This post is a response to Esports Market Ecosystem Map — January 2016 and originally appeared on Medium.

A few suggestions for future editions of the EMEM:

• “In-Game Items Economy” should simply be called “Gambling” to avoid confusion with API-based services and… well… gambling. Additionally, I feel that it should be further scruitinized to gambling sites that allow for underage gambling and those that verify their users’ ages. Maybe it could be split between “Gambling” and “Illegal Gambling” for good measure.
• Move Reddit from the “Reporting” category to a new category named “Authoritative Shitposting.” Pretty straightforward. Especially since Reddit mods for popular subreddits like to follow their cold, dark hearts and confidential conversations with publishers instead of adjuicating content based on a subreddit’s rules. (Okay, fine, not all subreddit moderators are horrible people, but they do some pretty dumb things in the name of “community management.”)
• The list is missing fighting games. When the final rounds of a grassroots tournament for a fifteen year old game draws about 100k concurrent viewers on (nearly) a monthly basis, it’s time to start including it in a top tier. Also Capcom called, and it wanted me to ask you if you thought Street Fighter V was chopped liver. And while you’re at it, consider adding Shoryuken to the “Reporting” category.
• Mobile games aren’t so much about competition, they’re about profitability. If Vainglory makes the cut as a ‘game to watch’ on your chart, I’m pretty sure you’re missing at least ten other more profitable properties that could reasonably claim to be a realistic, viable top-tier title in the mobile world. Clash of Clans comes to mind before Vainglory does. Furthermore, Vainglory’s not even listed in the Top Free Games on the App Store at the moment. There’s an officially licensed Yahtzee app that is listed at 27th on the Top Grossing Games chart right now; Vainglory is at 132nd.