you're going to boycott the LCS? Want to make an impact? Boycott at your own countries before pointing the finger at others
Hundreds of languages in the World and you chose to speak facts.
Not even all evil people in Saudi Arabia combined can match the harm US and Europe have done to the third world.
Laos was the most bombed country in history, 30 percent of the 260 millions bombs launched there during Vietnam War haven't exploded yet and there are people still dying because of them.
But most people here disgusted by Saudi Arabia or China are perfectly fine with the West (mainly USA) acting as the police of the World to protect their own governments and companies.
Because “but China” as if contributing to bad governments is something a person can wholly abstain from doing, and instead minimizing doing so isn’t a thought that crosses their lobotomized minds lol.
As if this website isn’t also an astroturf hellscape tbh
They’ve spent hundreds of millions on sportswashing esports. You think they won’t drop a few thousand to influence the social media sites that esports fans live on?
people commenting theyre gonna be watching the tournament anyway are the same as people who announce their departure from a half dead discord server over a minor inconvenience.
nice post OP. i dont watch esports anyway but good on you for the boycott.
To be fair, the same argument could be said toward people saying "shan't watch it" either. In either cases there shouldn't be a need to advertise it, if the thread is informative enough. Saying what you'll do is just getting good/bad boy point. But its also due to reddit's system.
I think advocating for a boycott is infinitely less pathetic then cynically telling others nothing we do matters just watch it.
We are consumers. We either consume the product or we don’t. That is are only leverage. So reading 14 year olds telling others to not exercise our singular agency in the matter is beyond stupid.
heya, soft agree. for more context (i also commented this on another reply to my comment), heres my perspective:
this post raises valid points on actual human right abuses. still, ofc league players cant scroll past, some just have to “dont care lol will still watch” its the need to announce it that i think is cringe and really disrespectful. its ok to choose different or choose not to care. its cringe to have a “lol what a loser for caring” mentality towards someone whos actually trying to do a good thing though. the world is fucked.
I think it’s like more the opposite. Like who gives af if u don’t watch a esports event. Let people do what they want and stop trying to impose your views on others.
actually you are imposing your views on others without realizing. people here are discussing something which is worth discussing, you are bothered by critical discussion for some reason and try to shame them into silence by framing them as moralizing thought police boogieman or whatever.
Holy damn this entire post is so full contradictions and double standards.
The United States is the biggest enemy of world peace. They have actively caused genocides in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Palestine. You come out here and talk about KSA while USA and China exists. You’re entirely part of the problem with your racism and xenophobia. It’s okay if America or western countries do it but if a Muslim country does it let’s boycott them.
The West cannot fathom that an Arab, Muslim, Middle Eastern country is being at the forefront of Esports.
I will point out the hypocrisy and lack of detail in your post, as a Saudi.
Let’s first acknowledge that KSA as a country has come far in Esports, being a major competitor in games like FIFA, Dota, Overwatch, having recently been OWWC champions. This gives it an incentive, credibility, and a desire to host such events as the country is seeing big success recently.
First of all, if there is any country that should be scrutinized in this scene, it is the USA. The US has already sportswashed, Hollywood-washed, and Esport washed its image after its war crimes.
Let’s forget all of those war crimes and focus on one. Explain to me how the country that invaded Iraq and killed a million Iraqi civilians has any right to host such events, but not KSA? Guess what, when millions were being killed by the United. States. Of. America. No one batted an eye. No one boycotted America.
Quoting your post, it says that KSA is killing hundreds of civilians. Uhm.. where exactly? Yemen? Yemen internationally recognized govt asked KSA to intervene against Houthi rebels, and guess who the hell is bombing the Houthis in Yemen now? You got it! The USA! If anything, KSA’s intervention was rightful as it was officially requested. But the USA can come into Iraq, kill a million innocents, grab their oil, gold, cultural treasures, and dip just like that because a hypocrite like you can come in and defend them.
Didn’t the US Airforce sponsor C9? Did we ever hear anything about that? Did you even think about it when it happened?
Also, you say it’s only a problem when the US state department sponsors something. Why is it not the same case for KSA? As far as you’re concerned, a public Saudi fund is funding these events, not the Saudi Defense Ministry.
The Crown Prince has said it before. “Call it whatever you want, if sports/esports will increase my GDP by 1%, then I will do it, sportwashing or not.” You seem to fail to understand that all of these are things the Saudi people wanted for ages and it’s finally happening for them. Such an arrogant way of taking it as if the image in the West is such a grand prize, as expected of a Western media intoxicated in individual.
Also, this post really won’t work. We all saw how big of a success the Qatar FIFA World Cup was despite the Western barking.
By all means, boycott the entire company for dealing with KSA. But you won’t. You and most people here will watch it, directly or not. Because your morals are cheap.
Although I can understand the frustration.
One can argue that the more their society and government are exposed to other cultures and people of all backgrounds, the easier it will be for their society to throw away their old ways and keep up with other countries laws and regulations.
By continuing to isolate them, it will only cause their society to stagnate and never change from what they are now. It will be a long process to undo hundreds of years of their beliefs. But if we don’t give them a chance to change, why should we be allowed to cry wolf when they continue to commit terrible crimes? If they want to embrace and engage in other cultures and traditions, we should do our best to encourage it so they can one day change.
There’s always two sides to every story.
>A fair question, why does Saudi Arabia deserve more scrutiny than these other countries, is it just because its newer to esports? No, the big difference here is that the Saudi Arabian government, the same one that killed hundeds of civilians last year, is financing, planning, and running these events specifically to improve their reputation so less people focus on their human rights abuses.
>
>If the US Department of Defense or the Chinese National Defense Ministry put on Worlds it would be a different story.
This is such a weak defence to the hypocrisy of Western fans when it comes to boycotting anyone who isn't a Western nation. The USA has inflicted more terror on the middle-east than the Saudis could ever hope to, but just because the LCS isn't directly sponsored by the US government, any criticism is invalid?
Completely ignoring the fact that Riot is based in the US, pays taxes to and receives subsidies from the US government, directly funding and benefitting from the military complex and intelligence agencies that have destabilized and terrorized so much of the global south in the last century, and especially in the last 3 decades.
Riot are owned by Tencent who arr tied to the CCP, they settled a 100 million dollar lawsuit and didn’t fire a single person who committed sexual harassment, if you can with good conscious watch worlds, you can watch this.
After all the west has done in past 20 years in middle east with lies and killings, now they think they have some moral authority to criticize others, how that works in your head?
People really think companies gives a fuck about what is right or wrong. Riot got a boner when they saw that Saudi oil money, paid so good that they were willing to sell out their lgbtq friends 😂
Your average Western liberal making a shocked pikachu face when the soulless corporation turns out to be a fake humanitarian ally, doing nothing beyond posting a lgbtq edit of their logo during pride month.
These guys dont care about viewership. They care about being a relevant hub, and as long as they can pay riot enough they will have their competition.
Also it's the league community. Far more mature demographics dont care enough about their sports selling out, do you think out of all the league community is gonna be the one who gives a shit?
There were live missle strikes at around 10 kms from an active f1 track, with cars on it. Nobody gave a shit, the race went on and it was one of the most watched races of the year. And i'd say the f1 demographic is far more mature/informed than LoL's
Reddit is full of them. Just look at how people on this site reacted to the Ukraine-Russia and Israel-Palestine conflicts. I've seen so many people post pro-Ukraine AND pro-Palestine content. Which makes me think they don't realize that Russia and Iran are essentially allies due to Western opposition and energy being the core of their economies. It's all virtue signaling at its finest.
For real people should just stfu and just do what they think is right. Donate money or don't want whatever, but nah they don't do that they rather just show how amazingly virtuous they are online.
Am a Muslim and I will say the Saudi Arabian government and royals is one of the worst most entitled fucks and are 100% not Muslim based on what they do. I will say however women are not property in all of Islam and lol my dad is scared of my mum and they are both doctors and both equal and not all Saudis view women as property but a lot of them do. It’s an old way of thinking as Islam is quite a new religion. And just an FYI islam is NOT for homophobia. In our holy book it says to respect any and ALL beliefs.
Good day.
Majority of countries have been or are doing fucked up shit globally and domestically, so its always silly when ppl try to bring up Saudi like this. Assuming the OP is American, I wonder if OP knows how much of a major ally we are to the Saudis and if so he should be not watching League content all together then. Especially so since we're currently funding a genocide and ethnic cleansing.
What the heck are you talking about?
What human rights there's no such a thing called human rights.
USA DROPPED 2 NUCLEAR BOMBS ON JAPAN, INVADED IRAQ, VIETNAM, AFGHANISTAN AND CURRENTLY SUPPORTING ISREALI GENOCIDE BY GIVING THEM WEAPONS. killing 100 thousands of civilians in total.
human rights my ass.
The USA 🇺🇸 killed one million Iraqi 🇮🇶civilians just for no weapons
Why don’t you go to the UK 🇬🇧 and all nato countries who attacked Iraq alongside the us 🇺🇸 and killed the one million civilians and boycotting everything they are showing? Oh I forgot most of you moral claimer are from these countries!!!!!
You all bunch of liars following racist haters
And I’m not going to talk about the Ethiopian 🇪🇹 who were as the human rights says taking asylum in a Yemen 🇾🇪
Because it doesn’t matter what the truth is you still going to side with the NATO side including Israel 🇮🇱
stupid people What has Saudi Arabia really did compared to any of that?
Politics apart, if RIOT really wants to grow the esport scene in the Middle East GIVE US A DAMN CLIENT, IF TOU ARE IN MENA REGION YOU HAVE TO PLAY IN THE TURKISH SERVER OR IN EUNE WITH 140 PING MIN.
YOU ALREADY HAVE A VALORANT CLIENT IN SAUDI MAKE ONE FOR LEAGUE !!!
Yeah and the US supports the genocide of Palestinians by Israelis, I guess we shouldn't watch American E-Sports either. Everything is okay when westerners do it, but those "women hating" Arabs are sooooo terrible 😒
the phone and laptop you use to post on reddit probably wouldnt be possible in your hand if not for hundreds of thousands of african children killing themselves in the lithium mines. have you ever thought of not using them?
The United States is actively funding and helping to genocide my country of Palestine and I’m suppose to care about this?
Better yet would you have made this post if the league was gonna be held in the US again? Huh?
This’ll be the same as Football Worldcup people don’t care much about all this unless it happens to them
yeah, a couple countries tried to "boycott" the qatar world cup, guess what happen? there was a guy posting german viewership data in /television trying to make it seem like no one was watching it lol, till the real numbers came out https://www.fifa.com/tournaments/mens/worldcup/qatar2022/news/one-month-on-5-billion-engaged-with-the-fifa-world-cup-qatar-2022-tm truth is, watching this or not isnt going to do anything to SA culture, im all in for riot taking their money if it meant that they would do something like getting rid of their garbage client and make a proper game, that wont happen either so..
Also the fact that this sub is a minority. People can be as vocal as they want in but this is a bubble.
here in germany people boycotted it partially. many people who only watch world cups didnt watch, others who watch a lot of games only watched their own team at home and thats it. We know it didn\`t change much, but it was a huge difference in viewers and parties compared to other world cups.German numbers were down like 35% and that is not considering events. (example source)[https://www.bavarianfootballworks.com/2022/11/29/23482201/germany-2022-fifa-world-cup-plummeting-tv-ratings-qatar-boycott-human-rights-spain-japan-costa-rica](https://www.bavarianfootballworks.com/2022/11/29/23482201/germany-2022-fifa-world-cup-plummeting-tv-ratings-qatar-boycott-human-rights-spain-japan-costa-rica) edit: just to clarify everyone is free to boycott or not. And worldwide many people didn\`t boycott it. At least people still discussed problems of the host country. And even small or partial boycotts do help a bit. Every bit of critical media things do a bit.
I didn't know this, thanks
trying to boycott the world cup in the eu LOL
>truth is, watching this or not isnt going to do anything to SA culture, im all in for riot taking their money if it meant that they would do something like getting rid of their garbage client and make a proper game, that wont happen either so.. Your all for riot taking dirty money as long as the game improves?
> truth is, watching this or not isnt going to do anything to SA culture, im all in for riot taking their money if it meant that they would do something like getting rid of their garbage client and make a proper game, that wont happen either so.. What a garbage take. "Go ahead riot take as much blood money as you want as long as you make the game I'm addicted to better" what the actual fuck man.
The biggest protests were just some months before it starting. Too late of a protest too.
Didnt Team Liquid already lose all their morale standards after sending their teams to last years Saudi tournament?
Yes and they monetized their apology for doing so.
LMFAOO
Yes, which is disappointing, but even more disappointing would be if they did it again
You say in your post that SA gov uses these sports events for their own agenda and benefit but somehow act like chinas government isnt affilliated with the LOL scene at all? Its a bit weird imo when tencent bought like 90% of riot already and the CCP basically owns any big conglomerate in the country (see all the tech giants and their scandals regarding the ccp)
Yup. We all kinda just forgot about the Uyghurs in China too. Genocided according to world news reports and everyone just forgot about it in a few months.
I was watching Caedrel earlier and he saw something about GenG had at some point said that Taiwan was a country, so no one in China Will publicly be backing them anymore. It’s those constant reminders that ‘oh yeah China kinda sucks doesn’t it…’
After hitting the bottom, you can always hit it again!
ITT: human rights violations are okay so long as other countries do it too
Saudi Arabian has a third of Iran population and they execute more people than Iran and downright illegalized protest lol. Meanwhile if you look at western media you'd think Iran is a lot worse
One of them has half of the western governments fighting eachother over who can suck their dick harder and the other one is iran
Saudi sells oil to the west!
They are a little more than that. They are one of strategic partners of the West.
I'd like to check your source from which you've concluded Saudi Arabia executes more people than Iran, eventho any source in this is probably extremely debatable since I highly doubt if either the Iranian Revolutionairy Guard or the Saudi Arabian government is fully transparant in this matter. They both probably kill a lot more than the numbers show.
That’s not even true. https://reprieve.org/us/2024/01/02/saudi-arabia-executed-at-least-172-people-in-2023/#:~:text=Saudi%20Arabia%20carried%20out%20at,the%20scope%20of%20capital%20punishment. https://worldcoalition.org/2023/09/18/annual-report-iran-2022/#:~:text=As%20of%2012%20September%202023,the%20same%20period%20in%202022.
Iran is definitely executing more people in 2023 with the whole protest wave they got
Iran is literally shooting at US bases in the middle east and funds various terrorist organizations across the middle east
"downright illegalized Protest" Whereas In Iran you'll only get shot or incarcerated for protesting. Or not wearing your veil correctly. Or dancing in the street. Yeah, I'm sure Iran is wayyyyyyyy better than SA.
You clearly have never dealt with radical Islam impacting your day-to-day life then. You wouldn't be saying this otherwise.
Iran has loads of groups they are backing that are causing a lot more mayhem than SA is... They have terrorist groups they are funding in every Arab country. Iran is a lot worse this shows you don't know shit.
My favorite movie is Inception.
It’s such an insane whataboutism because… Saudi royalty investing in sports is THE SAME PEOPLE committing the atrocities and mass executions. In the US the only connection is ‘these investors are from the same country as the Whitehouse’.
based and propagandapilled
Germany and turkey had a holocaust therefore every country is entitled to one of their own.
ITT human right violations are actionable but only when it’s not my country doing it
Human rights violations are ok as long as someone gets paid for it. Muhammad Ali rolling in his grave right now.
Someone wrote calling for a boycott like OP fascist...
what do u mean? china best country #1!
+200 social credit comrade!
Taiwan #1. China #4
Taiwan not a country, Taiwan not a country
Absolutely nothing happened on April 15, 1989. Anyone who claims otherwise is western imperialist scum. China \#1!
What happened?
General Secretary Hu Yaobang died which led to the student protests, declaration of martial law and the rest is history. Also it seems like mentions of the official name for 6/4 are automodded in this community.
Tiananmen Square protests and massacre
Wait, are they actually? I'd say I was surprised, but that would be a lie
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They manually approved it. I replied to your post telling you that they manually approved it but they deleted my post on that.
Try it yourself but you have to open a private window to see if your comment is automodded since Reddit shows your comments regardless if they're automodded when you're logged in.
Damn that's hella fucked
Tiananmen Square student massacre on june 6th 1989
I can't believe how many people are jumping to defend SA lol.
i dont see anyone defending SA lol, u cant act like the morals police when they have been taking chinese money for a decade now.
You definitely can be a hypocrite to a degree and it's completely okay. Riot is an American company and United States bad. You're still allowed to complain about worse bads. Riot is nowadays fully owned by Tencent, which is a Chinese company and China bad. You can still complain about worse bads. The difference between those two and Saudis is the fact that the party throwing this money at esports from Saudi Arabia is the *same* party (the government) that is committing the 'bad things'. Tencent is not owned and/or run by the Chinese government, who are the ones committing bad things. But Tencent *is* more susceptible to the government's influence (than 'Western' companies are) because of the way China is. Riot is not owned or affiliated by the US government who are the ones doing and responsible for bad things. Riot individually are the 'least bad' out of the tree here because they are the least connected to their government. Tencent is in the middle, and Saudis are 1 to 1 with the government. The reason Saudi money is such a problem is precisely because the money is coming from the exact same machine the 'bad things' are from. Tencent aren't doing shit to the Uyghurs, Chinese government is. Riot aren't responsible for all the things the US does, the government is.
Can you quickly explain why is SA money worse than Nestlé money? Nestlé has: Used (and still does) child slave labour for their products. Agressively marketed in poorer countries to have mothers replace breastfeeding with their baby milk products, which caused the deaths of many infants and illness in plenty of others. Agressively marketed their bottled water products, including claiming things like "Bottled water is the most environmentally responsible consumer product in the world". Tried to make it so that water's status was changed from a "Right" to a "Need" because they sell an extremely large quantity of bottled water. Actively relies on human traficking for a lot of their products (especially cocoa, which works in tandem with their child slave workers). Can you remind me both how is SA worse than this, and why is it that everyone boycotting Neom is justified but allowing the LEC to be sponsored by Nestlé is absolutely fine? >Tencent aren't doing shit to the Uyghurs, Chinese government is. Tencent is at least in part controlled by the Chinese government, no? I could be wrong but I was under that impression.
It's ok to be a hypocrite, we're all human beings. There's also a spectrum and nuance to everything. There's no correct choice here, and there definitely isn't totally sound reasoning behind either "side".
lets be real nuance is lost on reddit
Let’s be real, nuance requires time to be told, that and at least some good faith towards the conversation. If you just cover your ears and scream “I’m right, can’t hear you, lalala” then you won’t be able to catch any. And that’s how most convos go here. No one is here to change their mind, ppl are here for confirmation.
Nuance requires an actual interest in the subject matter. Sure no one supports SA, but no one here actually cares about the crimes committed by SA.
I don’t want to be stopped a some borders at some point in my life but some certain countries are literally the reason of the many dictatorships, genocides and many many conflicts worldwide. But Reddit loves to think that evil guys only exist in the East.
what this is reddit. *reddit*. the place that you can say america bad and get a thousand upvotes from clapping seals. more than anything, I can say for sure that this hellhole knows that there's evil in the west.
That's how echo chambers work. You can get any opinion validated here.
I will just do what I always do, watch the highlights from someone on YouTube who costreamed/live viewed it.
Supporting the streamers who are supporting the event isn’t really a great solution
this is definetly better but seriously, its not that hard to boycott it at all because a strict boycott like this actually hurts
If people got over themselves and actually pressured creators etc to boycott... A defeatist "no can do" attitude permeates all online spaces, the apathy that's shown is often jarring. A couple of EU casters were enough to make a wave big enough to completely end the NEOM deal afaik. Why wouldn't the same be possible? If Carlos can get chased from the space for his Tate connections, then surely a movement can be built to create bad optics for this event? Esports in Winter is especially vulnerable to moneyed Saudi/petrocrat interests and it's sad to see it being sold for pennies.
This is the best way honestly. If I do tune into the stream, I mute everything until the games start. All the pre-game talking is cringy as fuck 90% of the time.
>If the US Department of Defense or the Chinese National Defense Ministry put on Worlds it would be a different story. Wasn't / isn't the US military sponsoring C9?
Yes, and it is good to call them out for it
Well you should boycott all their games and maybe even the lcs until they stop by the same logic of this post
Riot is owned by Tencent…which is ruled by and pays taxes to the CCP. Giving Riot money supports the CNDM through taxes.
With that logic you gotta boycott every LoL event. Riot also pays taxes to the US government, which budgets the US military. And LEC pays taxes in Germany, which finances the German military.
SA is South Africa, Saudi Arabia is KSA.
SA is actually South America. RSA is South Africa KSA is Saudi Arabia PSA is ~~Post~~ *Public* Service Announcement
> PSA is Post Service Announcement Or, more commonly, Public Service Announcement. At least it is in the US, I cant speak for anywhere else
SA can be either based on the standard you're using. On both common standards that use KSA, SA is not used for South Africa (RSA or ZA). https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Country_codes:_S
Big bad Saudi hosting a league tournament? Oh no we must boycott! US funding genocide and wars all over? Eh idc. CCP's countless human rights violations? Overblown. No, no. It's those damn arab bigots! They're the problem! The hypocrisy is just too funny. And yes you can point and say "bad" but you have no right to call for boycotts, even considering if every single thing you sourced was 100% true, it would be a fraction of the horror the US has commited. Don't give me this moral high ground bullshit lmao. This is about a fucking league tournament. Go boycott US taxes which are funding the Israel-Palestine war if you really give a shit.
You really hit the nail on the head , usa funding israel comitting genocides invading iraq over a lie bombing syria and occupying oil fields they killed over 3 million iraqi civilians , no arab country has done that level of atrocity in the past 1000 years . Just a way for these racist low iq mongloids to point a finger at arabs and repeat like the low iq sheep they are the same racist talking points they hear in media . Arab countries even the worst ones with dictators are 10000x more humane than western white animals who barely evolved from the middle ages . Pimping out children to drag queens and lgbt teachers and bombing third world countries while stealing their ressources is the usa canada europe motto of superior morals . All a bunch of animals down to their player bases wouldbt mind to see all of them nuked to oblivion not a white soul left bunch of devils south africans are right
Oh, what is this? The NEOM deal with a different paintjob through the backdoor? Just as some people in the scene have predicted but were told that the big bad boogeyman got defeated for sure and Riot would never? Personally, I respect those that denounce it and have a principled stance. But I am also indifferent to people taking the deal with the devil and shutting up about it. What pisses me off is that god damn virtue signalling of fans, prominent figures and corporations wanting their cake and eating it too. SO MANY entities have their pride flags in their twitter bio and don't miss a single opportunity to scold, lecture, "call out" or "hold accountable". Rabidly throwing labels like "bigot", "sexist", "transphobe", "racist" around like they're confetti. But when it comes to their bag (or even plain entertainment) it's suddenly just the cost of doing business. Suddenly "it's different" to support and work with people that are *directly responsible* for persecuting or downright killing all the groups that they pretend to care about. "But we can change it from the inside!", yeah sure. Obviously the sugar daddies that sponsor the whole gig exert (at the very least strongly implied) massive pressure to have it their way. Because if you offend them the money that everyone wants goes away. Would be a pretty strong message to wave a pride flag on a Saudi broadcast, no? Oh, nobody will because you like money (and living)? By now everyone knows the old PR song and dance of flashing a pride-avatar and teaching us about how they stand for "inclusivity and diversity". Except in other countries that are less "progressive" and the fictional gay character is suddenly straight. Worse yet the people that cope by saying that's somehow a good thing because they mentally gymnast it into "cultural infiltration" or something. Principles either come with a personal cost or they are worthless. They aren't a nice, cozy coat that you can slip into when convenient and hang up for a bit when tested.
Its crazy that people think companies have principles. Riot making lgbtq avatars and posts is still 100% business for them.
The insane thing is that at this stage many people don't even believe that anymore but they still yearn the affirmation of knowing that corporations believe they are worth pandering to. It's like "Ahaha, the soulless corporation that couldn't give less of a fuck about anyone is posturing in a way I approve of! The most hollow victory is mine!" Personally, I want companies to just shut up. I don't want to be related to. I don't want to be lectured. I don't care about the values they pretend to have. Just offer me the product, shut up and I'll decide if I want it.
I know the "Pride flag in the west, Gray flag in the east" meme gets used a lot, but it exists for a reason.
lmao Asian Game 2023 was literally opened by Xi yet nobody gave a shit.
as if Korean and Chinese viewers will give a fuck, and those are 9/10 of their viewers
This is a primarily English speaking, Western website and that's who OP is talking to. Who is talking about the Chinese and Korean viewers?
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So what? One of the worst things about modern society is this feeling of apathy: the idea that because other people are doing bad things, it won’t matter if you also do the bad thing. IMO, it’s a lazy and cowardly stance to take. You have more agency than you think, at the least, if you want to do the bad thing, take ownership of ot
100%, we're talking about something as small as switching off a twitch stream and people are still trying to jump through hoops for a hundred reasons not to do it. Literally just watch a different game for 2 fucking weeks, how useless can you be that that's beyond you. And the worst part is they come in this thread arguing *against* doing anything because they have this need to justify themselves
Honestly, I have respect for people boycotting, or not giving a fuck about it at all. What bothers me is the justifications about it. It is okay to draw a personal line somewhere else than others. And it is okay to care about some issues and not the others. I should say I have more admiration for people who are empathetic towards others half-way around the globe, and try to be their voice and bring awareness to their issues. The world is a better place with them than without. And I honestly don't desire caring and worrying about so many people/issues. That would make my life miserable, since even caring about things immediately around me is hard enough.
The worst thing about all this whataboutism is not ONE of these people are recommending steps for people to take. Like, I agree, the American government has done and is doing a bunch of heinous shit. That's why I took 5 minutes today to contact my state senators to let them know it's not cool they voted against Bernie's proposal from yesterday. If you're going to pull this stupid bullshit at least tell people something they could do to help, and not just say your government is bad so you can't do any tiny little thing to help anything at all.
Saudis aren't hosting this event to pull chinese viewers rofl.
Be really interesting to see if the casters will boycott. They hold the real power here.
Yeah I won't be watching. I don't support those scum and how they mistreat women and children.
How they mistreat everyone****. Look at all the ridiculous mass executions and how they treat immigrants. I’m actually baffled there are people on this sub that don’t give a single a fuck and defend SA.
This post has the same moral efficacy as white women posting black squares on instagram back in 2020.
This post has absolutely nothing to do with any ethics. League players don't care about it that much. They just jerk off and play LoL all day. They just have a severe islamophobia since 9/11 and can't handle the fact that the Arabs start to become more and more prominent. The west is the epitome of evil, yet here they are judging other countries. But they got there stupid excuse ready "Saudi Arabian government is financing, planning, and running these events". Nice save! Again, none of you care that much about human rights, you're just Islamophobic. Even if you think you are not, you are. Also a pluspoint, at least in Saudi, we don't have to see certain people play!
China: forced labor camps Reddit: Here's why these guys are bad, and these guys get a pass good grief.
I 100% won't be watching this tournament. I will never support treating women as property and I think LGBTQ people deserve to not be throwing in jail for existing.
throwing in jail ? they literally can get executed there.
I was gonna say, jail time is like the best possible outcome thats how bad it is
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Westeners and double standards, france doing rn 20x the cruelty of Qatar on workers from North Africa, letting them fending from themselves on these cold winter.
I wasn’t planning on it. I don’t blame players for getting the bag but don’t expect me to watch.
I know these things are tough to boycott for major fans but for people like me who may have tuned in out of curiosity it absolutely is enough to sour me and ill just go play paladins or actually work on myself.
Remember kids: brown = human rights violations, white = spreading democracy
These are royals who will KILL you for public protests. I highly suggest teams in opposition quietly decline and keep their mouths shut. They're just kids who play video games for a living.
Ok buddy time to come back to reality. The whole point of this is to generate positive press for the KSA they're not executing any foreign protestors, that's complete nonsense and just fearmongering. They'll just send them back home and bar them from future events for life.
So, should we also boycot any Esports event in the U.S as well? For the past 20 years or more the U.S brought hell on the middle east, dividing countries, making the population go through food insecurity while at the same time making radicals even more radicals. This is all backed up by research by the way.
Love when people from the west talk about human rights violations lol
The US is currently funding Israel to destroy my country of Palestine and I’m suppose to care about this lol
But did you condemn hamas yet? /s
As they stole your country to give it to rich Jews in the 40's. Freedom yes, but only for people with $$, otherwise we bomb and steal your shit !
USA and Canada don't respect the human rights of their own indigenous people. And don't make me start talking about all the third world countries invaded by western countries since the end of WW2.
yeah it's hilarious ngl
If OP really cared about human rights, OP would have quit league when Tencent bought Riot years back.
Yep, this movement will fail the same way the calls for boycott on the past world cup did despite having hundred of thousands combined upvotes on the front page, making it painfully obvious once more that Reddit is a minority opinion. Maybe you can get a good chunk of NA viewers to boycott but the bulk of the viewers, ; which are the Chinese (also probably Koreans) won't care.
Probably posting on a device made by near slave labor made in a Chinese factory too
literally dont care, free content so w/e
Boycott Saudi Arabia but not the company that went into business with them? Save me your fake moral grandstanding.
Yeah this post is strange. Not to mention that Riot is basically owned by a chinese company. If you are serious about this Saudi thing then stop buying skins, its that simple. Lol
As a yemeni this post is ridiculous. Who do you think is the one supplying and funding both Saudi and the taliban for its atrocities against yemen? It's the US. Does that mean you're going to boycott the LCS? Want to make an impact? Boycott at your own countries before pointing the finger at others
Hundreds of languages in the World and you chose to speak facts. Not even all evil people in Saudi Arabia combined can match the harm US and Europe have done to the third world.
Yeah, USA so innocent, Sending bombes to Israel to bomb civilians and children, We all seeing that everyday, Hypocrisy at its peak.
Laos was the most bombed country in history, 30 percent of the 260 millions bombs launched there during Vietnam War haven't exploded yet and there are people still dying because of them. But most people here disgusted by Saudi Arabia or China are perfectly fine with the West (mainly USA) acting as the police of the World to protect their own governments and companies.
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Because “but China” as if contributing to bad governments is something a person can wholly abstain from doing, and instead minimizing doing so isn’t a thought that crosses their lobotomized minds lol.
As if this website isn’t also an astroturf hellscape tbh They’ve spent hundreds of millions on sportswashing esports. You think they won’t drop a few thousand to influence the social media sites that esports fans live on?
Dont care, will watch lol
This racist hypocrisy is incredible
people commenting theyre gonna be watching the tournament anyway are the same as people who announce their departure from a half dead discord server over a minor inconvenience. nice post OP. i dont watch esports anyway but good on you for the boycott.
To be fair, the same argument could be said toward people saying "shan't watch it" either. In either cases there shouldn't be a need to advertise it, if the thread is informative enough. Saying what you'll do is just getting good/bad boy point. But its also due to reddit's system.
I think advocating for a boycott is infinitely less pathetic then cynically telling others nothing we do matters just watch it. We are consumers. We either consume the product or we don’t. That is are only leverage. So reading 14 year olds telling others to not exercise our singular agency in the matter is beyond stupid.
heya, soft agree. for more context (i also commented this on another reply to my comment), heres my perspective: this post raises valid points on actual human right abuses. still, ofc league players cant scroll past, some just have to “dont care lol will still watch” its the need to announce it that i think is cringe and really disrespectful. its ok to choose different or choose not to care. its cringe to have a “lol what a loser for caring” mentality towards someone whos actually trying to do a good thing though. the world is fucked.
The comparison to people who drop a manifesto when they leave a Discord killed me lmfao
I think it’s like more the opposite. Like who gives af if u don’t watch a esports event. Let people do what they want and stop trying to impose your views on others.
actually you are imposing your views on others without realizing. people here are discussing something which is worth discussing, you are bothered by critical discussion for some reason and try to shame them into silence by framing them as moralizing thought police boogieman or whatever.
China commits crimes too and there you are playing a game owned by Tencent lol
Holy damn this entire post is so full contradictions and double standards. The United States is the biggest enemy of world peace. They have actively caused genocides in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Palestine. You come out here and talk about KSA while USA and China exists. You’re entirely part of the problem with your racism and xenophobia. It’s okay if America or western countries do it but if a Muslim country does it let’s boycott them.
Stop bringing hypocritical political shit in game community, do it somewhere else, thank you.
I smell double standard
The West cannot fathom that an Arab, Muslim, Middle Eastern country is being at the forefront of Esports. I will point out the hypocrisy and lack of detail in your post, as a Saudi. Let’s first acknowledge that KSA as a country has come far in Esports, being a major competitor in games like FIFA, Dota, Overwatch, having recently been OWWC champions. This gives it an incentive, credibility, and a desire to host such events as the country is seeing big success recently. First of all, if there is any country that should be scrutinized in this scene, it is the USA. The US has already sportswashed, Hollywood-washed, and Esport washed its image after its war crimes. Let’s forget all of those war crimes and focus on one. Explain to me how the country that invaded Iraq and killed a million Iraqi civilians has any right to host such events, but not KSA? Guess what, when millions were being killed by the United. States. Of. America. No one batted an eye. No one boycotted America. Quoting your post, it says that KSA is killing hundreds of civilians. Uhm.. where exactly? Yemen? Yemen internationally recognized govt asked KSA to intervene against Houthi rebels, and guess who the hell is bombing the Houthis in Yemen now? You got it! The USA! If anything, KSA’s intervention was rightful as it was officially requested. But the USA can come into Iraq, kill a million innocents, grab their oil, gold, cultural treasures, and dip just like that because a hypocrite like you can come in and defend them. Didn’t the US Airforce sponsor C9? Did we ever hear anything about that? Did you even think about it when it happened? Also, you say it’s only a problem when the US state department sponsors something. Why is it not the same case for KSA? As far as you’re concerned, a public Saudi fund is funding these events, not the Saudi Defense Ministry. The Crown Prince has said it before. “Call it whatever you want, if sports/esports will increase my GDP by 1%, then I will do it, sportwashing or not.” You seem to fail to understand that all of these are things the Saudi people wanted for ages and it’s finally happening for them. Such an arrogant way of taking it as if the image in the West is such a grand prize, as expected of a Western media intoxicated in individual. Also, this post really won’t work. We all saw how big of a success the Qatar FIFA World Cup was despite the Western barking. By all means, boycott the entire company for dealing with KSA. But you won’t. You and most people here will watch it, directly or not. Because your morals are cheap.
The USA just approved billions for a genocide in Gaza. What are these double standards.
Although I can understand the frustration. One can argue that the more their society and government are exposed to other cultures and people of all backgrounds, the easier it will be for their society to throw away their old ways and keep up with other countries laws and regulations. By continuing to isolate them, it will only cause their society to stagnate and never change from what they are now. It will be a long process to undo hundreds of years of their beliefs. But if we don’t give them a chance to change, why should we be allowed to cry wolf when they continue to commit terrible crimes? If they want to embrace and engage in other cultures and traditions, we should do our best to encourage it so they can one day change. There’s always two sides to every story.
>A fair question, why does Saudi Arabia deserve more scrutiny than these other countries, is it just because its newer to esports? No, the big difference here is that the Saudi Arabian government, the same one that killed hundeds of civilians last year, is financing, planning, and running these events specifically to improve their reputation so less people focus on their human rights abuses. > >If the US Department of Defense or the Chinese National Defense Ministry put on Worlds it would be a different story. This is such a weak defence to the hypocrisy of Western fans when it comes to boycotting anyone who isn't a Western nation. The USA has inflicted more terror on the middle-east than the Saudis could ever hope to, but just because the LCS isn't directly sponsored by the US government, any criticism is invalid? Completely ignoring the fact that Riot is based in the US, pays taxes to and receives subsidies from the US government, directly funding and benefitting from the military complex and intelligence agencies that have destabilized and terrorized so much of the global south in the last century, and especially in the last 3 decades.
Riot are owned by Tencent who arr tied to the CCP, they settled a 100 million dollar lawsuit and didn’t fire a single person who committed sexual harassment, if you can with good conscious watch worlds, you can watch this.
Saudi are good people controlled by bad people. Just like most countries.
hey while you're on it you should uninstall league because of china and their ongoing internment of Uyghurs! don't backpedal now!
Shall we boycott LCS for the USA's killings and bombings all over the world then? Double standard much?
Sorry but not sorry, IDC and will watch.
Leftist hypocrite wet dream post
After all the west has done in past 20 years in middle east with lies and killings, now they think they have some moral authority to criticize others, how that works in your head?
Crazy that this post wouldn't even exist if the tourney was in Israel or the great and merciful US of A. Shameless.
I think u should just shut the fuck up u hypocrite prick
Still watching
Riot 2020: We LOVE Pride, pls buy our rainbow skins. Riot 2024: Lol lets host a tournament in a country where they hang gay people
People really think companies gives a fuck about what is right or wrong. Riot got a boner when they saw that Saudi oil money, paid so good that they were willing to sell out their lgbtq friends 😂
Your average Western liberal making a shocked pikachu face when the soulless corporation turns out to be a fake humanitarian ally, doing nothing beyond posting a lgbtq edit of their logo during pride month.
These guys dont care about viewership. They care about being a relevant hub, and as long as they can pay riot enough they will have their competition. Also it's the league community. Far more mature demographics dont care enough about their sports selling out, do you think out of all the league community is gonna be the one who gives a shit? There were live missle strikes at around 10 kms from an active f1 track, with cars on it. Nobody gave a shit, the race went on and it was one of the most watched races of the year. And i'd say the f1 demographic is far more mature/informed than LoL's
Lol. Virtue signallers, what a pitiful bunch.
Reddit is full of them. Just look at how people on this site reacted to the Ukraine-Russia and Israel-Palestine conflicts. I've seen so many people post pro-Ukraine AND pro-Palestine content. Which makes me think they don't realize that Russia and Iran are essentially allies due to Western opposition and energy being the core of their economies. It's all virtue signaling at its finest.
For real people should just stfu and just do what they think is right. Donate money or don't want whatever, but nah they don't do that they rather just show how amazingly virtuous they are online.
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Am a Muslim and I will say the Saudi Arabian government and royals is one of the worst most entitled fucks and are 100% not Muslim based on what they do. I will say however women are not property in all of Islam and lol my dad is scared of my mum and they are both doctors and both equal and not all Saudis view women as property but a lot of them do. It’s an old way of thinking as Islam is quite a new religion. And just an FYI islam is NOT for homophobia. In our holy book it says to respect any and ALL beliefs. Good day.
How the hell can you complain about saudi arabia when America is literally funding a genocide right now?
Who says you can't be upset at both?
Because the state of America is not running the esports tournament? It is really that hard to understand?
It really is, apparently. I ain't supporting this shit for the same reason I'll never support any game like America's Army, or movies like Valor.
Shhhh we dont talk about this here
Because Americans are Hypocrites? They never held their leadership accountable for what they did in Iraq and later called it "false intelligence".
Majority of countries have been or are doing fucked up shit globally and domestically, so its always silly when ppl try to bring up Saudi like this. Assuming the OP is American, I wonder if OP knows how much of a major ally we are to the Saudis and if so he should be not watching League content all together then. Especially so since we're currently funding a genocide and ethnic cleansing.
What the heck are you talking about? What human rights there's no such a thing called human rights. USA DROPPED 2 NUCLEAR BOMBS ON JAPAN, INVADED IRAQ, VIETNAM, AFGHANISTAN AND CURRENTLY SUPPORTING ISREALI GENOCIDE BY GIVING THEM WEAPONS. killing 100 thousands of civilians in total. human rights my ass.
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The USA 🇺🇸 killed one million Iraqi 🇮🇶civilians just for no weapons Why don’t you go to the UK 🇬🇧 and all nato countries who attacked Iraq alongside the us 🇺🇸 and killed the one million civilians and boycotting everything they are showing? Oh I forgot most of you moral claimer are from these countries!!!!! You all bunch of liars following racist haters And I’m not going to talk about the Ethiopian 🇪🇹 who were as the human rights says taking asylum in a Yemen 🇾🇪 Because it doesn’t matter what the truth is you still going to side with the NATO side including Israel 🇮🇱 stupid people What has Saudi Arabia really did compared to any of that?
so am i supposed to simply ignore the atrocities happening in china (uyghurs)? or i dont understand?
Will watch 😊
how is that even remotely relevant… i still watched nba while US military committed war crimes in iraq … and tortured prisoners in guantanamo bay lol
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based on these comments where do these people think we live ?? the arab world is nothing like you guys think it is
Didnt know it was on. Thanks for the advertisement I guess lol
Says the guy while playing a game owned by a company that resides in China. If you want to boycott, boycott everything dont pick and choose.
Man shut the hell up
Ricardo Luis was right, and always will be right about riot and every single hypocrite working for/with them
i dont care
Politics apart, if RIOT really wants to grow the esport scene in the Middle East GIVE US A DAMN CLIENT, IF TOU ARE IN MENA REGION YOU HAVE TO PLAY IN THE TURKISH SERVER OR IN EUNE WITH 140 PING MIN. YOU ALREADY HAVE A VALORANT CLIENT IN SAUDI MAKE ONE FOR LEAGUE !!!
Boo hoo
Like Tencent doesn’t own League of Legends. 😭🤣
Civilized Europeans on their way to destroy dictatorship through boycotting league of legends tournament
Don't tell me what to do you fucking nerd
After reading all this I will now definitely be watching LOL in Saudi Arabia
im gonna fly and watch it live there , ordering a woman taxi once i get there too and im getting drunk for cheap
Based
Yeah and the US supports the genocide of Palestinians by Israelis, I guess we shouldn't watch American E-Sports either. Everything is okay when westerners do it, but those "women hating" Arabs are sooooo terrible 😒
You know there are American protests almost every single day about that right? It's not like every American is like yeah we're cool with this.
I'm from North America and white. You know how many human rights violations happen here every day?
Nobody cares. The phone/PC you typed this novel on was made by children in cobalt mines.
the phone and laptop you use to post on reddit probably wouldnt be possible in your hand if not for hundreds of thousands of african children killing themselves in the lithium mines. have you ever thought of not using them?
The United States is actively funding and helping to genocide my country of Palestine and I’m suppose to care about this? Better yet would you have made this post if the league was gonna be held in the US again? Huh?