Kpop Marketing in Esports

 

Hey gamers, it’s a lovely September day here with a cool breeze coming through the window and as the sounds of Key’s latest song plays through my headset we’ve got a new topic to talk about. In honesty, this was a blog I wanted to hold off on for a while longer for a number of reasons (not least because I wasn’t sure how much could be discussed in detail) but having spent (way too long) on twitter and read a number of threads it felt worth talking about. So today we are covering the kpop-isation of esports, this was inspired by a thread and poll I saw while scrolling (which will be linked at the end of the blog as usual) but also in light of certain other topics it felt like there was more to talk about than I had originally thought.

First of all, kpop-isation as a term covers quite an extensive set of content and potential issues, the way I will be defining kpop-isation for the purpose of this blog, is as a marketing style (used within esports), in terms of marketing esports in a similar style to how kpop and kpop groups are frequently marketed in order to attract large audiences. From the harmless nature of unhelpful guides, to the more problematic nature of orgs marketing pro players in the style of kpop groups (this does mean we will be discussing T1’s private/secret server and the comments made within it). As well as the process where kpop-isation goes from harmless to problematic e.g. photocards to sexualisation and if there is a part of kpop groups lacking privacy and being waited for outside public locations being brought steadily into esports. There’s a lot to cover here so I'm going to do my best to be thorough but summarise the issues so this doesn’t turn into a straight up dissertation (which is something I could quite easily do with this topic).

Let’s just preface this by saying I do like kpop, it’s my music of choice a lot of the time and I think it’s a good music genre, but the growing overlap of kpop marketing being used in esports marketing – specifically within the LCK (where it seems to appear most), is something that is starting to fall into being questioned if it is problematic. There is obviously nothing wrong with marketing in a way that is similar to kpop style e.g. poster format and layout on promotional graphics, creating fan lightsticks and so, but the problem that is beginning to appear is how kpop marketing is being drip fed into esports to the point where orgs (certain orgs in particular) are having to ask fans not to wait outside training grounds and are charging extra for ‘additional exclusive’ content. There is also the point to consider that kpop-isation likely wouldn’t be applicable or indeed achievable outside of the LCK and LPL. Not to mention that sexualisation and lack of privacy (which is a common factor in the kpop industry) isn’t a great look for anyone involved. So why am I even talking about this? It’s a topic that anyone could cover (though there was very little coverage when I searched) but I think kpop fans are best placed to discuss this topic as a whole, as being fans of esports and kpop means we have an understanding of where this could end up going if it isn’t stopped first or behaviours corrected, because we’ve already seen in unfold once in one industry.

Aforementioned, kpop isn’t inherently evil (though this is a contested opinion) and there isn’t anything wrong with using kpop style marketing techniques, they’re highly successful a lot of the time so it’s easy to see why an esports org would want to adopt them and the same for fans creating content. The nature of kpop-isation through unhelpful guides (a prominent part of kpop on YouTube) are pretty harmless in the long run, the guides are comedic value and ‘somewhat’ helpful, they are rarely problematic and the same can be said for fans creating photocards (another staple of kpop). The same for which animal does this player remind you of kind of polls, and arguably the same for org specific lightsticks (like those seen at kpop concerts), these aren’t problematic in esports, they’re light hearted, and can increase fan engagement – which is obviously good for the wider esports industry. These aspects of kpop-isation are pretty harmless from the outset, and the only way I personally remotely see it becoming a problem, would be to start creating anime style extreme body pillows – which is another matter entirely. Or to do with the total invasion of private lives, but more on this later.

If kpop-isation were to stick at poster format/layout, handmade signs for matches and cute emotes, then I think we can all agree, it can just be left to exist and do its own thing. It would be causing no harm and as long as people were aware of it (and called out anything inappropriate), then in this case, it’s not the end of the world. Those aspects aren’t problematic, they’re not making people uncomfortable and it’s another route for fans to support players and teams. To be honest, in my opinion the whole topic of kpop-isation falls under a very grey area, there are a lot of unclear lines within it and without effectively watching cause and consequence unfold, it's pretty hard to know what is going to be too far (outside of what is just common sense). I read through a thread for this and did some research on what was available (not a whole lot of articles honestly – but a lot of YouTube videos on kpop marketing styles), but something I noticed people not talking about is the racial issue that could come from this. Kpop originated in South Korea hence k-pop – Korean pop music, and the kpop-isation of esports is currently inherently LCK and slightly LPL based, I'm not trying to bash anyone when I say this, but I feel like with this specifically, there is a possibility of a racial side slipping through, potentially racial fetishization such as how kpop groups have been fetishized. That might sound extreme, but that was (and still is) an inherent issue within the kpop industry, just take the example of a certain famous London based ‘korean kpop star’ (I use that term very loosely as he isn’t Korean) Koreaboo – I'm not going to name him because I don’t wish to give him more limelight but you can see clear cause and effect when ‘fans’ move from appreciation to fetishization (and in the case mentioned above, appropriation).

Not least because when BTS (a major kpop group) collaborated with T1 for content, there was a surge in kpop fans coming into esports and a read through some of the comments on the videos doesn’t make for entirely comfortable reading. As some in the community pointed out there was a ton of simping from BTS fans which leaked into esports and onto the players who they were ‘obsessed’ with off the back of the content. This opens the whole debate of whether you should follow a pro simply for looks – but that’s a discussion I want to have more in detail in the future. However, continuing beyond that, a comment I saw that had me questioning a lot of this, was referring to how ‘awkward’ Faker was and how with his title of the unkillable demon king, a viewer didn’t like that he appeared ‘awkward’ instead of and I quote ‘cold hearted and aggressive.’ Although this comment could have been meant in a kind hearted way (as there was further comment about Faker looking awkward being heart breaking), I wanted to include it as it does complicated how pro players are viewed. Maybe this doesn’t entirely relate to kpop-isation but in some ways you can argue it does, it’s this perception that pro players aren’t entirely the average human and if they break the ‘character’ that viewers and fans expect of them they are somehow not doing enough or living up to expectations. Just like how idols don’t belong to the fans, pro players don’t either, both groups have an on screen/stage personality and a life away from all of it, this is to be expected, and this overlap combined with the aforementioned comment makes me think we need to be more aware of kpop-isation and more conscious of how fans view pro players. Although I'm sure most fans don’t share this opinion of ‘owning’ pro players or being entitled to their attention, even so it seemed that it was worth commenting on it, because increased kpop-isation could see these comments become more normalised and much more common in general.

A necessary example to discuss is T1 – for a number of reasons. Of course, there is the discussion of the private/secret/exclusive Discord server (or however you want to name what happened there) but also the statement they put out requesting fans not to stand outside of training grounds, playing houses and HQ (which will be linked at the end). The aforementioned T1 statement on fans waiting around HQ and player’s houses can be argued as a direct result of kpop-isation; in kpop, the members of groups as well solo artists have very little of a private life, their every move is watched by fans, and there is a history of fans all but harassing the stars at airports and in public, allowing very little privacy for the stars in public as well as making comments and harassing rumoured significant others. Within the statement I think there are several particularly important details, firstly T1 requests that fans ‘respect players’ privacy’ and ‘do not wait for the players’ what strikes me about this is the obvious overlap I can see with it to kpop. As stated earlier, kpop stars frequently have their privacy invaded by overzealous fans and much of what privacy they have is scrutinised – especially in terms of romantic relationships (see example of J-hope from BTS rumoured to have a girlfriend and how some ‘fans’ went to her Instagram and spammed hateful comments). Furthermore, many kpop groups have experienced harassment by fans waiting for them at various public locations e.g. airports, outside company HQs and so on, it only takes a quick google to affirm this; but in terms of kpop-isation in esports, the need for this statement shows that (as T1 in particular were using kpop marketing techniques) there does need to be a closer attention paid to using kpop marketing and where rules should be drawn – for organisations and fans. It is concerning that statements like this need to be put out at all and shows how this is something everyone needs to be conscious of.

The waiting around for players (however you may feel about it) does demonstrate a level of kpop-isation in esports and the need for some sort of monitoring so that players aren’t being put at risk in the same way kpop idols have been known to be. In a previous article I mentioned how an esports org actively did not share information about their location of HQ and gaming houses – this realistically isn’t possible for T1 as they are such figureheads in South Korea but it does make me wonder if orgs in general, especially with the increase in kpop-isation should be less open about gaming house and training grounds locations so that the HQs are the only ‘known’ so to speak locations. Another side to kpop-isation that I think is worth noting is the link back to romantic relationships, aforementioned in kpop, many fans are unhappy to think ‘their’ idols could have significant others, and in esports there has been a reported taboo on the topic, but with kpop-isation becoming more prominent I think it is something worth considering. By no means am I suggesting that esports fans would go to this length by any means (or further as some kpop fans have been known to go), but I do think the growing crossover between esports and kpop should make everyone aware that the behaviours we are starting to see in esports from fans are reflective of behaviours we have seen in kpop already. And if kpop-isation is going to continue, rightly or wrongly, then I think we should all be aware of what this could mean for esports in terms of learning the lessons from the pitfalls kpop fell into e.g. obsessive fans at airports, invading the privacy of idols, etc.

Ok onwards, the next discussion point has to be the T1 private/secret server, I'm not going to pull apart the intricacies of this as Ashley Kang has already done an incredible Twitter thread on the whole topic (which will be linked in sources at the bottom of this blog) which is worth a read for background context. Instead, I'm going to pull out certain details that I think show kpop-isation is leaking into esports a lot quicker than some may have thought and why these aspects of kpop-isation in esports are becoming problematic. A lot of the controversy to do with the server in my opinion at least, is that it appeared the admins/moderators/staff team of the server were treating T1 League of Legend’s team as though they were kpop idols and not the pro players they are (a sentiment mirrored by others on the thread) and this comes back to the whole point of this blog. Esports and kpop can (without being problematic) overlap in terms of marketing, but they are still inherently two separate and very different entities, overlap is fine but not to the point where a professional esports team is being treated as though they are a kpop group.

And I don’t think this any more prominently obvious than in the comments about thirst traps being made of Oner – who first of all is 19, which is the legal age of adulthood in South Korea (because of Korean age) – now regardless of what you may think about the whole situation, sexualising someone barely into adulthood by his seniors in a well-respected internationally renowned company, and marketing the whole thing as though it is some of kpop boy group debuting, simply isn’t ok or at all respectful. I saw a lot of people saying westerners in particular shouldn’t jump on the band wagon of how awful the ‘joke’ was and that it was down to how Oner felt and the context of South Korean society. But I don’t think this is really a fair statement to make, no matter how sexuality is treated in any culture, it’s still sexualisation even if it is a ‘joke’ and it is still something that many people would rightfully feel uncomfortable hearing about or witnessing, not least because Oner is 19 and therefore only a matter of months over the legal age of adulthood in South Korea. Furthermore, the whole concept of thirst trap not only is hugely related to kpop-isation as a wider whole but that someone so senior in the company is doing it, with very little consideration (it would appear) for the implications of sexualising a colleague, doesn’t sit right whichever way you look at it. It isn’t cool if fans are sexualising pro players, but for someone in the actual company, in a senior managerial position to be doing so, is even worse.

Something about the whole thirst trap issue that really got my thinking links back to kpop-isation and a thread I saw on Quora about having ‘fallen in love’ with an idol and the reality of knowing it wouldn’t work. The reason I mention this, is because the more pro players are marketed as these all perfect beings (almost like the perfect boyfriend – which is how kpop boy groups are often marketed) and have content made around their work based personalities the more there is a risk of idolising them to the point of kpop idol status – I don’t think at current any org is guilty of this from the orgs I’ve been looking at; but I do think it is a risk that could become more apparent if kpop-isation continues to rise – and this is regardless of region/nationality/etc. the more players are put on a pedestal specifically through marketing techniques of kpop-isation, the more there is a risk of sexualisation and the like, becoming far more rampant across all games and all regions. The Quora thread in question (which I haven’t found the link back to – apologies, though there are plenty of others available with a similar message which I will link at the end) mentions falling ‘in love’ with an idol and realising how it will never be a reality, and jealousy of watching interactions, maybe this isn’t the most prominent risk of kpop-isation but I think there is a quite large risk that when you start marketing pro teams as kpop groups this could quite easily become a bi-product and go onto the creating of harassment and obsessive nature. Arguably, a fan believing they are in love with an idol appears harmless, but when it moves onto becoming obsessive, how do you reverse the damage? Is there a way to reverse the damage? And how can this be monitored in esports which is arguably more open as an industry than kpop is? This aspect of kpop-isation may never appear in esports, but when kpop marketing techniques are being used on a growing basis, then it is worth considering all the potential consequences that can end up appearing. While pro players aren’t marketed in the perfect significant other way that kpop idols frequently are, it is still worth considering not least, from the perspective of respecting the pro players as more than the personality seen on stage or in team generated content and also as the people they are with a personal life, a right to privacy and to feel comfortable in their work place.

As said at the beginning of this blog, kpop-isation exists in a very grey area of society and marketing as a whole, while often harmless on the fan-made content side and basic marketing from orgs that is still heavily esports related, it still requires more awareness than it may have been credited with – especially in regard to the marketing techniques that can be harnessed by esports orgs. And as such it is an important that we are aware of how far kpop-isation of esports should be allowed to go before someone steps in and starts monitoring or draws some sort of rule on what is too far. We already have witnessed what ‘too far’ has looked like in kpop, there is a template already of where to draw the line, where things have crossed the line, and potential solutions to stop the line being crossed/reverse certain pieces of damage that have been done. There isn’t an excuse to let kpop-isation in esports fall down the same rabbit hole that mainstream kpop has been known to fall into. Kpop-isation can be harmless from both the fan and org side, but as it becomes more prominent, there is a need for audiences to be more aware of it and the potential pitfalls if the line is crossed – especially if there is no contingency plan on how to return from crossing that line.

But because we are a solution blog here, I'm going to give a few potential solutions/rules to where I personally would want to see kpop-isation in esports go and where we should be looking to avoid it stretching. Firstly, before anyone asks what my marketing background is – absolutely nothing, I doodle and write, I'm not a marketing expert or professional but I still want to give some suggestions because we don’t purely critique on this blog. Ok because I'm really conscious how long this article is getting, I’ll highlight a few suggestions/solutions rather than go back over the entire blog thus far. First of all, drop the thirst trap ‘jokes’ and sexualisation in general, and that is directed towards everyone, don’t pick it up, don’t go down that path, it’s not cool. Yes, that is from a western perspective but while it might create more engagement – especially in the short term, it really isn’t appropriate, especially not for the players that are still incredibly young (and as the age of pro players gets younger, this whole fad of thirst traps needs to be avoided). Next up, kpop-isation needs to stay in the direction of wholesome content and cool graphics for matches, avoid the sexualisation, avoid creating the perfect significant other / personas for pro players to exist within – and allow them to have their actual personality shine through on stage. I’m not at all against the idea of promotional photocards, lightsticks, fan signs/banners, etc. just please a thousand times don’t start sending it down to ‘edgy player… wholesome best friend player…’ persona boxes, I’d like to think no one would do this but seeing as those are huge aspects of kpop marketing and kpop-isation is becoming more prominent in esports it felt worth repeating. Sadly, I have no solution for fans waiting outside training grounds and gaming houses, aside from saying don’t publish the important locations which isn’t always feasible (and is wholly unrealistic) as well as the fact this still may not solve the issue.

So that’s all I have for you today, I hope you enjoyed this blog, it was interesting to compare two seemingly different industries and notice just how much crossover has been appearing, and if any orgs would like to create lightsticks – I will be paying for one more than happily >.<

Thanks for reading and see you on the next blog!

Byeeeeeeee ʕ •ᴥ•ʔ

Notable Sources of Information –

Gumayusiseonsu’s Twitter thread/poll on the kpop-isation of esports –

https://twitter.com/gumayusiseonsu/status/1557291956006694912?s=20&t=rzNgstY9W8BoYp4GyN4paQ

 

Ashely Kang’s Twitter thread on T1’s exlucisve membership server –

https://twitter.com/AshleyKang/status/1559211107260469248?s=20&t=sRlCoCTNMvOUPdrdBUn04Q

 

T1’s Twitter post on fans waiting outside of training grounds and gaming houses –

https://twitter.com/T1LoL/status/1556845223610912769?s=20&t=sRlCoCTNMvOUPdrdBUn04Q

 

Boy Group Marketing 101: The Perfect Boyfriend YouTube –

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42pVzhmzras

 

Is It Possible To Fall In Love With An Idol? Quora thread –

https://www.quora.com/Is-it-possible-to-fall-in-love-with-an-idol