Blitz Esports confessed that Riot Games, the publisher of League of Legends, has a financial stake in the ongoing operations of their outlet. This wasn’t disclosed due to the ethical juices that flow through their veins, but because ethical journalist, Duncan “Thorin” Shields, exposed them in a video recently.
The news originally came out via Duncan “Thorin” Shields’ video about the subject matter on December 6th, 2017 via YouTube.
Following the video making its way around YouTube and the e-sports scene, Blitz Esports decided to respond by making a statement about the matter, as reported on by MCVUK.
Later that day on December 6th, 2017, Rick Ling, the CEO of Blitz Esports, made a public post for the purpose of transparency and clarity, writing…
“Riot Games was an early investor in our team in 2015 when we were Instant Esports, before we started creating content. At that time, we were building an esports mobile app serving tournament schedules, scores and stats on the competitive League of Legends and CS:GO scenes, and Riot shared our vision of making esports data easily accessible to all fans.
“Earlier this year, we independently shifted our focus away from the mobile app and toward esports content because our team thought it’d add more value for fans and that we could do a good job with it.
“[…] Now that we’re creating content, we’re a normal publication going through normal media procedures: Riot has zero control over our operations, and we’ve had to prove ourselves independently through the quality of our content that we deserved access to LoL esports announcements alongside other media companies.”
An amendment to the article published on December 7th, 2017 has Ling clarifying that some people who accused them of hiding the information regarding their connection to Riot was incorrect, and that they never intended to hide the information. However, they do point out that they will be “actively promoting” the fact that Riot was an investor in the future, specifically when covering their product(s).
So long as Blitz Esports continues to put disclosures and transparency front and center, then they shouldn’t have any problems.
The only reason issues like #GamerGate grew so big was because unethical outlets refused to take responsibility for their lack of disclosures and their adherence to protecting the status quo of corruption. Blitz Esports should be able to stay on the good side of the ethics-based watchdog if they make sure not to backslide into any unsavory practices.
(Thanks for the news tip Blaugast)
