Who Do You Support: The Org or the Player?

 

Hey lovely readers, as you’ve probably guessed by now, a lot of my upcoming blogs have been written while I was on winter break from uni. Aka forcing myself away from my degree to take an actual break for once and focus on something other than panicking about deadlines to come back to this lovely little blog and remind myself why I love blogging and creating so much. Today’s blog is on one of the age old questions, and I’ll be honest with this one, I don’t have a concrete conclusion for this question as I don’t think there is really a correct answer here. But without further ado, let’s get into it and discuss it, and y’all can decide for yourselves if there is a correct answer to this question, or if you don’t already have an opinion on it, what you make of it. Feel free to let me know in the comments section - if you’ve figured how it works, because I’ll be real, I haven’t. 

Part of the reason I got thinking about this particular debate out of all of the possible topics out there was because it reminded me of when I first started watching the LEC back in 2021 - a while ago I know, it makes me feel very old. When I first began watching the LEC, I was only really familiar with two teams, G2 Esports and Fnatic, as they were the only two teams I knew were EU based off the back of watching Worlds 2020 - and as that particular off season saw quite a lot of change to their starting rosters, to say I was incredibly confused and probably a bit lost, would be a huge understatement. 2 years on and I still don’t always know whether it is right to support the org over the player or vice versa. 

That is up to you to decide but it is interesting to question for sure. Let’s take the example of G2’s 2021 starting roster, there were some insanely huge names, it was an insanely well respected list of names, it looked cool for content, and it was from an org known for their success and meme culture. It looked like the perfect case of support the org and the player all in one go with a no lose situation. I mean we all know how it ended but it was good while it lasted. So with that in mind, who do you support, the org or the player? Or is there some middle ground like the G2 2021 LoL roster? 

When we talk about supporting the player it raises a lot of other questions, how far do you support them, why do you support them, what do you like about them, do they have any scandals that should stop you from supporting them? So on and so forth. So many questions and so much to unravel just generally and decide whether it is worth being open about supporting that player. For me at least, I find it somewhat easier to support the player over the org, I think in some ways its just a bit easier. Yeah you might support a player not overtly popular but sometimes supporting the org looks like a disaster zone waiting to happen. Supporting the player just often feels less messy when compared to how messy and weird supporting orgs can be - especially when accusations of unlawful actions or poor treatment stat getting thrown around. But conversely, unless a pro starts their own org or store, you’d be limited in ways to support the player and their personal brand through something like merch e.g. the clothing store European legend Rekkles has created. There is something quite nice about supporting the player in my opinion over the org, always rooting for that one player, supporting them no matter what team or region they play in, watching their streams and seeing their growth and so on, it also gives a community that is supportive and only exists because of that player. 

The only glaringly obvious issue with this is where they are proven to not be such a wonderful person - the debate about supporting the player for the wrong reasons or being too supportive is a different debate entirely. But I’m sure we can all think of a player or two that comes to mind that you can think of as an example of a player whose personality isn’t overly wonderful. Come to your own conclusions - I still want a job in esports after this is published. The other downside I can personally think of are the mixed emotions that can come with it and get all tangled when orgs make changes. Such as when an org benches a player you really love and support but then replaces them with another player you really like and support. Then what? It gets really messy and tangled emotion wise, really quickly - and that definitely wasn’t one of the first thoughts that came to mind when I first started thinking over this debate. In the example mentioned above it’s not like you are supporting the org so they become irrelevant, but one of your favorite players gets dislodged to make room for another one of your favorite player, but neither player is at fault. Does one deserve your support now more than the other and more than they have before? Even though neither one had more of a say in the situation than the other - it isn’t the players fault, but it can leave people feeling they have to choose a side. And of course we want to pick sides, we are human, it’s natural to feel like there is a need to choose one side. 

Maybe that was getting into the thought a little too much and a little too in depth, but it was something that came to my mind a lot with this topic because it was confusing to watch one such situation like the one mentioned above, happen right in front of your eyes, and not know who to support, was it wrong to support one over the other, should you support both and say the org is awful instead?? It left me so confused, and as much as I overthink a lot, surely I wasn’t the only one who thought this when it came to this debate. Supporting players over orgs also gets interesting when old teammates face off, it makes a lovely creative narrative plot time for the match season. But it still makes watching the matches feel almost awkward at times - this of course isn’t to say you couldn't support players on opposing teams and leave happy, just something to bring into consideration. It just feels interesting in so many ways because choosing to support player over or org or vice versa, often seems so cut and dry and so easy to decide when discussed on social media. But it really isn’t as we’ve noticed. 

Now onto supporting the org over the player. We all know that no org will likely ever be perfect all the way through - there probably is something lurking in the crystal blue (for now) water, it happens, we all know this. I'm sure you’ve all got an org or two in mind already, so that’s one of my major questions for this debate - if you choose to support the org, how do you continue to support the org when they misstep significantly? And that isn’t intended to be rude or shame anyone, I’m genuinely curious - is there a certain line the org can go up to but once they cross it, they lose your support? For example you might accept interesting decisions but not NFTs? I’d love to hear some opinions on the matter if anyone feels like sharing - and has figured out the comments section XD

I certainly do see the benefits to supporting the org, you ride the highs and lows together, the triumph and the heartbreak alike. The sense of unshatterable community united by a love for the team, and the merch to proudly rep your team when the LAN tournaments and grand finals roll around. Plus who could forget the team based content, player specific merch as part of a collab with the team, and in game logos for teams? It is also so obvious why you would choose to support the org for all that it can give you as part of your support. But I am still left wondering how you ignore the big contract issues or media scandals - how do you get around it? Or do you just ignore it, and if you ignore it, then once again, how long can you ignore it for and continue to support them without feeling resentment or a sense of guilt? Or do you ignore forever and keep the issue with the org separate from the org you have in your mind and support that version instead. Maybe this is just dependant on the fan and I am deeping it far too much for what it is. I don’t personally have a favorite org, that isn’t to say I don’t like orgs, but there just isn’t one that I personally support more than the others, it’s something that for me isn’t the most important part of esports. That isn’t to say I didn’t used to have a ranking in mind, I just don’t anymore for one reason of another. But if you do have favorite org, what about them makes your favorite? 

The other major factor that comes to mind when it comes to supporting the org over the player is how you get tossed in with all the other - sometimes toxic - fans of that team org who are known from across social media. Obviously toxic fans exist for every org, team, player, etc. and it isn’t exclusive to just one org. Every org will inevitably have their share of toxic fans and haters, again part of human nature, but just like with so much of life, the minority is often overshadowing the majority, giving orgs’ fans a rep that is only relevant to the minority. But this brings up another debate, when you support the org, and your friends hate and frequently complain about that org, it can feel tiring, disheartening and perhaps even shameful. Again human nature but how do you combat it? Maybe this doesn’t matter to everyone but when you’re at the younger end of the fanbase, it likely feels a lot more important than to those at the older end. But you know, the shame that you can feel for supporting an org isn’t ever going to be particularly fun. Again, orgs will always likely have some form of bad press, it comes with the territory of business in many people’s minds, but do we need to hate on people for who they want to support when it comes to org? You don’t have to agree or support the org yourself, but similarly you don’t necessarily know why they support that org, why they might be so meaningful or comforting to someone, so let’s hold back on the judgment for five seconds. 

So while I’m not particularly on the side of either part of this debate, I do think that letting people support who they want to is in our best interest as a community. Why waste time continually telling people they are wrong? If they don’t want to listen or don’t care, they are not going to change their opinion and that’s ok. 

When we sit down and debate whether to support the org or the player, and if there is a middle ground - there isn’t a wrong answer or right, and support who you want to as long as you aren’t harming other people with it. But it is interesting to consider how these debates intertwine and how some people can fall so easily on one side of the debate or the other, and that doesn’t mean anyone is necessarily wrong. You know what they say, life isn’t black and white, there are plenty of shades of grey in there too.

So that’s all I have for you today, hope you enjoyed this blog! 

Thanks for reading and see you on the next blog!

Byeeeeeeee ʕ •ᴥ•ʔ