Mush
2022-09-24 01:41:09
The esports holier than thou machine gun found its target for the week, and damn, it was a big one. No bullets were spared. All the hypocrites joined in while pocketing that sweet Saudi Arabian and Chinese blood money. Mark Z was quick to point out, in mockery, that you can speak out regarding the matters you choose. Absolutely. And if that makes you a hypocrite, you can either accept the title or not, but it still stands. How many of these angry judges mentioned the kind of hellish nightmare that Saudi Arabian women live through? How many of them spoke out in protest of the genocide of Uyghur Muslims that has been happening in China for years? These are surely at least as bad as someone partying with a persona non grata, no? No, because Carlos doesn’t pay them. Carlos didn’t make a video game that has given them an opportunity at a dream job. Yet, Carlos wasn’t sexually harassing female employes, that was Riot, everyone’s favorite esports developer. Carlos made a string of unbelievable mistakes that spun out of control like a car crash that you can’t look away from. No one in their right mind can defend the positions he took and the whole process that took him from beloved CEO to someone on leave for 8 weeks. He hurt his company, he put his employees in the line of fire and that is unacceptable. Andrew Tate is an extremely controversial person, and it still baffles me that this is the hill Carlos decided to die on. But is this really what this industry has turned into?Thank you ? pic.twitter.com/2kL25RutfQ
— ? CarlosR ocelote ❤️ (@CarlosR) September 23, 2022
Carlos was the embodiment of the esports OG. He was as endemic as you can get. A professional player whose moment of biggest fame was being backdoored by xPeke, who decided to drop the scarfs and get to work. He created one of the most successful organizations in esports history and kept it as a passion project, regardless of the ridiculous amounts of money he did make.
He was the face of the company.. You could see him jump around the coaches of G2’s LoL team. His excitement while watching the G2 CS:GO team play live was palpable. He was present. He was real. And now, he’s gone. And people are glad. They’re glad at the depressing goodbye of a veteran who’s been pouring his heart and soul into esports for eight years straight. They’re glad that 8 years of history came to an end in a matter of hours, through a string of tweets.
Where is this enthusiasm for “justice” towards Activision Blizzard’s Bobby Kotick, who’s still the CEO of a company where sexual harassment was so rampant under his watch that an employee commited suicide?
Carlos deserved some punishment. I am no judge here, so I am not sure what was justified, but if this is the precedent that we’re setting, why is Andy “Reginald” Dihn allowed to be the TSM CEO after the number of accusations that he is an abusive boss? Why is Joe Marsh still the CEO of T1 after the disturbing comments he made regarding some of his players? What about the disaster that he let happen around the hiring of LS?
More importantly, who’s going to replace him? A faceless money-person with no skin in the game who’s going to bend over to whoever pays more. Carlos was G2, for better or worse. The loss that the organization has suffered today will be felt for a long time. G2 will still exist, but it won’t be G2 anymore.
Carlos had an impact on his employees, including the players. Perkz, a former LoL player for G2, expressed his gratitude towards “Ocelote” on Twitter. Chicago, a G2 Rocket league player, did the same. Yuli, a G2 content creator posted a similar tweet. This was a CEO that wasn’t just a suit in a tall building. He was a real person who was present and who made G2 unique. Now, as Thorin said “G2 is just another org”.
The more “Carloses” we lose, the quicker we’ll head into the belly of the money-hungry beast. Just a matter of time until we replace the few real people that we have left with fancy suits and our Saudi Arabian and Chinese overlords will rub their hands in excitement. I wonder how many of you will fight the fight when esports money becomes bloody everywhere we look. No matter! Look at the fancy new Worlds song Riot released; oh, and the fancy new hero coming to Overwatch 2; uh, French President Emannuel Macron is announcing the next CS:GO Major? Great!
If a person like Carlos hasn’t done enough to deserve a second chance, who in esports has? This industry is doomed. The virtue signaling and the weekly witchunts supersede all other concerns. 8 years of history are forgotten if you just make the wrong mistake at the perfect time. Unless you are as rich as Bobby Kotick or make a game as successful as League of Legends.
Goodbye Carlos “Ocelote” Rodríguez Santiago, you will be sorely missed.
Carlos "Ocelote" Rodríguez and the great inconsistency in esports morality
2022 PAX West - Galahad 3093 by Simutronics Corp. - The Search for The Next Esport
System Shock by Nightdive Studios - The Search for The Next Esport | Bioshock-esque Beauty
SPRAWL by Rogue Games - The Search for The Next Esport | A Proper Quake-like Successor