Starfield and Esports — Both Worse Than We Thought!

Hi everyone, Mikhail here.

It’s time for our Patreon weekly update! I've been in the middle of a move, which has cut into my writing time, not to mention my "Valorant" time. (I've also already had to deal with an ant infestation; this one's partially my fault.)

I hope your week has been better — or at least ant-free!

Here's what we published this week:

9/20: The 'Esports Reckoning'

Jacob sat down with attorney Bryce Blum and former Riot Games and Loaded executive Avi Bhuiyan — the authors of a set of essays on what's gone wrong with esports and competitive gaming — to dissect the central issues facing the scene.

If you're a patron, you can access that post here. (And if you're not a patron... do I even have to say it?)

9/21: Is 'Starfield' Actually Good? Uhhhhhhhh.

The first few times I was asked whether "Starfield" was good, I said yes. But as I’ve played more of the game, my opinion has changed from a straightforward “yes” to something else. I tried to sort through my feelings in this piece (which I wouldn't call a review; that may still be something I write separately, someday).

I got a lot of "this is exactly how I felt" messages. But I'm curious what you think! Let me know in the comments below.

You can read that here.

I'd also like to give a sneak preview of some of the stories we're chasing. I can't share everything, obviously, and it's always a bit fraught to call your shot like this (because some stories just don't come together for all sorts of reasons) but I think it's fair to offer our readers a glimpse at what's in the works:

• I'm doing some digging into a few organizations in the North American Valorant scene that have made headlines recently for all the wrong reasons.
• Jacob's off digging into the Overwatch League as the deadline for the league to submit a proposal to the 20 teams for the 2024 season and beyond is coming up.
• He's also completing a big investigation, due out in October, about a significant scandal involving Twitch streamers — more on that later.
• This one's not journalistic, but: We're posting a bit more in our Discord these days! Some of you have taken the initiative and reached out to chat — about the news, about certain stories, about sports — and that is fantastic! We're hoping to engage more with y'all there in the future.

Also, our collab with Ateyo is still on! This premium zip-up features all of our logos on it (basically, it's for the realest of real heads). There are less than 50 of them available, so act fast!

If you're hanging with us but haven't become a paid Patron yet, we’d love for you to join! As we approach the end of September, there’s about a month left to secure our discount rate for a full year.

Thanks y'all. More premium content in the coming week!

- Mikhail