I’m going to say something that might get me kicked off a few Discord servers, but someone has to say it. The esports community has officially entered its witch hunt period when it comes to artificial intelligence.
Every time a game developer or sports organization posts a photo, the comment section immediately pulls out a magnifying glass. They scrutinize fingers, look for blurry logos, and scream at the top of their lungs if a single pixel looks suspiciously generated.
Yes, the art of AI can be weird and lazy, but the level of irritation we see over small, nonsensical situations makes little sense.
The latest crime against pixels and gamers
If you want to see how intense this reaction is, just look at a few recent events that have sent the internet into a tailspin.
First, Mobile Legends Bang Bang dropped the background of the main menu featuring the hero Layla. Immediately, fans saw strange lighting, soft textures, and anatomical features that screamed of a machine-made image.
People are losing their minds. MOONTON was quick to release a small patch, although the developers never admitted that they might be using AI for production.
Before that, SNK caught a lot of heat Deadly Rage: City of Wolves trailer update because sharp-eyed fans spotted what looked like AI-generated promotional footage in the background. This caused a major backlash in the FGC, and even caused the well-known, long-time president to step down.
“This is the opposite of what I stand for,” he wrote.
Then you have the esports teams themselves caught in the crossfire. The Carolina Royal Ravens posted a photo on social media, and fans immediately burned them because the AI somehow messed up the team’s logo.
Was it a little embarrassing? Of course. I would even try to say a lot shame. Also, the sports industry’s most terrifying name: Cringe. But was it a crime against humanity that caused the total collapse? Probably not.
A fine line between consulting and caring
The devs would quietly remove the poster and replace it with human art, but the outrage machine had already moved on to the next target.
It sounds like a lot of gaming fans are picking and choosing when to turn the AI into a moral battle. It’s easy to rally a crowd, jump on social media, and shout about the bad Mobile Legends menu background because it makes us feel like we’re fighting the good fight.
But what do you actually do? MOONTON didn’t replace someone with AI in the MLBB studio to create that menu art. In fact, the painter, who was obviously employed there, was replaced. If anything, the MOONTON artists are clearly using AI to make things faster, which they are he can seen as lazy or careless. But is it worth the X lawsuit and Reddit threads? What do you think it will do? Who are you trying to save?
And do you think the Carolina Royal Ravens have money? Most esports organizations operate entirely in the red, even the big ones. Do you really think they will pay top dollar for art every time they announce something?
They might have paid a cheap artist who then used AI to do this. Or maybe, if they somehow have the money for it, they have a social media person on staff who doesn’t get paid enough to do graphics on top of all the other things they do and immediately creates an AI image.
I’m not saying I love that they use AI, but it happened, but what do you expect them to do? Why attack a small esports organization with no money? What do you hope to achieve here?
Let me guess. He still uses Claude to help summarize the boring book he was forced to read at school. You use AI at the top of your Google search to prove a point in an argument. You use email spam filters and predictive text on your phone. You have used the AI TikTok filter.
Let me go even further. You have a phone made for child use. You use Amazon for Jeff Bezos to get two-day shipping. He bought a shirt from Shein. You drive a car that adds to the pollution of the world. He bought a dog from a backyard breeder. He read Harry Potter book. You listen to Chris Brown or watch movies with Brad Pitt. He plans to play an Avatar fighting game even though a dev accused of sexual harassment is working on it.
It never ends. You pick and choose where to draw the line in a dysfunctional, fragile way. If you’re thinking that AI in esports is a bigger problem than anything I’ve said, you’re right. But many people jump on a trending topic on social media.
I think the AI is bad, too. I agree with you. But it’s like hating any new technology, like our parents ranting about texting, social media, and video games. There are many bad people who support AI, and it has created many bad effects, but it is inevitable. Picking on these small problems will not help. The struggling esports organization is not the villain here.
Esports has much bigger problems than this
Here is the cold and hard truth of the situation. Esports organizations are known to be broken right now. Every industry is reeling from an economic winter in which teams are struggling to keep the lights on, sponsors are pulling back, and many organizations are working hard.
I’m not going to sit here and pretend that AI is some magical savior. I think it’s often boring, has real environmental drawbacks, and sucks when it replaces the work of real human artists in an already damaging industry.
But we do as an organization using a cheap, flawed image to send an X update is a huge threat to competitive gaming.
Esports is facing massive player burnout, collapsing league structures, and dwindling business revenue. The slightly twisted logo in a Tuesday morning tweet is pretty low on the priority list. In fact, it may be the result of these problems.
If you don’t want more cringe AI, you should deal with these things.
