Mythic Messenger #15 - "Get ready to frag"
LOGGING IN TO “MYTHIC MESSENGER #15”... LOOKING FOR SERVER… JOINING GAME… GET READY TO FRAG.
We don’t really do themed issues, but we’ve kind of been thinking of this as “the esports issue”, at least informally. Esports - pro gaming, if you’d prefer - has become a billion dollar industry worldwide, featuring disciplined, elite athletes, lucrative sponsorships, gruelling training camps and massive tournaments held in basketball stadiums with millions of fans tuning in!
We’re finally starting to see that modern idea of esports seep through into other media. You can see how it influenced Spielberg’s Ready Player One movie. But when you look at everything going on right now, it’s clear that esports truth is even more interesting than esports fiction…
Legendary struggle shows rival regions are still worlds apart
The month-long spectacle of the League of Legends World Championships (just “Worlds 2020” to the game’s millions of fans) is now well underway. The logistics of bringing in hopeful teams from all the regional League of Legends competitions means the opening stages are punishingly cutthroat. This year Worlds featured representatives from 29 different countries, so you can imagine the digital bloodbath involved in thinning those down over the last two weeks!
Of course, not all regions are on equal footing when it comes to League of Legends talent. Korea, China, Europe and North America are home to the game’s major leagues, with a fully professional infrastructure and the resources to poach top prospects from smaller regions. These regions send several teams each to contend for the title, in a rare chance to earn international bragging rights over the rest of the world.
US fans in particular had high hopes this year. NA teams have historically struggled to make the same impact as the other big regions, and they have never lifted the Worlds trophy. But fan-favorite team TSM had been on a tear heading into the event, with their marquee midlaner Søren "Bjergsen" Bjerg blowing up a tense finals series with a secret-weapon character choice, Zilean. Their rivals in that final series, FlyQuest, had also been incredibly consistent, and with the might of Team Liquid propelling their squad to Worlds as NA’s wildcard, there was a great enthusiasm among fans that this could be the year NA stood tall.
But those NA hopes have been dashed by the cold reality of main stage play, with all 3 teams combining for a dismal 6-12 record in groups. The highly fancied TSM collapsed completely to 0-6, battered by an uncompromising group C featuring the best of Europe and Korea. None of the NA squads were able to even threaten to progress to the playoffs stage. FlyQuest’s nose-bloodying final day victories over tournament favorites Top Esports were a bit of salvaged pride, but ultimately irrelevant to the date on their plane ticket home.
Journalists and coaches are tearing their hair out trying to solve the “NA problem” before next year.
Fans, players and coaches across the LCS - North America’s top league - are furious at this collapse, desperate to escape the jibes of their rivals which echo even into the casual culture of League of Legends. And finally, it seems publisher Riot Games is considering extra steps to bolster NA’s chances. An unexpected mid-tournament announcement controversially closed down the old Oceanic region, and folded all of its players into NA for eligibility and contract purposes.
This is battlefield surgery from Riot to try and forge two proud but underperforming regions into a single contending force - and already, it has been painful, with the OCE community in particular venting their anger at what they see as being denied their chance to compete. But Riot clearly hopes that a bit of disappointment and outrage now will be worth it in 12 months, when a combined NA/OCE region is finally able to take those feelings out on rivals in the Worlds 2021 playoffs.
DOTA2's princely prize pool smashes records, but still no tournament?
To an outsider, the facts make it sound like a scam. A company claims to be holding an esports event, offers to put in some money for a prize, and asks the game’s community to chip in some too. Through buying merch and other tokens, that community goes on to spend $160 million USD over a period of months - of which $40 million is set aside for the prize pool. The tournament - DOTA2’s The International 10 - is now the single richest esports tournament ever held, thanks to the mammoth contribution of its fans. Only problem is, it hasn’t been held yet. It hasn’t even been announced!
Such is the strange situation we find ourselves in as esports fans, thanks to a combination of COVID-19 and the idiosyncratic Valve Software. Much has been written about Valve’s nontraditional, chaotic internal structure and politics, which makes it slow to react to things like COVID. The International, scheduled for August as it is every year, wasn’t officially canceled until the start of May - long after any other stadium-based event had seen the writing on the wall. Players who had worked all year to qualify and fans who had helped fund the prize were left in the lurch.
Valve has also taken its time to announce a backup plan for TI10. The original cancellation statement admitted, “it is likely the event will have to take place in 2021,” but offered no timeline for an announcement. In the meantime, they continued accepting community contributions for the TI10 prize pool, even extending the original cutoff point up until this week! Their clear goal of $40 million in prize money was reached at the eleventh hour, perhaps thanks to contributions from a DOTA2-loving Saudi prince who has spent huge sums on previous Internationals.
Ex-pro captain and current broadcaster Kyle Freedman released one of the first statements scorching Valve for their mishandling of the current situation.
But when will pro players, who have been without official competition for months, get a chance to play for that life-altering cash? And what has Valve done with the other $120 million when their pro scene seems to be slipping into a dangerous coma? Pro players and broadcasters have been reluctant to speak out given the immense power a game’s publisher holds to exclude them from their livelihoods, but the unrest is palpable. Something is sure to happen soon, one way or the other.
Fast fandom
As always, there is a ton going on in the interconnected world of pop culture and fan media. Here are a few of the stories that caught our eye:
Punishing price tag doesn't discourage comic art fans in rare auction
If you follow all of the goings on here at Mythic Markets (where your Messenger is written!) you know we’re always interested in big-name comic book sales. Anything featuring the first historical appearance of now-beloved superheroes is like a blue-chip stock to comic collectors, and the competition for them at auction is fierce.
But this story is even bigger - the original artwork for Amazing Spider-Man #129, better known as the original appearance of The Punisher, is up for sale. Since The Punisher’s debut is already among the most desired and valuable modern comics, and original artwork is more valuable than even a mint condition comic, this will be one sizable investment for the lucky winner. The owners have said they’re going in expecting at least $2,000,000. Yikes.
Harry Potter's Hogwarts Legacy steps away from legacy of its author
The majority of adults and kids who have nurtured a lifelong love of Harry Potter are probably just sick of the media circus around author J.K. Rowling at this point. And now for the first time it seems that the Harry Potter mythos itself - or at least, Warner Brothers - has also decided Rowling is past her usefulness.
The announcement of Hogwarts Legacy for PS5 has relaunched some Potter nostalgia, but also took the extraordinary step of confirming Rowling - who created the entire IP - was uninvolved in any way with this new game and its story. It’s awkward to see a creator so divorced from their iconic work, but clearly it’s worthwhile to Warner if it prevents thousands of gamers from boycotting this big-money game release.