Whenever something happens that catches my eye in the realm of sports, I generally try to break it down the simplest way possible by putting it in my notebook. I’ve got pages upon pages of notes about the latest r/Overwatch drama that I discussed on the latest episode of the lowercase esports podcast that might not have made it to air, but was on my mind while recording it.

Hit the jump to peruse the knee-jerk reactions that I record in the moment to keep some semblance of consistency and sanity when it comes to trying to keep these things in order in my head.

Here are those notes:

• Reddit is one of the last places on the internet that hasn’t been completely taken over by the snowflake parade, that being said, Reddit moderators have tried their damnedest to make an effort to do so
• The subject at hand
• Reddit’s interactions with esports have a net positive effect on the industry, especially third-party content and independent journalism–not without its dark horses and those that prefer to have perfect control over entire communities
• Reddit vs. Esports
• It’s unreasonable to expect major/top-level/popular communities to bow to external pressures–it goes against the point of Reddit being a set of communities deciding what content is relevant for itself, as a collective
• yeah, that sounds fucked, but it is what it is
• Riot vs. Reddit is one of those ongoing battles where a game’s PR division continuously pushes the boundaries of influencing moderation and its’s brought the acts of games companies into scrutiny
• Monte vs. Normies
• the recent petition started by Monte & signed by a few hundred redactors who are upset at the amount of ‘low quality’ content
• calls on r/ow mods to kill off popular content to make room for Overwatch competitive content
• just upset the community couldn’t give a shit about the comp. scene but care about shipping Mercy and Genji
• Who gives a shit at this point?
• Blizzard doesn’t seem upset at all of this, they’re busy with sending Valentines to random people over Twitter
• Plus–the Overwatch League is still in the formative phase of development–nothing’s been announced and nothing has been repeated since the announcement at BlizzCon
• Thus, there’s no reason to expect Blizzard gives a shit about third-party anything until they begin operating in those spaces
• Furthermore, Blizzard will only promote large third-party tournaments, like it has for other games, but in the light of OWL, the offseason is supposedly the only space for it
• I can’t figure out how the petitioner’s demands could reasonably be met
• Banning all ‘low quality’ content sites? GIF hosts? Clips/Oddshot services? Twitlonger? Stream VODs?
• Where does that content policy end? Just like r/leagueoflegends?