Shocking report: Esports World Cup was biased towards Team Falcons, according to those that attended

Earlier this year, Richard Lewis revealed something not shocking: Esports World Cup Foundation paid for people to attend the event in Saudi Arabia. It was not all that mindblowing, seeing as the organizations competing in the Esports World Cup were also paid to be there. But more details have emerged, and it just gets even funnier.

The Esports World Cup has continued to call itself the biggest and best esports event in history, but that’s based on prize money and (probably) made-up viewership statistics. When it comes to actual prestige and esports spirit, I wouldn’t say that the EWC is even close to the top of my list.

Now that the seven weeks have wrapped up, Esports News UK has contacted Superfans who were paid to attend the EWC to find out more about their experience attending the over-the-top event.

Superfans Share Their Esports World Cup Experiences

At the beginning, the Esports News UK report noted that many of the Superfans had overall positive experiences. I mean, yeah, they were paid to fly out and watch a tournament featuring their favorite team for free. So, moving on.

While attending the event, however, the Superfans were subjected to some strange stuff. Certain signs were not allowed to be held during the tournaments (and one Superfan was even told he couldn’t return to watch the tournament due to his sign, even though it was confiscated). The issue? It used the word “king.” That’s apparently not allowed in Saudi Arabia, where there is a “de facto leader” (and where context doesn’t matter). For the rest of the event, the fan was followed around by security, you know, in case he wanted his favorite player to become the new ruler of Saudi Arabia.

Teams were also not immune to strict censorship. Fans recalled when Mouz Esports tried to taunt Team Falcons during a match (pretty common behavior in Counter-Strike 2), but security stopped them from joking about how much money Falcons had paid for its roster. Team Spirit and its fans were also not allowed to chant “Chopper was right, “a reference to Team Spirit’s IGL’s since-deleted video about the EWC that stated: “Here’s the arena, this is where about 300 paid workers will scream, ‘Falcons, Falcons.'”

Regarding Team Falcons, the Superfans told Esports News UK that fans of the massive Saudi Arabian esports organization were treated quite differently than other fandoms. This would be quite problematic, since Team Falcons is rumored to be funded by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, giving them ties to the EWCF. This would explain the organization purchasing every pro player in the world ahead of EWC, but I digress.

Fans claimed that the microphone levels were increased when Falcons’ fans cheered, attempting to make their crowd seem larger and louder. Meanwhile, Superfans for other teams faced “constant questioning” when they tried to get to their all-access seats. These seats would sometimes be taken by Falcons fans, according to the Superfans, leaving them further from the team they came to support. During the Counter-Strike 2 event, Superfans were told not to “bang drums” during gameplay, something they noticed Falcons fans doing.

Team Falcons’ fanbase was so unruly, in fact, that the crowd was accused of attempting to blind Aurora players with laser pointers and flashlights. The organization’s owner, Valerii “L3rich” Kharitonov tried to get the guards to do something, which failed.

With Superfans giving first-hand accounts of unfair treatment and biased reporting, it really drives home the ongoing sentiment that the Esports World Cup is faking crowd numbers, viewership, and prestige. It’s hard to really find an event legit when it hosts a Club Championship program that basically rewards whoever buys the most esports teams and players, then pays fans to attend the event.

There’s no denying that the Esports World Cup Foundation has a ton of money to blow on its journey to control the esports industry: it even started yet another event where it pays teams to compete. But that doesn’t make it an honorable, exciting, or respected event to esports fans.