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League Of Legends Community Divided Over Saudi Arabian Sportswashing As Esports World Cup Kicks Off

By 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Jack Coleman

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Marc Robert 'Caedrel' Lamont

The second annual Esports World Cup (EWC) is ongoing, bringing a fresh dose of controversy and division to esport꧃s and each participating game's respective community. The EWC is entirely funded by Saudi Arabia's public investment fund (PIF✨) and is a clear-cut case of sportswashing, i.e. the use of sports competitions to soften the public perception of a government.

Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses are well-documented. Saudi Arabia continues to employ the death penalty, having executed over 190 people in 2022, including 81 people in a single day (). Being LGBTQ+ is illegal in Saudi Arabia, and is punis💖hable by death ().

Women in Saudi Arabia are required by law to have a male guardian. Without permission from their guardian, a woman cannot obtain employment, travel, obtain a passport or undergo certain medical procedures. According to , women protest♋ing this system have been detained and tortured via electrocution, flogging, hanging from the ceiling and sexual assault.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was found directly responsible for ordering the assassination of ♚journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, after an inv🐲estigation by the United States' Central Intelligence Agency ().

There are many more documented cases oꩵf ongoing human rights abuses inౠ Saudi Arabia.

A Community Divided

The 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:League of Legends❀ portion of the EWC is set to begin on July 16. Prominent streamer Christian "IWDominate" Rivera that he will not 🌞be co-streaming the event, despite being offered an "ungodly amount of money" to do so.

"I will not be costreaming EWC. I was offered an ungodly amount of money (more than x3 what I make in a month on stream) for 5 days but I didn't feel good about ta🐠king the offer," wrote Rivera. "I understand that I'm in a financially privileged position and not everyone can decline the ridiculous offers going around but for me, I'd rather not cover the event and then restart streams when LPL comes back in 6 days. See you all on the 19th."

However, League of Legends' most popular streamer, Marc Robert "Caedrel" Lamont, has announced that he will be streaming the event, sparking division in his community. A community dedicated to the streamer, , is currently dominated by discu💃ssions about the streamer's decision to co-stream the event.

Lamont has stated that his stream is an apolitical space, but some fans are unsatisfied with this justification, saying that ignoring the p⛦olitical and ethical implications of an event hosted for political reasons .

Meanwhile, League of Legends developer Riot Games allowed the Esports World Cup to sponsor this year's Mid-Season Invitational, and has facilitated a brief 'break' in its competitive ecosystem for the last two years to alloꦡw top League of Legends teams to compete in the event.

This isn't the first time Riot has had to deal with controversy surrounding Saudi sponsorship, as, in 2020, the League of Legends European Championship (LEC) attempted to secure a sponsorship with Neom, a planned city under construction in Saudi Arabia. The league'♊s on-air talent banded together to express disapproval at the sponsorship, causing the LEC to pull out of the deal.

Saudi Arabia continues to heavily invest money i🐷n esports, funding both the Esports World Cup and various teams competing under the Team Falcons banner across multiple esport titles.