Streamers vs. Journalism: The Last Word

AUG 19
Hi everyone. Today I thought about two things: I want to organize an annual Beer Talk chill event for subscribers, and I haven’t watched The Sopranos yet. Lot’s of things I need to work on. Let’s dive in.

This week:

The current beef between streamers and journalists.
New football triple A game on the horizon.
Shady moves among publishers.
Age of Empires and Red Bull get creative.

But first...
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Made by Franco

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Streamers vs. Journalism: The Last Word

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How can we tell the truth from error? Or honest research from manipulation?

It’s a war of words where people think that streaming will surpass journalism because of technology. New platforms will help, but the crucial element between news outlets’ authority and the public is information; how people want to perceive information is what’s in debate.

Last week, we briefly talked about Twitch entering journalism. It seems that we touched an open wound, so we’re going way deeper for this one. Grab your drink.

Don’t get confused though, this isn’t some bullshit drama, we’re living at the start of a turning point that will determine who stands and who gets fucked.

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What Happened

One of the most popular streamers in the world, Ibai, got invited to cover Leo Messi’s PSG presentation on Twitch at the stadium.
A LOT of sports journalists flamed him for different reasons, which even a five y/o could translate as... ‘we are scared.’

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Can’t Fake It‍

One of the journalists decided to have a chat on Twitch with Ibai to “calm the waters”, since he posted condescending tweets towards the streamer, and was seeking redemption. He only added mud to the situation though.

After watching that hour-long talk twice and reading tweets from many journalists and looking at responses on TV… it truly pissed me off, but no worries, I just did some breathing exercises to stay calm.

The Problem ‍

Journalists' response trend-train:

Our numbers on TV and radio are growing, we don’t need streaming.
We don’t understand Twitch, we can’t play games.
We know we have a few bad apples, but it’s like that in every industry.
It’s not our fault that players want to talk to streamers and not us.

1. Growing Pain‍

Let me tell you straight up that people (mainly the youth) evidently have a clear rejection towards journalism. All of it? No. Most of it? Yes.

Think about it as a consumer, besides the game itself, what do you consume the most in sports? The analytical part of the game and behind the scenes.

At the moment, TV and radio gives us a good medium for game and player analysis. However, they thought that the behind the scenes and exclusive material of the player's personal life was also something that they could provide. Well...

In two weeks, Ibai showed them that they were wrong.

Let’s assume their TV numbers are growing. But we can also see streaming numbers going 10 times faster. At some point, the race will have many things in common, and the first factor that will put TV’s name on the grave will be the beloved growth rate that they preach today.

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2. Understanding is a Choice‍

The best ones adapt, while the worse ones stop to shine.

Journalists are comfortable, that’s the truth. It’s their turn to adapt and we’re looking at their reactions in plain sight. But I mean, this is far from being a lecture, we don’t win anything if sports journalism adapts, content will be there anyways, it’s their decision to survive.

Are they actually trying? If you think about it, Twitch is literally the same thing as TV but instead of receiving viewers’ feedback through emails or envelopes, you get them real time on the right side of the screen.

A strong competitor just appeared and you don’t understand Twitch? Are you telling me nobody in your news company dedicated two hours of their time to see how it works?

Watching a Russian chemistry competition is difficult, setting up a fucking Twitch account is not. They are 50 years old, not 150.

Sports journalism sent a very clear message last week, they didn’t “choose the wrong words”. Come on now, they studied words for a living, the intention was to harm.
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Gaming’s Dilemma

News outlets know that they don’t have to play games in order to conduct an interview through streams. But they want to attach the element of gaming to Twitch as much as possible. Why?

You know why. For mainstream media, everything related to gaming will be fucked right? We’re killing our kids' eyes and harvesting mass shooters. Not just sports journalism, but journalism in general loves a good controversial clickbait title to flame the industry as a whole.

So you can be sure that any streamer stepping into TV will be asked to name which Fortnite skins are hot before anything else.
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3. The Bad Apples‍

These are sports channels’ main personalities who do understand Twitch benefits, but they don’t want to see it. They don’t want to assimilate that an individual could do the work of an entire network. It’s time to move on, here you have two clear examples:

If you go to journalism schools today, every single student has been learning about Twitch and how to communicate to younger generations. Young journalists will push for live chats, collaboration between the sports industry and other industries like gaming and fashion, and most importantly, they know that they don’t need to go through a corporate ladder to be successful.
Esports’ journalists have been doing their job for years now through streams. This is nothing new. The change in technology is not the issue, it’s the mentality.

The bad apples are the condescending lads who want to make people pay an entrance fee because they had to do it when they were young. Understandable, but times have changed my dudes.

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4. Players See It‍

I think that sports journalists are looking at this all wrong. Why do you think players don’t want to talk to you?

Sports journalists flame the shit out of players on TV and release clickbait lies and conspiracy theories about them on a daily basis; and then expect players to be over the moon to talk with them about their personal lives; in which fucking planet do you guys live?

A bit of common sense please.

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Three days ago, Gerard Pique, FC Barcelona’s captain, came back from their game and streamed for an hour with Ibai. He confirmed that he will be streaming right after every single match to talk about everything that happened.

Could you imagine? Being able to watch a player talk on stream right after the game about what was truly said in the locker room, or what was the shit talk on the pitch, or how it is to defend Mbappé. Like… I would watch this content over anything else.‍

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Takeaways

Information in sports has always been mediated. For good or for bad. Athletes, for monetary reasons or for the simple fact that they want to clear their names, can now act as journalists on Twitch. We’ll watch that the most, because it's the source of truth.
There are several journalists that do want to adapt. But the way news outlets work and their attachments to website clicks or sponsors won’t help them out. At the moment, they will have to choose between game analysis or content around the player's personal lives.
Because of journalists trying to go independent and current streamers trying to go full journalism on Twitch, the platform will get a bit saturated and only a few of them will get event access like Ibai has today. But in terms of interaction with famous people, there are no limits.

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Traditional outlets will enter streaming soon and they will think that’s enough. Both worlds could live together is not the discussion, there are so many things in common that at the end of the day, the ones who know how to properly mix it will be the ones to be on top.

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NASA’s Artemis Program wants to put people back on the moon by 2024, to prepare for missions to Mars.
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Fortnite x Wonder Woman

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Fortnite x Free Guy

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LAN PARTY 2005

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BY ADAM FITCH

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Influencer CEO
Over the past few years we’ve witnessed the emergence of a rare breed: the influencer CEO. In esports, just mentioning the names of Carlos "ocelote" Rodríguez, Matthew “Nadeshot” Haag, and Hector "H3CZ" Rodriguez serve as perfect examples for what I’m referring to. They’re vocal, they’re present on all the relevant platforms, they’re oftentimes outspoken, and they’re running fully-fledged businesses at the same time.

They’re in a class of their own though. Despite the social media age allowing almost anybody to become a brand and internet celebrity in their own right, why are these three people much more popular and creator-like than their peers? While I do indeed think personality plays a part in this, you have to consider that they were public figures before running their businesses. Nadeshot was a former CoD pro, H3CZ, and Carlos previously competed in League of Legends. Though we’ve limited information to go on here, it’s worth thinking about whether it’s easier to become an influencer and then a CEO, or the opposite...

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