We're So Back. Yeah.

Hello, everyone! A warm welcome to all our new subscribers. Thanks for joining us; we truly value your support!

This is Jacob, and today I find myself once again enjoying a college football Saturday (Go Dawgs!) while cooking up some Mexican-style hot dogs in honor of Mexican Independence Day. ¡Viva México! to everyone celebrating!

Despite grappling with the recovery from a recent tonsillectomy—which, for the record, was even more painful than breaking an arm—I've also been busy with some back-end HR and accounting endeavors. In the midst of all this, we've transitioned our long-time marketing manager, Samie Daigle, to a full-time role and welcomed a fresh face, Beverly Perez, as our new intern. Kudos to both Samie and Beverly!

Meanwhile, Mikhail has been on the move, juggling travels and a house move as I navigated my recovery period. We understand the dip in regular content and appreciate your patience.

But fear not, much like the Texas Longhorns, 🎶 We’re Baaaackk! 🎶🤘🏻

Before we venture into our recent highlights, a brief notice to our Visionary and Executive Producer-tier patrons: we’d love to hear from you regarding your preferences for acknowledgment in our content footnotes. I know not all of you may be comfortable being mentioned publicly, so please reach out through the post comments or direct messages on Discord or Patreon. We anticipate hearing from you soon; otherwise, we’ll be in touch.

Now, let’s catch you up on what Mikhail and I have been up to over the past two weeks:

Wednesday, September 6:

Valorant Celebrates Its First Big Championship, While Its Community's Pillars Suffer  

Post the remarkable Valorant Champions finals in Los Angeles, Mikhail shared his firsthand experiences and insights in a journalist’s notebook-type post. While the event largely stood successful, the unfolding narratives in the Valorant community post-event have been quite striking, shedding light on individual struggles and significant shifts in the esports landscape.

During the event, Mikhail had a conversation with Ray Zurawski, a prominent moderator from the r/ValorantCompetitive community on Reddit. I need to mention that Ray is a personal friend of mine. 

Ray shared her ongoing financial hardships, revealing that she is currently relying on food stamps after an employment opportunity with Valorant's publisher, Riot Games, fell through unexpectedly. Despite facing these challenges, she diligently moderates a burgeoning community of over 200,000 members, dedicating six to eight hours daily, all on a volunteer basis.

The troubling scenario Ray is experiencing echoes wider issues in the esports landscape, drawing a stark contrast to the celebratory spirit of the event. 

These issues are thrown into sharper focus with the recent revelation that Evil Geniuses, the champions of the event, have allegedly compelled their players to either accept a staggering 50% reduction in their pay or seek opportunities with new teams, all the while setting high buyout prices. 

The landscape becomes even more complex when considering the decisions taken by The Guard's ownership entity, the renowned Kroenke Sports & Entertainment group — also the owner of prestigious sports franchises like the Arsenal and the Los Angeles Rams. They have not only downsized The Guard’s roster but also made a sweeping decision to withdraw from esports altogether, signifying a potential crisis in the industry as we witness established entities exiting the space.

The successive unraveling of these developments paints a distressingly chaotic picture of the current state of the esports industry, calling attention to a pressing need for stability and sustainable practices.

Thursday, September 7:

First Off-the-Record Conference Call

We hosted our inaugural Discord conference call for Visionary and Executive Producer-tier patrons, covering a range of hot topics. We talked about Evil Geniuses, the Creator League and our impressions of Starfield.

This is a Visionary and Executive Producer-level benefit. So if you’re a Founder-tier patron, consider upgrading to join us. 

We’ll likely have our next call next week. If you’re one of the people grandfathered in via Substack, reach out if you want to upgrade, as we’d love to have you but have to some fancy accounting work to fix your membership. We hope to see more of you there!

Friday, September 15:

New Visionaries Episode and Creator League Controversy 

A busy Friday kicked off with a new Visionaries episode, featuring an insightful discussion with former Riot Games and Loaded executive Avi Bhuiyan and Bryce Blum, who represents most of the North American esports teams. Bhuiyan and Blum recently published a series of essays entitled "The Esports Reckoning." 

We hosted this live on the Discord and thanks to those of you who joined us! This is open to all paid subscribers, so if you’re not in the Discord, join us by linking your Discord and Patreon account today.

Later in the day, we broke ground on the turbulent journey of the MrBeast-endorsed Creator League and the repercussions it faced within the gaming and creator economy.

As we uncovered new details about the league's founding company, eFuse, I received a heated call from their PR representative, Gabriel del Rio, after the publication’s piece.

He said, pretty much verbatim, “You’re just a kid, with an ESPN credential from like 12 years ago, with a newsletter,” adding that “nobody cares about you.” Despite his hostility, I continuously offered to hold an open conversation with him or anyone from eFuse’s executive team on the record, but he just ramped up his anger. Before slamming down the phone, he threw in a sarcastic, “Enjoy your 141 subscribers,” giving a shoutout to you, our dear Patrons.

Next, he took his grievances public with two tweets, which read:

I don't want to over-dramatize this, but it's encounters like these that underline the rough and tumble world of games journalism. We've got power people in this industry—including folks like del Rio, who reps big names such as Dr DisRespect and Nickmercs—who aren't fans of scrutiny or tough questions. Unfortunately, many games journalists, often without the benefit of a solid editorial backing or a supportive legal team, find themselves bowing to this kind of pressure. That isn’t us; we’re not about to start now.

It's down to you all, the wonderful community we're building here, that we can stand firm. The increasing number of paid Patrons on Patreon, along with over 10,000 readers and listeners tuning into our newsletters and podcasts, gives us the strength to keep going — massive thanks to each and every one of you! We're here to craft a media space buoyed by subscribers, a space that demonstrates to brands, investors, and others that a collaborative of creators and journalists rooted in gaming, nerd culture, and the creator economy can thrive.

So, if you're hanging with us but haven't become a paid Patron yet, we’d love for you to consider it! As we approach the end of September, there’s about a month left to secure your current rate for a full year, and snag a special Limited Edition Medallion — a token of appreciation we're offering to everyone who sticks with us through the end of the year.

Thanks, y'all. See you later this week!