In the coming early July, the Saudi Esports World Cup will kick off, which is known as the comprehensive tournament with the highest prize money in the esports circle, attracting the attention of dozens of clubs around the world. Among them, the League of Legends project is particularly eye-catching, with the government of Saudi Arabia, the organizer, inviting eight top teams from four major regions to compete for a prize of up to $1 million. Despite the limited number of participating teams, the addition of BLG, the champion team of the LPL (Chinese Mainland Professional League), and the runner-up TES, undoubtedly added more highlights to the competition.
For this year's esports extravaganza, Riot Games has adjusted its Summer Tournament schedule to give participating teams a week off to travel and prepare for the event. Recently, the teams have announced that they will leave for Saudi Arabia, and the organizers have provided round-trip air tickets and accommodation arrangements for the players.
However, just when everyone thought it was a publicly-funded trip, JackeyLove, a player on the lower lane of the TES team, revealed in a live broadcast on June 30 that the organizers only provided economy class tickets, and the club needed to upgrade at its own expense, and because the flight distance was more than 10 hours, the comfort of economy class was much worse, which would have a great impact on the state of the players.
When asked if he could not upgrade, JackeyLove replied, "If you don't upgrade, you can't do it, it will take more than ten hours to go there, and if you sit in economy class, people will be dizzy." Therefore, TES planned to upgrade the cabin at his own expense to make the players sit more comfortably, but JackeyLove felt that this would be a loss, and he joked that "it is equivalent to losing money to play the game".
As soon as this remark came out, it immediately aroused widespread attention in the e-sports circle. Huang Xudong, a well-known e-sports commentator, commented sharply on this in the live broadcast on July 1, and he bluntly said, "LOL players are still complaining about the economy class of the Petroleum Cup, and it can only be said that the current young players have not suffered hardship." He said that TES players have added money to upgrade their cabins, and the new generation of e-sports people has indeed not suffered hardship. Huang Xudong emphasized that he is not a rhythm, because older esports players don't really feel much about it.
He recalled the hardships of the year, "Think about the time when Brother Sun took the green train to play the game, sat for more than ten hours, and went back after losing BO1. Due to the rhythm of the barrage in the live broadcast room, Huang Xudong also added again: "I think it takes some hardships to create a tenacious spirit, if you have been in a better environment since childhood, your mental strength may be insufficient, for example, when you encounter some difficulties, you may not work so hard, you may not be so rolled, and you can't beat others in the end." ”
Huang Xudong's remarks quickly appeared on the hot searches of major communities, causing heated discussions among netizens.
As a top player in League of Legends, JackeyLove has maintained a high level of popularity since joining Team IG in 2018 and winning the World Championship, and has also achieved excellent results when playing for TES in recent years.
As an iconic figure in the e-sports industry, Huang Xudong not only has outstanding performance in the field of commentary, but also has profound attainments in many aspects of the e-sports industry, and has organized many e-sports events with Sun Yifeng in recent years. The collision of views between the two has undoubtedly added a touch of gunpowder to the e-sports circle.
Netizens have expressed their opinions on this. Some people think that JackeyLove is justified in complaining about the race arrangement, after all, long economy class flights are really hard; Some people also think that Huang Xudong is an older generation of e-sports people, and their concepts are still stuck in the past, and they should understand the demands of young players; Some believe that the new generation of players should cherish the existing conditions more than blindly complaining about the environment.
In addition, some netizens summarized the flight time from each competition area to Saudi Arabia, the LEC flight from Frankfurt to Riyadh is 7 hours, the LPL flight from Shanghai to Riyadh is 10.5 hours, the LCK flight from Seoul to Shanghai to Riyadh is 14 hours, and the LCS flight from Los Angeles to Qatar to Riyadh is 17 hours. So in terms of flight distance, the LPL region is second only to the LEC region, while the LCK and LCS regions have longer flight times, but the other teams are not complaining.
It is worth mentioning that Huang Xudong's friend Sun Yifeng also joined the discussion this afternoon, and he mocked the Chinese players in the LPL division on Weibo for failing to win the League of Legends event in last year's Hangzhou Asian Games, losing to the South Korean team and only finishing third.
This remark undoubtedly intensified the antagonism between the two sides, after all, the LPL lost to the South Korean team in the Chengdu MSI finals in May this year, and in the first round of the Saudi Arabian event, the two LPLs will play against the two LCK teams, and the loser will be eliminated directly and will not participate in the follow-up matches.
Today, the Esports World Cup is more than just a simple competition, but has become a point of contention between new and old esports groups, League of Legends fans and non-League of Legends players. What do you think about esports players being upgraded?