As you’ll have noticed I have been cut from the SC2 desk for IEM San Jose and before that e-sports rumour-mill goes into overdrive, I just wanted to put out what happened and why ESL made the call they did.

Before we get into it, let’s state the obvious. Yeah, I’m disappointed. I’m not sobbing into a pillow or anything but I had a blast doing DreamHack Moscow, my first job hosting anything relating to SC2, and wanted to do more after the positive response it got from you guys. When Carmac hit me up a few weeks ago there was some talk about me maybe being involved in LoL (something I couldn’t believe due to the Riot factor) but I said it would probably be a bad call and asked if I could do SC2. Even if I know nothing about your game it’s still the e-sports community I enjoy working for the most.

Unfortunately during DreamHack, an event itself with many huge talking points, something happened that created a conflict between myself, ESL and, unsurprisingly, Riot Games that lead to where we are now.

To give the an abridged version of the full story I was made aware from multiple sources that Joe and Deman were not going to be part of LCS in 2015. I wanted to handle the story as sensitively as possible for a couple of factors. The first is, of course, I considered Joe and Leigh to be friends. We came up in the business together and we have always been supporters of each other’s success in our respective fields. When you leak something about someone you know and have a relationship with it’s never easy. You don’t want to spoil their moment in any way but equally you have a job to do and an obligation to your employer.

The second reason is that while I couldn’t care less about Riot’s opinions about me because they have proven themselves on multiple occasions to be unethical and untrustworthy operators in the e-sports space, ESL and myself have always had a professional relationship. We have always communicated on stories and, for the most part, they have understood the spirit of what journalists have to do and always entered into communication with myself when required.

Because of this I respectfully asked for a statement, initially from Leigh, who asked if I would hold off on the story and referred me to the ESL press officer. With San Jose round the corner and other plans surrounding the announcement in the pipeline they asked if I could hold off on the story until after the event, where I would still be allowed to break it. The thought process was that the news might overshadow an event that was a big deal for the League of Legends community so I agreed. Not reluctantly as was communicated in the laughable Riot e-mail but straight away. It felt like a good compromise, one that satisfied all parties, even Riot.

Within a few hours for reasons I still don’t fully understand ESL employees entered into communications with Riot to tell them I knew and was sitting on the story. Riot behaved in their usual manner and to spite me breaking the story (a sensitive issue for them and something I am reliably informed they are looking at ways to prevent) they told ESL that they needed to bring the announcement forward.

As I was working at DreamHack for Twitch TV I had no idea that our agreement had been reneged on until I was contacted by my editor at the Daily Dot asking why the story had been posted by anyone other than me. Needless to say, this made me look incredibly bad because, as I was working at San Jose the following week and it could be perceived that I didn’t write up the story in order to ensure I kept my job on the SC2 desk. This is obviously a problem for me.

In the resulting arguments I was sent an e-mail that showed Riot orchestrating the move to break our agreement. Although not my usual style, I posted it on Twitter to demonstrate the sort of nonsense that journalists in our industry go through on a daily basis when it comes to breaking stories. Unfortunately, my brain obviously fogged up by anger, I didn’t delete the recipients list – a massive schoolboy error – and inadvertently revealed who sent it. Although I put that right, this being the internet, there was no taking it back. As I have always told people, don’t tweet when angry. I feel bad about that mistake.

Obviously this situation caused a lot of ill-feelings on both sides. ESL recognise that they did indeed betray my trust and have tried to make amends for that. However, they also need to think about the feelings of their staff member who shared the e-mail, who feels that I betrayed his trust. As they believe employing me at this time, even to work on a different game, would be a massive “fuck you” to the individual in question, they removed the offer.

I have already seen some official comments on the matter and can’t help but feel it downplays what happened a little bit. This was a clear lose/lose for myself. Had I gone ahead and published the story without attempting to go through the proper channels I am sure I annoy the same individuals concerned for not approaching them and end up cut from the broadcast anyway. However, had I done that at least my employer would have had the benefit of being the source of the news, I’d not have to explain my ethical integrity and I also wouldn’t have been subject to the worst abuse of trust I have experienced in close to ten years of doing this. It’s not that they tried to stop me publishing the story. There are so many ways they can do that (no comment, stalling tactics, denials etc etc) and that’s all in the game. It’s the fact they agreed to something then went back on it, which very much isn’t in the game despite what anyone might tell you.

On the last day of my attendance at DreamHack I received the call to inform me. While the call was mostly good natured, as we have all known each other a long time, there were still some stumbling blocks to a completely amicable resolution. There’s not a lot to be gained from listing them but I will say I won’t be making the mistake of ever going through these touted “proper channels” with ESL again as they have shown they in fact do not act with propriety.

I have no qualms about working with ESL again in a broadcasting capacity however. I offered to do this gig despite the drama, to put everything aside and give it my best for them and the community. Anyone who has worked with me knows I always give these jobs my all, no matter what is going on at the time. It wasn’t to be this time but it was communicated to me that they weren’t blacklisting me and that the door was still open for future events.

There are obviously a lot of areas where the lives of Richard Lewis the journalist and Richard Lewis the broadcasting personality are going to clash. This was one of those times. As much as I enjoy the extra on-air work there’s no competition between doing that and the thing I have been passionate about since I was young man. I definitely hope to work with ESL again but if they decide that isn’t possible it’s not anything I will lose sleep over.

There are no personal hard feelings on my side. After being informed that I was being cut from the broadcast by Ralf Reichart we talked about some other stuff and agreed to grab a beer together next time we crossed paths. As people we still absolutely respect each other. I understand his position even if I don’t agree with it. Whatever happens that won’t change.

With this storm in an e-cup put to bed let me just say that IEM San Jose will still be a great event and an important one for SC2 and League of Legends. ESL have a great roster of talent, all of which I feel eclipse my own on-air talents anyway. As soon as the games start I doubt my absence will cast a shadow over it at all and I wish everyone involved every success.