Will esports take accountability and police themselves
I couldn’t even imagine as a kid that one day I would grow up to see not only video games be taken seriously but see it become a sport and one of the fastest growing industries in North America. But like with any growing industry you’re going to run into some land mines on the way.
The NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL all have had some huge bumps along the way to becoming multi-billion dollar organizations. And with each of those they had to ask themselves as leagues and organizations how do we police ourselves and how do we police the players who represent our sport. None of those are easy questions and none of them are comfortable to enforce. I believe that teams, orgs, and TO’s are gonna come to a point soon where they are asking themselves these same questions in a attempt to elevate their brands to the next level.
As a fan and participant in this sport I have to ask myself how much falls on these orgs to police their players and content creators. When do we as fans hold orgs accountable for the actions taken by some creators and players. And when do we ensure that we don’t forget that these players aren’t robots controlled by the owners they’re individuals who make decisions and mistakes and that some of these players are in fact still kids and still are trying to find ways to navigate through life and make the right decisions. Owners can not be expected to know every little thing their players and content creators are doing. We also can’t expect that these pros will get it right 100% of the time it’s impossible to keep that standard.
So what do we do? How do we hold this sport accountable while also keeping the fun and entertainment alive. In my opinion we have to take it one day, one org, one pro at a time. Every situation and or incident has to be treated differently. Not everything requires a hammer. Sometimes the simplest response is the best. But we also shouldn’t ignore everything somethings require swift and decisive actions. We might not like or agree with every decision. But we all should do is have the maturity to understand just how hard each and everyone of their jobs are as the owner or pro.
Hopefully we as a community will learn from our predecessors in other sports and leagues and elevate this community to higher heights while also keeping the integrity, fun, and entertainment associated with gaming.