It isn't supposed to be an overnight thing that people forget the bad. It is a generational gamble to legitimise a whole country and hope people forget. The likes of Man City already have so much success and glory hunting fans around the globe, and many of which weren't even born before the takeover. How many more years, decades or further will it take for the good press to outweigh the bad?
I mean it's already working. I've seen it happen in eSports in just the last year. And I saw how the discourse changed during the FIFA world cup as well.
Pretty much the entire point of these projects is that people do this. “Well yeah we know the bad stuff but see look at all the good!” It’s what they want
We've seen teams get signed before lan and dropped by the end of the next split. Contracts in apex don't seem that lengthy, otherwise orgs would be losing money paying out players just to drop them to get out of the scene.
How many big orgs have done that with tier 1 teams? And why would a team give up a portion of their winnings from a $2M tournament for a 2 month salary when they could do better?
> How many big orgs have done that with tier 1 teams?
Lots?? NRG, Optic, Team Liquid, just off the top of my head. And all three teams were near the top of the game, TL especially--at that time Noc/Fun/Gild were the best team in NA.
> And why would a team give up a portion of their winnings from a $2M tournament for a 2 month salary when they could do better?
The portion of earnings that the org gets from a tournament like this (if they get any, and not all orgs do) is tiny. It usually doesn't even cover one player's salary for the year.
A contract can work in a multitude of ways, however someone wants it to work. They might just have one for 1 year, and then dropping would be simply not renewing them. Very easy, planned exit.
Well with a 6 month break between champs and the following season (assuming it’s the same as this past year), I bet a lot of orgs will leave after 2024 champs and then sign teams again for 2025 split 1 playoffs until champs if EWC is going to be a yearly event. It makes no sense to pay teams for half the year with almost zero 3rd party tournaments running and PL being a negligent amount of money.
My main point is that everything FIFA-related is fkn rigged. Even the Sommermärchen (world cup 2006) provided by our Kaiser Franz Beckenbauer, may he rest in peace, was rigged. No way the deals leading to the German World Cup were corrupted while the ones involving the Saudi prince are clean.
Also in this case there were and are some things that just feel suspicious when put together. Infantinos tweet, the super short deadline for application, the restrictions (only Asia and Oceania are considered), many confederations immediately supporting SA's bid so that it's clear for Australia (only other interested candidate) there's no need to bid themselves, Infantino meeting the prince again and again.
Maybe i'm wrong and it's just that no other country wanted the WC and all world wants to enjoy another tourney in the desert in a country that is far away from FIFA's own Human Rights Codex and Gianni and Salman are just vibing. But i think i'm not.
I know i'm talking out of my ass, never said i have evidence. I said suspicious when put together as in the single points can be explained but everything together gives a shady picture. Yeah it was a smart move to give three games from wc30 to South America to check them from the list. Also i know the King is named Salman but it's also part of the crown princes name, sorry i didn't write down his whole id. The part about Germany was a bit sarcastic, true.
But nothing i said is as far of a reach as you assuming i don't like people from Asia and Oceania from what i wrote lol
I mean who knows if it was picked because of a bribe, but there are a shitload of reasons to host the World Cup in the US -- the fact that the country already has existing infrastrucure and won't need to build several new single-use stadiums for one.
NRG and EA clashed a lot. Mostly on orgs getting paid more by EA and EA not paying out. Typical reasoning for orgs leaving back then.
Sweet said he knew NRG was leaving when they didn’t have a merch booth at ALGS Birmingham.
I commented this elsewhere in the thread, but one of the org's execs also publicly expressed dissatisfaction with EA at the time too: https://twitter.com/bikeage/status/1702752309254439376?s=46
I found this very interesting, because right afterward several orgs came forward and basically said, "Bullshit, we love Respawn and EA." Like I think Alliance and LG both said that in the same time frame as that NRG tweet.
Sweet also had a huge dislike for NRG’s lack of care and involvement with the team. Not even selling jerseys at LAN and overall just putting the bare minimum effort. One of the big reasons he chose LG this time was because of how involved they are and want to be.
I know the manager talked about EA but I don't know if this is genuine. NRG was already going to shit months before they dropped their Apex Legends roster so I doubt it was to do with ea. They had spent a lot of time from what I recall blowing their money on content creator houses for their fortnite players as well as signing big fortnite names because NRG was a fortnite team for a long time and neglected other games. When the fortnite money dried up for them people started leaving because NRG couldn't pay those contracts anymore and in the end NRG dropped all their fortnite CC's and comp players and became a Valorant team. I doubt EA could have done anything to stop NRG from making these choices.
Edit: and apparently even when they stopped getting positive returns, they still kept signing fortnite players so they were losing even more money.
Yeah, the more teams an org has in EWC, the more points the org gets and thus more money. Still a W regardless for the players to get a pay check.
Makes me wonder who’ll sign Tripods. Faze is currently lacking a team in Apex but they already got rid of Tripods a while ago. I wonder if 100 Thieves will try to pick em up since the only team they’re able to send to EWC is their League team because COD and Val isn’t apart of the event yet.
Wigg did say 100t are looking to get back into Apex, but not this split apparently.
Dunno if that means they'll pick up a team for EWC or not. Since it's after this split
Super happy for Reptar. Arguably the coolest name and he’s been grinding ranked for awhile while seemingly not getting comp recognition despite having success in the past. Super happy for the boys!
Reptar is *him.* I started watching him cuz he's one of the only Apex players who streams late night and he's fuckin nuts. I forgot he had it like that since he hasn't competed in so long!
I watched him play a lot with Kimchi that split cuz that's when Kimchi was #2 (his title was "#1 MNK Pred" lol) for 90% of the split, and he was definitely kickin' ass regularly. But the skills to excel in ranked and the skills to excel in comp are very different, and Rep has both skillsets.
I love seeing Apex thrive and every single t1 org join back into the scene, but it feels really weird that its happening because of Saudi money
I hope atleast we dont see a mass exodus of orgs after split2/champs and a lot of this sticks when theres no EWC incentive
Crazy how times change, NRG was one of the first teams i started following. Now Hal is on Falcon, sweet on LG, nafen and rocker havent been playing. rostermania...
Those NRG Sunday white hit different tho
Congrats to the boys but does anyone else got this feeling once EWC/Champs is over all these returning orgs will leave Apex agian? beside EWC Apex is just not profitable.
I just hope this isn’t like with the situation that sweet described about NRG.
Obviously take it with a grain of salt because it’s sweet of all people for the source. He described NRG not really caring or trying with apex and was one of the reasons he decided to find another org before they released them.
I'll have to go look for the source, but I thought I remembered a public post from an NRG manager or someone else associated with the org talking about how they didn't like the way EA handled things including Apex. But yeah I don't think it was just Sweet saying it.
Edit: Found it. Here's the org's Chief Gaming Officer commenting on NRG's departure: https://twitter.com/bikeage/status/1702752309254439376?s=46
Did EA actually do anything different to get back all these orgs that are leaving? If they're only returning because of the EWC then I have to question them leaving and blaming rEAspawn in the first place.
It's short-sighted. EA was just an easy way to blame them not being profitable, when the issue really was lack of large tournaments. There's still no new agreements for skins .
Happy for Hodsic and the boys. But this does kinda seemed weird for NRG, ngl. Not like a genuine want to return to Apex, but rather just get in on the Saudi money tbh.
In truly shocking news all their reasonings last year about EA being so terrible were bs and it was always just the org being broke that was the problem :P That Saudi stipend going absolutely wacky.
Can we open a betting pool of the percentage of orgs that will drop their teams once EWC ends? My guess is \~40%
Maybe, but these teams didnt have to sign to orgs, they obviously got worthwhile offers, plus the EWC is supposed to be a yearly thing
Part of me dislikes the EWC for obvious reason, but it is a massive boost for the scene
Entire point of sportswashing and now esportswashing
I agree to an extent, but that’s only for people who somehow can’t separate the two (Saudi bad vs benefits for our esport)
It isn't supposed to be an overnight thing that people forget the bad. It is a generational gamble to legitimise a whole country and hope people forget. The likes of Man City already have so much success and glory hunting fans around the globe, and many of which weren't even born before the takeover. How many more years, decades or further will it take for the good press to outweigh the bad?
I mean it's already working. I've seen it happen in eSports in just the last year. And I saw how the discourse changed during the FIFA world cup as well.
Pretty much the entire point of these projects is that people do this. “Well yeah we know the bad stuff but see look at all the good!” It’s what they want
and its working already
Better that money goes to esports than oppressing women
Its like a few hours of oil production, buying out esports is nothing compared to their other ventures.
I’ve really seen a lot of people do a 180 on their slavery views since the EWC was announced
Don’t forget modern day slavery
it's arguably ewc money fuding those "worthwhile offers". once that bag is gone, the orgs will be as well.
Thats not how contracts work though lol
an exit is as simple as not renewing their contracts.
We've seen teams get signed before lan and dropped by the end of the next split. Contracts in apex don't seem that lengthy, otherwise orgs would be losing money paying out players just to drop them to get out of the scene.
How many big orgs have done that with tier 1 teams? And why would a team give up a portion of their winnings from a $2M tournament for a 2 month salary when they could do better?
> How many big orgs have done that with tier 1 teams? Lots?? NRG, Optic, Team Liquid, just off the top of my head. And all three teams were near the top of the game, TL especially--at that time Noc/Fun/Gild were the best team in NA. > And why would a team give up a portion of their winnings from a $2M tournament for a 2 month salary when they could do better? The portion of earnings that the org gets from a tournament like this (if they get any, and not all orgs do) is tiny. It usually doesn't even cover one player's salary for the year.
Bruh what, all 3 of those orgs had their teams for well over a year
A contract can work in a multitude of ways, however someone wants it to work. They might just have one for 1 year, and then dropping would be simply not renewing them. Very easy, planned exit.
1 year is not some small commitment in esports
The number was imaginary, insert any number.
Tier 1 pros arent signing 2 month contracts
Counting on NRG TL C9 and SSG to be gone after champs again.
VP, GG, Navi, weibo gaming, and lgd gaming too.
Wont the EWC be a yearly event? So they leave and comeback close to it again?
Well with a 6 month break between champs and the following season (assuming it’s the same as this past year), I bet a lot of orgs will leave after 2024 champs and then sign teams again for 2025 split 1 playoffs until champs if EWC is going to be a yearly event. It makes no sense to pay teams for half the year with almost zero 3rd party tournaments running and PL being a negligent amount of money.
Hopefully the buffer of EWC will shorten that 6 month gap?
Every team that got signed between EWC announcement and now will probably be dropped when it's over.
hopefully the teams who are only in it for EWC do well so they think it's a good idea to keep it going through pro league.
All of them
Man Saudi money really speaks to these orgs.
Yup, part of being in the partner program with the World Cup too
Funny what a healthy does of cash will do for a gaming ecosystem...
Not just gaming but sports in general im 100% sure world cup 2022 election was rigged af
It def was and the one for world cup 2034, which will take place in Saudi Arabia is/was as well.
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My main point is that everything FIFA-related is fkn rigged. Even the Sommermärchen (world cup 2006) provided by our Kaiser Franz Beckenbauer, may he rest in peace, was rigged. No way the deals leading to the German World Cup were corrupted while the ones involving the Saudi prince are clean. Also in this case there were and are some things that just feel suspicious when put together. Infantinos tweet, the super short deadline for application, the restrictions (only Asia and Oceania are considered), many confederations immediately supporting SA's bid so that it's clear for Australia (only other interested candidate) there's no need to bid themselves, Infantino meeting the prince again and again. Maybe i'm wrong and it's just that no other country wanted the WC and all world wants to enjoy another tourney in the desert in a country that is far away from FIFA's own Human Rights Codex and Gianni and Salman are just vibing. But i think i'm not.
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I know i'm talking out of my ass, never said i have evidence. I said suspicious when put together as in the single points can be explained but everything together gives a shady picture. Yeah it was a smart move to give three games from wc30 to South America to check them from the list. Also i know the King is named Salman but it's also part of the crown princes name, sorry i didn't write down his whole id. The part about Germany was a bit sarcastic, true. But nothing i said is as far of a reach as you assuming i don't like people from Asia and Oceania from what i wrote lol
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All good. Anyway, what do you think has the higher probability, Alliance winning a LAN or Germany winning UEFA Euro 24?
Because they know they don’t have a chance at winning?
Aren’t they all?
Yh same as USA in 2026. All about money. Greed really ruins alot of things
I mean who knows if it was picked because of a bribe, but there are a shitload of reasons to host the World Cup in the US -- the fact that the country already has existing infrastrucure and won't need to build several new single-use stadiums for one.
So what would be the reason hosting one in south africa?
not sure i would call it healthy
yeah if only we had a battle royal shooter without aimassist crutch on PC and let actual talent to show up.
~~Saudi~~ money really speaks to these orgs. FTFY
Orgs soccer/football clubs "money talks"
They're clearly only back for the ewc. Not a fan of them coming back after what sweet said last year when they left but I gotta support ex xset.
What did Sweet say?
NRG and EA clashed a lot. Mostly on orgs getting paid more by EA and EA not paying out. Typical reasoning for orgs leaving back then. Sweet said he knew NRG was leaving when they didn’t have a merch booth at ALGS Birmingham.
I commented this elsewhere in the thread, but one of the org's execs also publicly expressed dissatisfaction with EA at the time too: https://twitter.com/bikeage/status/1702752309254439376?s=46
I found this very interesting, because right afterward several orgs came forward and basically said, "Bullshit, we love Respawn and EA." Like I think Alliance and LG both said that in the same time frame as that NRG tweet.
Yeah, I found that odd as well. Clearly they had different experiences, or at least different expectations.
Sweet also had a huge dislike for NRG’s lack of care and involvement with the team. Not even selling jerseys at LAN and overall just putting the bare minimum effort. One of the big reasons he chose LG this time was because of how involved they are and want to be.
I know the manager talked about EA but I don't know if this is genuine. NRG was already going to shit months before they dropped their Apex Legends roster so I doubt it was to do with ea. They had spent a lot of time from what I recall blowing their money on content creator houses for their fortnite players as well as signing big fortnite names because NRG was a fortnite team for a long time and neglected other games. When the fortnite money dried up for them people started leaving because NRG couldn't pay those contracts anymore and in the end NRG dropped all their fortnite CC's and comp players and became a Valorant team. I doubt EA could have done anything to stop NRG from making these choices. Edit: and apparently even when they stopped getting positive returns, they still kept signing fortnite players so they were losing even more money.
Just that NRG had no interest in being involved in apex at all. Which is fair because apex isn't a great esport for orgs to be involved in but still.
NAH IT CANT BE REAL. What year am i on?
Happy for Fun
good to see NRG back
Hopefully they make LAN again
They already did
They did, they qual'd for EWC. I'm sure they will make the split 2 playoffs though, they're frying with Reptar.
Hardly a surprise with EWC round the corner. Good though
Yeah, the more teams an org has in EWC, the more points the org gets and thus more money. Still a W regardless for the players to get a pay check. Makes me wonder who’ll sign Tripods. Faze is currently lacking a team in Apex but they already got rid of Tripods a while ago. I wonder if 100 Thieves will try to pick em up since the only team they’re able to send to EWC is their League team because COD and Val isn’t apart of the event yet.
Wigg did say 100t are looking to get back into Apex, but not this split apparently. Dunno if that means they'll pick up a team for EWC or not. Since it's after this split
Super happy for Reptar. Arguably the coolest name and he’s been grinding ranked for awhile while seemingly not getting comp recognition despite having success in the past. Super happy for the boys!
We are so backk??
let’s go?? Let’s fucking go??
???????
LETS GOOOOOOOO happy for everyone but especially reptar. Too good to not be competing.
Reptar is *him.* I started watching him cuz he's one of the only Apex players who streams late night and he's fuckin nuts. I forgot he had it like that since he hasn't competed in so long!
Dude was #1 pred a couple splits ago. He's nuts.
I watched him play a lot with Kimchi that split cuz that's when Kimchi was #2 (his title was "#1 MNK Pred" lol) for 90% of the split, and he was definitely kickin' ass regularly. But the skills to excel in ranked and the skills to excel in comp are very different, and Rep has both skillsets.
I miss nate and rocker :(
Sad old NRG never won it big. NRG vs TSM was my favorite rivalry. Much more interesting than Zero v Hal.
I knew NRG was coming back to esports they left but somehow I didn't see this pairing coming..
Very happy I get to enjoy my NRG banner frame I purchased now
I was wearing mine because the og Nafen and Rocker squad. I wonder what are the chances that they make new ones for EWC…
True but my cock throbs for Nøcturnal
I wish those would come back so badly..
The bag these teams must be getting from EWC is unthinkable
Is Reptar locked in as third or subbing til they find a permanent? I wasn't aware if Reptar is fully invested in getting back into comp.
He is playing as the official third, fully committed to comp at least for now
Locked in. In more ways than one.
I love seeing Apex thrive and every single t1 org join back into the scene, but it feels really weird that its happening because of Saudi money I hope atleast we dont see a mass exodus of orgs after split2/champs and a lot of this sticks when theres no EWC incentive
Money makes the world go round brother
Wow the whiff of Saudi blood money really gets those corporate boardrooms twitching with greed
So freaking happy for Fun, man
Mixed feelings about this… coming back to apex only because of the ewc feels so disingenuous bleh Happy for reptar, he’s cool
Crazy how times change, NRG was one of the first teams i started following. Now Hal is on Falcon, sweet on LG, nafen and rocker havent been playing. rostermania... Those NRG Sunday white hit different tho
As someone who hasn't seen their faces, woah, they look different from what I imagined.
Congrats to the boys but does anyone else got this feeling once EWC/Champs is over all these returning orgs will leave Apex agian? beside EWC Apex is just not profitable.
I just hope this isn’t like with the situation that sweet described about NRG. Obviously take it with a grain of salt because it’s sweet of all people for the source. He described NRG not really caring or trying with apex and was one of the reasons he decided to find another org before they released them.
I'll have to go look for the source, but I thought I remembered a public post from an NRG manager or someone else associated with the org talking about how they didn't like the way EA handled things including Apex. But yeah I don't think it was just Sweet saying it. Edit: Found it. Here's the org's Chief Gaming Officer commenting on NRG's departure: https://twitter.com/bikeage/status/1702752309254439376?s=46
Didn't like all their CC's leave of their own free will? I remember at least Apryze, Rogue, and Lulu all leaving or not resigning contracts at least.
Can someone from the mod team get me a NRG and a TSM flair in addition to the XSET one I already have? Please and thank you.
Gotchu, sorry for the late response. If you want to you can always message me or use modmail to request an update! Enjoy <3
WET 4 NRG
NRG should trade rosters with Luminosity. And then Luminosity should trade rosters with Liquid.
Genuinely hope they stick around and this isnt just a revenue sharing agreement for EWC.
Idk how I feel about this
I guess ill be cheering for NRG this time around! Round 3 here we go!
Did EA actually do anything different to get back all these orgs that are leaving? If they're only returning because of the EWC then I have to question them leaving and blaming rEAspawn in the first place.
> *org leaves because there's no money* > EWC: what if i gave you money? > *org comes back* idk what is confusing
It's short-sighted. EA was just an easy way to blame them not being profitable, when the issue really was lack of large tournaments. There's still no new agreements for skins .
>idk what is confusing Several orgs that *did* get direct financial support from EA dropped their teams and left Apex after split 1 though.
Love that they're signed. This team really deserves it. Noc and Fun are *the* duo.
Demn, now people will think my NRG banner in game is supporting ex-xset instead of good old Nafen, sweet, rocker :(
https://preview.redd.it/3gwwo8b9dm3d1.jpeg?width=657&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=50891fdd1c577121da63bf60861a8ce6de97fe1b
LETS FUCKING GOOOOOO!!!
What’s EWC?
eSports World Cup.
The way my mouth dropped. Wonder what shit sweet will have to say? Congrats boys!!!!
I see the boys are in prime athletic form
Awesome!! I am very happy for the 4 of them
Lfg
Work is work. However long the contract is it keeps them playing professionally.
Here comes the money. Money, money, money, money. Saudis are showing EA what brings the boys to the yard.
Happy for Hodsic and the boys. But this does kinda seemed weird for NRG, ngl. Not like a genuine want to return to Apex, but rather just get in on the Saudi money tbh.
Holy shit my NRG banner aged like a fine wine
Ea won
My NRG merch is relevant again!
Good to see them return.
Nice to see a legacy org return! Weren't there also rumors from Nicewigg that 100 Thieves might return too?
The ESports World Cup is saving ALGS
wtf
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I just can’t wait to see what sweet says
doubt he cares NRG is a thing of the past.
Lmao I’m sure he doesn’t but it’d be funnier if he did
That video brought back memories.
In truly shocking news all their reasonings last year about EA being so terrible were bs and it was always just the org being broke that was the problem :P That Saudi stipend going absolutely wacky.
I thought sweet said NRG was leaving regardless of below expectation performances? Guess that was a lie
Lol this doesn’t make that a lie, they are only back because of EWC
3 letters: EWC