In The News
Weekend in Review:
The Internet got a bit stirred up over Tyler “Ninja” Blevins’ interview with Polygon’s Allegra Frank Saturday. The piece, titled “Ninja explains his choice not to stream with female gamers,” starts with this quote: “‘I don’t play with female gamers.’”
Ninja goes on to explain that he doesn’t play with female gamers because “‘If I have one conversation with one female streamer where we’re playing with one another, and even if there’s a hint of flirting, that is going to be taken and going to be put on every single video and be clickbait forever.’”
Jessica, Ninja’s wife, had this to say: “If social media and the internet went away tomorrow, what is important? To me, it’s having my husband and dogs. My relatives. We are all safe, healthy, and happy. Nothing else matters. I truly hope we take our voices and do something good with it on social media.”
Twitter was split on his decision, with some like Félix “xQc” Lengyel, Anders Blume, Rod “Slasher” Breslau, Rachel “Valkyrae” Hofstetter and Bryce Blum coming to Ninja’s defense and some like Rachel “Seltzer” Quirico, Oshi7, Austen Marie and Samantha Rae being more cool on the premise.
As always, Twitter debates were amicable and polite. Reddit threads on the interview can be found here and here.
Twitch added tags and began the process of shutting down Communities by mid-September, Engadget’s Rob LeFebvre reports. “Twitch will also add 10 new categories for streamers to help describe their content for better discovery.”
Bethesda is moving against resellers, Colin Campbell at Polygon writes. “Bethesda recently sent out a notice to at least one seller on Amazon’s Marketplace who was trying to sell a sealed copy of The Evil Within 2 as new … That letter included a phone number for sellers of Bethesda’s games to call, suggesting that the company is sending out such notices to multiple sellers.”
NVIDIA “is establishing two new boot camp locations in Shanghai, China and Munich, Germany,” Esports Insider’s Lydia Mitrevski writes.
Nighthawk Pro Gaming by NETGEAR and Warriors Gaming are partnering, Mitrevski reports.
Hiring News:
The Initiative hired Christian Cantamessa, Daniel Neuburger, Brian Westergaard, Blake Fischer, Annie Lohr and Lindsey McQueeney, GI.biz’s Haydn Taylor reports.
Robot Cache announced Laura Naviaux Sturr as its chief marketing officer, GI.biz’s Brendan Sinclair reports.
DreamHack hired Martin Sirc, Steven Norris and Nasim Abu Quota, TEO’s Trent Murray writes.
Extra Esports News:
Congratulations Team Liquid and Nikita “clawz” Marchinsky on winning the QuakeCon Open and Duel Showdown, respectively, at QuakeCon 2018!
Congratulations GamersOrigin’s Trec on winning HCT Germany 2018! Team Vitality’s Kalàxz came in 2nd, Team Run’N Gun’s kolmari in 3rd and G2 Esports’ ThijsNL in 4th.
Congratulations Echo Fox’s Leonardo “MKLeo” Perez and Adam “Armada” Lindgren on winning the Wii U 1v1 Singles and Melee 1v1 Singles, respectively, at Super Smash Con 2018!
Happy weekend birthdays Nicolas “Tasteless” Plott and Kalindi “KJH” Henderson!