Blix is dead and we didn't deserve it

My rambling thoughts on "Esports Journalism" or whatever we want to call it.

If you haven’t heard by now, Blix.gg has begun to shut down. For those unaware, Blix was an all-encompassing esports publication, covering roster moves, events, interviews, and breaking news across multiple titles. More than that though, Blix served as a way for new writers to stick their foot into the revolving door of esports writing. Its website lists nearly 50 staff, over 40 of which are writers, all of which will have the rung slipped out from under them.

Blix isn’t nearly the first esports publication to shut down recently. Blix’s parent company, EX CORP, blamed the “esports winter”, companies cutting marketing costs to brace for the incoming recession.¹ Other victims include Dot Esports, Jaxon, Launcher, and Upcomer², all thrown to the wolves, or in Gamurs’, the owner of Dot Esports, case, to the incoming AI sludge monster in such a laughably evil and hypocritical manner you’d think they fervently believed in Roko’s Basilisk. 

My point being, it seems that there’s almost nowhere for young writers to start their journey of journalism. A couple weeks ago, a young man DM’d me on Twitter³ asking about how I got to my current position at Dust2.us. As I replied, I got to thinking about how few of these opportunities exist for writers now. 

A few years ago, Ryan Friend, current Editor-In-Chief of Dust2.us and former EIC of RushBMedia, sent out a call to action on Twitter, taking applications for junior writers at RBM. Ryan took on a dozen or so writers at great expense, both money-wise and time-wise, simply because he loved Counter-Strike and wanted to help the scene in the best way he could. 

Under Ryan, I first learned how to write professionally. I learned the editing process, storytelling, everything that makes an article interesting. Nearly a year down the line, Ryan was given an offer he couldn’t reject: working full-time in esports. He was able to bring a few RBM members with him, myself included, to Dust2.us, where we both remain to this day.

It took Ryan, at great personal expense, funding an entire publication and operation for me to get a foot in the door, basically the patronage system that gave us the great classical arts and music. How many Medicis are there nowadays? A burgeoning writer simply cannot bet on those extraordinary circumstances.

What am I supposed to say to the young man in my DMs? “Keep looking for someone to pay hand over fist to keep your articles online while you learn”?⁴ What’s the path to go down? There simply are not many publications that take the chance on young writers, and the ones that do exist are dropping like flies. I’ve personally squandered more opportunities than most are ever afforded. For upcoming writers, those opportunities are whittled away day after day.⁵

Some publications have seen the writing on the wall and went to a subscription model, most notably, Jacob Wolf and Mikhail Klimentov, two absolute powerhouses in video game reporting. Those two have launched a combined Patreon to fund their reporting, along with a few other incredible journalists and writers. A few weeks ago, Jacob Wolf posted that he may have to shut the service down; they simply did not have enough subscriptions to continue their reporting. Time and time again we see that people do not and will not pay for quality journalism. We are going to lose some of the best in our field because the video game and esports audience do not care. 

When Jacob Wolf broke the story of how the LCS decreased from ten to eight teams, he posted his article to r/leagueoflegends, a common online forum for fans of the game to meet and discuss. In the replies, a Redditor posted a TL;DR (Too Long; Didn’t Read), summarizing Wolf’s article point for point. 

Anybody clicking on the Reddit post would see the summary from the Redditor before hitting the link to Wolf’s reporting. Wolf replied to the Redditor asking to delete their comment, as the only way he gets any recognition or relevant statistics for his work is readers visiting his website and reading the report there. This was not a paywalled article. There was no advertisement on the page. All Jacob Wolf was asking for was a simple click of the link. Something that’s literally free for the reader to provide. The Redditor amended his comment to include the words “Please read the article if you can. Jacob Wolf needs your clicks!”. They did not remove the TL;DR. Wolf responded further in the comments, writing “The ‘needs the clicks’ is kind of crazy 😂 since there’s no advertising in the story. But yeah, thanks.” His reply was downvoted to such a degree it was automatically hidden as controversial content. His two comments combine for negative 71 votes. The original TL;DR sits at 555 upvotes.⁶ 

What are we supposed to do? The average esports viewer grew up watching games on Twitch, consuming content on YouTube, and sharing memes on Twitter. All of these cost absolutely nothing to the viewer and yet time and time again they’ll stoop further to rob creators of even that fraction of a penny. In normal jobs you are paid in money. In shit jobs you are paid in exposure. In esports, you don’t even get that.

I promise I’m trying not to sound like a whiny bitch. I’ve been exceptionally fortunate in both the opportunities I’ve received and my financial situation which allows me to work in esports part-time and afford rent with a full stomach. What does it say about our industry that the best of our best can’t do this work full time without saying the same? Esports audiences do not deserve reporting as quality as we get. We don’t deserve multi-million dollar events streamed to our devices for free. We don’t deserve the esports scene that we get because we’re not willing to pay for it. 

Blix is gone and esports is worse off for it. Somebody somewhere is going to read a Discord message of a screenshot of a Tweet relaying the news and think to themselves “never heard of it” despite reading multiple Blix articles in the form of unsourced quotes and Reddit TL;DRs. 

We’re losing the best, most experienced writers in esports. We’re losing the training grounds for young, hungry writers. When it’s all said and done, who will be left? Gamurs with their AI sludge, repurposing and amalgamating other esports writers’ work with all the credit they’ve learned to expect from the average esports fan.

1. Or already here, depending on who you ask.

2. To be completely frank, my knowledge of esports journalism almost entirely lies in the field of Counter-Strike.

3. Since this is my personal Substack and not a professional publication to which I am employed, I will be referring to X, the social media application and nothing else despite what its owner claims, as Twitter. My own personal little rebellion. It’s the little things that keep you going.

4. This is basically what I did end up telling him. If you, the reader, happen to be this person, I’m sorry that this is the best advice I can offer. Keep writing. If nothing else, it’s a wonderful tool to express yourself. I wish you, and every other upcoming writer, the best of luck. You need it, but also, you deserve it.

5. I want to take a moment to shout out BLAST.tv. They’ve brought on some great writers over the past year or so and continue to put out great interviews and articles. I hope at least one person from Blix may get to continue their journey at BLAST.

6. These numbers count my downvote and two upvotes.