#hardcore fans of one of these ships WILL NOT be persuaded to the other side. don't even try.

[my-current-obsession]

Something I both love AND hate about FF7 (the original game and everything after, including the Remake trilogy) is that it is just ambiguous and/or player-driven enough that no matter which side of the love triangle you fall on (assuming you do in fact ship Cloud with one of the girls), the majority of fans for that ship are 100% CONVINCED it's the correct/canon option.

Like, certain scenes are definitely up to interpretation, and people are going to thus have varying reads on those scenes and the characters/relationships the scenes are about. It doesn't help that several scenes change depending on the player's choices, which acts as a confirmation bias as you naturally get more time and romantic moments with the girl of your preference. It really seems to me that MOST people who ship Cloud and Aerith have one solid interpretation (with a plethora of supporting evidence) of the series and the romance, while most people who ship Cloud and Tifa have their own solid interpretation with plenty of evidence that is VASTLY DIFFERENT from the Clerith reading of the game.

This is not a case of "one ship is clearly, explicitly canon and fans of the opposition just like their pick better and/or think it made more sense narratively and WISH it was canon" - for an example of that, look to the Avatar the Last Airbender shipping wars. This is a case where both sides literally interpret the story just differently enough that they come to entirely different conclusions about which girl is Cloud's true love. And if either side reaches out to try and explain their viewpoint to the other, they're just met with "uh, no. You're wrong." Try and explain what Cloud might be thinking in a given scene with one of the girls, why he acts a certain way... "That's not it at all, where are you getting this? Are you delusional?"

Like, I am a Clerith shipper. I have played all the games in the compilation and watched Advent Children. I tried to be as completionist as possible, even. And I came out on the other side of really digging into the story of this game loving Cloud and Aerith's dynamic and pretty firmly convinced they were canon. Or as canon as possible in the timeline where she died.

As any Clerith fan who participates in the fandom would know, if you try and explain your interpretation of these characters and the romance to a diehard Cloti supporter... you're met with a lot of "you're misinterpreting! Cloud and Aerith were just friends! She loved Zack to the end and Cloud loved Tifa since childhood and never stopped! Also Aerith is actually BAD for Cloud because she's too pushy/abrasive. She's not helping him open up, she's just forcing him to go along with her and making him uncomfortable!"

All of this is of course infuriating, but I'd like to think I'm self-aware enough to know we are kind of guilty of the same thing. The majority of Tifa fans are SO happy about the kiss in Rebirth, while we're over here dismissing it because, one it's optional, and two Cloud is "obviously" using Tifa as a rebound or settling for her since Aerith is seemingly unavailable. But that's not how Cloti fans see it at all.

We can talk until we're blue in the face about how TIFA deserves better than Cloud because she shouldn't be the second choice - the one he settles for. But I think most people who really love Cloti genuinely don't see it that way. In their eyes, she's NOT second-best. Cloud loved her all along and this kiss is finally confirming that. And nothing we say will dissuade them, just as nothing they say will actually change OUR minds about Clerith.

It is honestly really difficult for me to try and see the story and romance the way Cloti fans do, but I know the reverse is also true. Both groups of fans interpret the characters and relationships differently. The compilation ALLOWS us to interpret them differently. And this is why the ship war for a game from 1997 is still raging on.

Because both camps are certain they're right, they defend their position viciously. Sometimes that means invading the "other side" to tell them how wrong they are. This discussion/rant was prompted by a Cloti fan on a Clerith vid who wanted to debate MY comment about how wonderful the ship was and how good they were for each other. He was "confused" and "concerned" because Clerith fans were reading the story wrong or warping it to suit our ship.

I wanted to tell him, "buddy that's what YOU'RE doing". I wanted to write a goddamn essay explaining why Clerith is canon actually. But considering in my INITIAL comment that he first responded to I'd already brought up why I thought Clerith was great, and he was IGNORING that... I knew it would be pointless. There is nothing I could possibly say that would change his mind. There is nothing he could possibly say that would change my mind.

As long as both sides of this war are fully convinced they're right, this war is going to be endless and brutal. And that's why my absolute biggest fear for part 3 is an open, ambiguous ending regarding the ships. Maybe it will canonize nothing. Maybe it will canonize BOTH by having the actual ending change depending on which girl the player favors.

Either route will offer no relief to this eternal battle. I would honestly prefer for Cloti to explicitly and unambiguously win than an ending where neither girl does. Because I can accept a loss. I can accept being told that actually I WAS interpreting the story wrong, but I'll only accept it from the text itself. If anything, a Cloti ending might encourage me to go through the entire compilation again trying to view it with that canon couple in mind. I'm sure I'd see things differently, even if I'd always have a place in my heart for Clerith. And I sincerely hope that if Clerith were to win that Cloti fans could do the same.

All I know is that I'm sick and tired of this ship war. I personally have never gone after Cloti fans or engaged in Cloti content with the intent to debate or hate on the ship. But I don't speak for all Cleriths. I'm sure at least a few fans of my ship are guilty too. I have seen many obnoxious Cloti fans invading our spaces to disparage us - mostly on YouTube and Twitch, less here on Tumblr - but I KNOW there are plenty of kind Cloti fans who just happily enjoy their ship and leave us to ours as well.

At the end of the day, regardless of how part 3 ends things, I just wish we could live in peace. Please enjoy your ship. Your interpretation of the text and romance is valid. But so is mine. If neither side can agree, then the best thing to do is leave each other alone.

#clerith #cloti #ship and let ship #final fantasy vii #i tried to be as neutral as possible about this topic so i think it's only fair if fans of the other ship can see & chime in too #but please. PLEASE. literally the point of this is that i'm sick of arguing #hardcore fans of one of these ships WILL NOT be persuaded to the other side. don't even try. #i don't want to debate about this. i just want everyone to live in peace #final fantasy #edit: i've been informed this still isn't neutral enough. so i TRIED to make it more so. i don't think it's possible to go further #at least not without cutting out a lot of what i want to say. i'm not taking out what bits of interpretation are left from both sides here #since IMO that dilutes my point. the idea is this particular series CAN be interpreted so both sides legit think their ship is canon #i need at least one example of a sticking point between the sides for that #beyond that i just gave a singular example of ONE bad cloti fan stirring up shit in a clerith space #(and trust i have many more examples i kept to myself for the sake of trying to be neutral) #good fans who mind their own business shouldn't be bothered by me pointing that out since they're innocent. just saying. #anyway if this still isn't neutral enough for y'all i guess i'll remove the cloti tag. just let me know

[qwanjiro]

Dream Soulmate anon here back with more brainrot! Ishimondo AU where they both join an idol group and Taka is the only one who watches those ship analysis videos without understanding the point. On a livestream with himself and Mondo, he mentions that he watches "Ishimondo" videos and thanks the fans for compiling clips of their friendship. The fans (and a crushing Mondo) freak out in the chat!

Hi again! Back for more incredible AU I see?

I'm sensing some hardcore oblivious Taka here, ah.. good content.

Warning : I wrote a fuckin fic. I lack self control. Help.

Just imagine.. your two favourite idol doing a live stream together, all comfy and casual and sitting so close to each other. This is it. Your heart cries in pure joy. Your shipper side is finally being fed with ishimondo crumbs after starving for so long.

Your fingers danced around your keyboard without needing your guide. You can't help it. This is your chance. You need to say it for your deepest satisfaction, and you know there are many other just like you. But you decided to be the brave one. Just this time.

Send button. You pressed it without hestitation. You felt your heart beats two times faster as your comment going up, up with the other's compliments and good evenings. And at the same time, you saw Mondo Oowada's eyes glanced through the chat. You held your breath.

Xx_Local_Fangirl_xX : FINALLY IT'S HAPPENING!! ISHIMONDO!!

Mondo furrowed his eyebrows. A curious smile gracing the rapper's feature. "Ishimondo? What's that?"

Your breath hitched. You were noticed by your idol.

Quickly after that, before anybody could respond, Kiyotaka Ishimaru perks up with a smile so bright it puts the sun to shame. "Oh! I've heard about it!"

There's a slight pause in the chat, as if time just frozen. Then just as fast, the chat were filled with 'oh no!'s, 'oh crap he knew!'s, 'pack up boys we need to be more careful when writing fanfictions!' And a lot more along the line. You're too paralized to type anything.

Mondo already turned his attention to the shorter boy next to him. Still with those curious tint, he asked. " Really? How come I didn't know that? It kinda ticks me off cause it sounded so familiar.."

Kiyotaka giggled. It melts your already liquified heart. "That's because it IS familiar, Mondo! Don't you recognized it? It's our names put together! ISHImaru, MONDO, ISHIMONDO!"

"W-What?!"

The chat is going miles per-second, so did your heartbeat. You joined the ruckus of yaoi fangirls and fanboys in the chat. Your felt your grin getting bigger and bigger as you saw Mondo Oowada's cheek rapidly tinted in red.

Seemingly not noticing Mondo's change of behaviour, the vocalist faced the camera directly and said in a happy tone, "You know, I really appreciate the amount of effort you guys did to make those Ishimondo compilation videos! I've watched many of it already and it never failed to be endearing! I'm really glad you enjoyed our friendship!"

Oh..

Oh no..

Pure baby strikes again, you said to yourself.

If anything, this just makes it even more interesting. Mondo's red cheeks is enough proof of that. The chat is going so nuts it might even break the server.

"T-Taka I think that's a ship name.. for us?" Mondo chirped. You can visibly sees his attempts to stay cool, it conviced no one.

"Ship.. name?" Kiyotaka cocked his head to the side like a confused puppy. And you know damn well Mondo loves puppies. "I never saw a cruise ship having our name.. maybe I didn't dig deep enough?" He said. You laughed. Hahas and lols filled the chat.

"Oh!" Kiyotaka suddenly snapped his fingers, ruby eyes wide and bright as if he just had the best idea. "Hey Mondo, maybe we should watch the compilation together with our fans and react to it!!"

"W-what?!" The rapper's forehead is now sweating. Deep down you felt bad for him. But you encourage it all the way. "B-but the stream has going long enough hasn't it..?"

"Come on, Mondo! It's going to be fun! It won't take too long I promise! Besides... don't you want to grant our fans' wish?" The shorter tries to sweetly persuades Mondo. Mondo took a quick glance to the chat section and, yes. Literally 'yes'. New 'yes' popped up every second. All the viewers are on the affirmative side, including you. much to Mondo's displeasure.

The next 20 minutes are spent watching, you guessed it, Ishimondo watching Ishimondo compilation videos. You can almost feel the embarassment radiating from Mondo Oowada, as he watched himself eyeing Kiyotaka in such a fond, love-filled eyes in each and every one of those compilation videos.

Ah, what a legendary live stream.

#danganronpa #ishimondo #kiyotaka ishimaru #mondo oowada #idol AU #anon #you ask and i shall reply #live stream #sorry for the long post :')

[heyovivi]

ACOTAR 6? (MAJOR SPOILERS FOR ACOSF)

Okay! I just finished A Court of Silver Flames and absolutely love Nesta’s journey and this is coming from a person who didn’t really like Nesta from the beginning. Her journey of healing and finding herself was beautiful and her journey with Cassian was heart-wrenching and sexy and I just loved it all! But anyways, more on that later, I have some predictions for the next book. 

So I usually don’t go into anything without spoiling myself so before I even picked up ACOSF from a bookshelf at Target (don’t worry I was able to read both bonus chapters; meaning Azriel’s and the Feyre and Rhys’ chapters) I knew a little about ACOSF already. Now, ACOSF wasn’t deeply plotted and there wasn’t any world building like there was when we read the first three book--although it didn’t really matter to me I still enjoyed the book. ACOSF was all about Nesta and her journey and an insight to her thoughts and why she is the way she is and although I felt that at some points I hated Nesta I could still understand her frustrations and I could understand that she was deeply flawed as a character--which is fine. 

Now, even if ACOSF didn’t have a huge plot there were some key elements that will probably be very important in the next book such as Koschei, the remaining Mortal Queens, the Band of Exiles, Azriel’s journey, and Elain’s journey. But one key thing I noticed was Eris. Now he didn’t appear that much in the book and if he did it was during moments where his presence was essential to the plot (such as being kidnapped by Queen Brialynn and Koschei), but in that last chapter he appeared in it seemed like there was more to the story, to his story specifically. I think that maybe we might be getting a book on Eris. 

A lot of people say that ACOSF is reminiscent of Tower of Dawn from the Throne of Glass series, where instead of following Aelin in her quest to free her kingdom and stop Maeve, we instead venture into a Chaol-centered book where we kind of try to understand his point of view and character growth. So maybe, and this is just a theory or prediction, maybe we’ll get a similar thing with Eris. 

From that one little conversation we get with Cassian and Eris, it appears that Eris is kind’ve jealous of the Night Court and it’s relationships with the other courts in Prythian. A lot of people have already pointed how much Eris could be a lot like Rhys in the manner that Eris wants the Autumn Court to be seen not as the fiery court of rage and misery, but instead wants to be a beacon for those who dwell there. And you do see some parallels between Rhys and Eris and their upbringing with their fathers being very strict figures in their lives but with Eris there was an emphasize of abuse somewhere along the line. 

Now I’m not saying that Eris is getting a book or that his book even next, but I think that we have not heard the full story of what happened between both him and Mor, and I really want to know the entire story of what had happened in Eris’ life to make him seem like such a conniving person. But if I’m being honest I would much rather read a book about Eris’ efforts to lift the Autumn Court than a book about Mor--just my preference you don’t have to agree with me. 

Now here are my runner ups for who could be the possible voice of ACOTAR 6. 

Azriel

Elain

No, not Azriel and Elain, but Azriel or Elain. Now there were a lot of people saying that the book is either about Elain and Azriel, or Azriel and Gwyn, or Elain and Lucien--and I’m not going to shut down anyone’s theories but I’m going to share my own. Again, if you feel peeved about what sides or ships I support then stop reading when you get pissed because I can live with the fact that not everyone is going to agree with my theories.

First off, Azriel. 

I’m going to be honest, from what I read on Tumblr mainly I thought Azriel’s role in ACOSF was going to be way bigger, but I still enjoyed his dry humor and presence when he was there. Though when it comes to Miss Sarah J Mass we have to pay attention to every little detail in her books and if you caught onto his distance from Mor during the Solstice party or his reluctance to hold baby Nyx because of his scarred hands then I think it’s pretty telling that the next book could be about Azriel and his journey with coming face to face with his trauma, his past, and maybe his unsteady relationship with the Illyrians; not to mention his five century one-sided love with Mor. 

If you know me, or looked at any of my content, you should know that I am a hardcore Gwynriel shipper. I love Gwyn and fell in love with the ship almost immediately so much so that I’m embarrassed that I entertained the idea of shipping Azriel with Emerie or Clotho. I think that she might play a pivotal role in his journey to healing and that he might also play a large role in hers as well. Through his bonus chapter we can kind of see the sparks of something starting between them, I’m guessing it’s tied to theories that they are mates or to the theory that Gwyn could be a possibly lightsinger. All I know for sure right now is that Gwyn’s story is definitely not over with and I except see more of her in the future along with the other Valkyries as well. 

Finally, Elain. 

Now I don’t think the next book is about Elain but I do feel that out of all of the other characters her story is in the making? I’ve been told numerous times that Elain will be getting a book of her own, but we don’t know when and we don’t know what it is going to be about. Now, I’m not the hugest fan of Elain and it all goes back to her and Nesta just sitting around when Feyre was in the woods fighting for her life and there's as well. I know that she apologized and felt guilty afterwards but her excuse was “we gave up and she didn’t” just did not do it for me. 

It was in this passage from A Court of Thorns and Roses, where my distaste for Elain blossomed: 

The mercenary transferred the coins to my waiting palm, and I tucked them into my pocket, their weight as heavy as milestone. There was no possible chance that my sisters hadn’t spotted the money--no chance they weren’t already wondering how they might persuade me to give them some. 

...I felt my sisters sweep closer, like vultures circling a carcass. 

Like at least we knew Nesta was the “wolf” as she described herself. We knew she had a sharp-tongue and we knew she could be a bitch with her words. But Elain, she was described as innocent and nice, and yes when you paint her in a garden with flowers and frilly dresses she does just seem like some Cinderella-like character but after five books, especially after ACOSF my hate for Elain has just grown. Like after ACOWAR, I just thought she was boring--yes, she had a hand in killing the king of Hybern but that hype was kind’ve stolen away when Nesta ripped his head from his body. 

Since then, we haven���t really, really got a full look through with Elain and a large part of that is because we haven’t gotten her point of view, like not even in A Court of Frost and Starlight. From what we know about her, canonically, no theories or anything, she likes to garden, she likes to cook, her friends are Cerridwen and Nuala, she doesn’t want to confront that bond she has with Lucien, and she has an attraction to Azriel. But beyond that we don’t know anything--there were things that I kept out even though they were mentioned in ACOSF but there is also a lot of mystery around the things she said and claimed to do--even Cassian questioned them but didn’t approach her about the topic. 

I don’t think we have enough of a story to build up on Elain. For the most part I feel like her presence in ACOSF was mostly there to just piss Nesta off. Literally, in every scene she has with Nesta, she is pissing her off, setting her off, making her yell or scream, or making the silver flames ignite. And this is extremely out of character for Elain. Yes, we don’t get enough of her, but from what we can gather, Elain usually is not one to push buttons but I wonder why she did with Nesta. 

Here are a few passages that I just found beguiling while reading Nesta’s interactions with Elain: 

Elain stepped closer, brown eyes wide. Undoubtedly wholly convinced of her own innocence, her innate goodness. “It’s the truth. We did this because we love you, and we worry for you, and if Father were here--”

“Don’t ever mention him.” Nesta bared her teeth, but kept her voice low. “Never fucking mention him again.” 

Mentioning their father? A very taboo subject for Nesta. And Elain stans like to argue that Elain is quiet and docile because she is an observer. She takes things in and she tucks them away in her memory, but if she’d paid so much attention then why would she mention their father to Nesta? Feyre noted Nesta’s relationship with their father in book one, so there is no way that Elain herself didn’t know about it. 

Here is  another line from their conversation I thought were very weird to read about and I’ll explain why: 

Elain crossed her arms and said calmly, sadly, “Feyre warned me this might happen.” 

Bullseye. Nesta doesn’t like to be talked about, to be judged. We learned that in ACOSF and again if Elain was this person who sees and pays attention she should’ve known this or caught on. 

I think in this scene, Elain was purposely trying to set off Nesta. 

Nesta cleared her throat. “Cassian said it might be good if I came.”

Elain’s eyes flickered. “Did Feyre pay you, like last year?” 

“No,” shame washed over her. 

Elain sighed, glancing over Nesta’s shoulder to the open doorway across the entry. The party within, only for their small inner circle. “Please don’t upset Feyre. It’s her birthday, first of all. And in her state--”

“Oh, fuck you,” Nesta snapped, and then choked. 

Nesta was actually trying to get better at this point. She even risked going to a party despite not feeling welcomed just because Cassian told her it might be good for her to be surrounded by her family and for her not be alone on the holiday. You could even tell how by the way Nesta is keeping herself away she is still uncomfortable but the thing is she still showed up which is a sure sign she is improving. 

I don’t know why Elain started talking about the year before or about upsetting Feyre--literally wanted to slap the bitch in this scene. Like I just want to know why Elain pressed so hard. Then afterwards she waved it off as if she hadn’t just said what she said and acted normally. I can not tell you how mad I was at this--like especially for a sensitive character like Nesta who is ALWAYS In her thoughts and always takes things to a deep level. Like what Elain said could’ve just broken a vital part of Nesta and caused her to relapse. 

Anyways, I think Elain’s behavior in ACOSF could hint at the Evil Elain theory. Although I don’t think it’s going to come in the next book--it might build in the next book but at most I think Elain’s story will come to fruition in ACOTAR 7 or 8 and isn’t going to be about her journey or soul searching but maybe we’ll be getting the point of view of a villain. Like there were many mysterious hints dropped in ACOSF and the way I interpreted them is that Elain is planning something and if her behavior matches her actions, it’s something that could possibly affect her sisters. 

Plus, you have to wonder how Brialynn and Koschei knew everything. They knew all the IC’s moves and all of Nesta’s moves...but how? A lot of the time when Nesta was given a mission by Rhys it was in the River House and we also know that Elain has been getting better at sneaking around without being detected so it’s not too farfetched that Elain could be the spy. You don’t have to agree with me but I think it’s a pretty solid theory as far as they go. 

But do tell me your thoughts I would love to hear them. I’m sorry if I offended anyone in the end but we all have to just respect everyone’s opinion so no fights or slander, especially in my comment section. 

#eris vanserra #azriel #elain archeron #gwynriel #gwyneth berdara #nesta archeron #evil elain #cassian #a court of silver flames #a court of thorns and roses #acosf spoilers #acosf #acotar6

[businessweekme]

Can This Man Make His Video Gaming Team a $1bn Business?

How Jack Etienne plans to turn his video gaming team into a $1bn business.

Jack Etienne had reinvented himself. He’d gone from an eager photocopier salesman with an obsessive evening-and-weekends video game habit to the chief executive officer at a professional video-game-playing company that generates millions of dollars a year in sponsorships. In 2017, he committed more than $30 million in investment funds buying a spot in two of the world’s top esports leagues, where pro video gamers compete in front of huge audiences. Now those Silicon Valley investors expect him to turn his team, Cloud9, into a global entertainment business. So, this April, searching for clues as to how he might do that, Etienne flew to New Orleans to experience WrestleMania 34.

He watched the wrestling, but he also wanted to see how the executives guided advertisers through this strange world. One afternoon, Etienne took his seat at the WWE’s Business Partner Summit. There, a wrestler named Elias strummed a guitar and performed an ode to brands. In fewer than two minutes, Elias name-checked KFC, Snickers, YouTube, Snapchat, Mattel, Old Spice, NBC, Sony and China’s PPTV. It was a sales master class. Etienne saw that the WWE knew how to hold advertisers’ hands, inculcating them in the appeal of their crazy characters under the guise of a business update. The WWE had figured out how to turn fake wrestling into a business worth $6.1 billion.

Like the WWE did with professional wrestling decades ago, Etienne is fighting to convince major companies that his oddball fan base has just as much money to spend as other sports lovers. If the WWE could persuade rich guys that young men watching other men perform dramatized violence was a good investment, so could Etienne. 

There are early signs of Cloud9’s promise. Last year, Etienne convinced the WWE, along with some of the technology world’s top investors, that video game competitions were worth their money. Peter Thiel’s venture capital firm, Founders Fund, and Craft Ventures wrote him the biggest checks, with more funds coming in from former Facebook Inc. executive Chamath Palihapitiya and Reddit Inc. co-founder Alexis Ohanian. Altogether they poured $28 million into Cloud9, the team Etienne founded in 2013 by buying a group of League of Legends players out of their contracts for less than $20,000.

Cloud9, C9 for short, is the most popular esports team in North America, according to Nielsen Esports, a market research group. The team, based in Santa Monica, California, has hundreds of wins playing more than a dozen video games. Cloud9 has a roster of more than 70 players, many of them living in team-owned dormitory-style housing, earning anywhere from a few thousand dollars a week to hundreds of thousands a year playing video games professionally.

Can Etienne be the first person to turn his team into a $1 billion business? “There is no founder like Jack in all of esports,” said Brian Singerman, who led Founders Fund’s investment in Cloud9. “He’s the type of person people like to work for and play for. And he just works like crazy and loves what he does.”

But there are many hurdles ahead for Etienne. For one, there’s the money: He spent millions to buy his way into a select group of teams that can compete in the top gaming tournaments, and there’s no guarantee it’ll recoup that cost. Cloud9 and other teams are working together with game developers to secure lucrative distribution rights for online streaming and television. Cloud9 is also working to land valuable marketing deals. There’s also the pressing challenge of making esports easier to watch so people besides hardcore gamers can understand what’s going on. In addition to all that, Etienne couldn’t stop worrying about Sneaky.

People have been playing video games competitively since the invention of the arcade in the early 1970s. In the late 1990s, the strategy game StarCraft and the shooter Counter-Strike were mainstays at neighborhood LAN (local area network) parties. Friends lugged their desktop computers over to whoever’s parents had the nicest house and battled it out in the early morning hours. As the internet sped up, video games moved online. In 2004, the science-fiction shooting game Halo 2 and the fantasy game World of Warcraft revolutionized what it looked like to play video games online with friends. In those halcyon days, people who took their games seriously trekked to small tournaments to compete for bragging rights and token prize money.

Today, the best players in the world play 14 hours a day and can make decent to spectacular money. Sneaky, a moppy-haired gamer whose real name is Zachary Scuderi, is one of them. He’s among Etienne’s star players. Cloud9 pays him well above $100,000 a year, though it won’t say exactly how much, and he makes many tens of thousands on his own from people paying to watch his stream on Twitch, Amazon.com Inc.’s video game streaming network. Sneaky has earned more than 85 million views on Twitch by making gaming look easy, but Etienne was starting to worry that his star had lost his focus.

While Sneaky coasts through life on his extraordinary ability to click quickly, earning fans with his slacker, every-man charm, Etienne buzzes with energy, having muscled his way to the top of the gaming industry with the sheer force of his personality. At Xerox Corp., Etienne, a burly, bearded, friendly-faced man, sold large printers, photocopiers and other services to law firms and insurance companies. Despite the tedium, he excelled. His experience selling that most corporate of items—a few years after the characters in Office Space took a baseball bat to the printer/copier—taught him how to pitch just about anything.

But it was the time he spent outside of work in the mid-2000s that would be the guiding force in his life. Every night, Etienne obsessed over World of Warcraft, and he eventually began recruiting players for his top-ranked guild—a group of dozens of players who worked together to slay monsters and harvest precious weapons. “I was always out there looking at current talent,” Etienne said. He signed copy machine deals during the day and secured elite dragon slayers by night. “There was no money involved. It was competitive, and it mattered a lot to me,” he said.

Growing tired of his day job, Etienne spent a lot of time on Curse, a gamer tip site. After seeing a posting for a sales position there, Etienne landed the job. A year later, he jumped ship to Crunchyroll, an anime streaming site, to build a sales team. (One of his friends on World of Warcraft introduced him to the CEO.) He generated $16 million in sales during his last year at the company, he said. A couple years into that job, one of the people who bought advertising space from Etienne told him that he should help out a then 17-year-old kid named Andy Dinh. Etienne and Dinh would go on to become powerbrokers in the esports world—and rivals. But at first, they were friends.

Dinh had created a website called SoloMid that had guides on how to play League of Legends’ dozens of different characters. The site was growing more popular than he knew what to do with. Etienne started giving him advice and then helping him sell ads on the side. SoloMid’s advertising quickly climbed from $3,000 a month to $80,000 and kept growing from there, Etienne said. “Jack helped sign some of our very first partners,” Dinh said. “Jack listens, he’s smart, he’s emotionally intelligent and I learned a lot from him.”

Etienne signed on to manage Dinh’s team, called Team SoloMid, in 2011. Eventually, Etienne’s boss told him to quit the side gig. Etienne did but soon regretted it. Within months, he decided to quit his day job instead and form his own team.

In 2013, he spent $23,000 on a five-player team of professional League of Legends players with a small following. Soon, he had a mutiny on his hands. The players had wanted one of their friends to buy them, and so instead of fighting, Etienne arranged a sale and then bought the contracts of another group of players. The team chose a new name: Cloud9.

Sneaky was 19 years old and had just moved to Los Angeles from Boca Raton, Florida, to try making it as a professional. He shared a room with three other gamers and was making $500 a month. After buying the team, Etienne took on a parental role for some of the players, especially younger ones like Sneaky. When he moved the team to San Jose, California, Etienne picked up Sneaky from the airport. The owner rented an apartment for the team to live in and kept the fridge stocked. When the players clogged the toilet, Etienne brought them a plunger.

That summer, in 2013, Sneaky and his teammates went on a surprise run and made it to the League of Legends championships. Etienne got more than his money’s worth. A winning team made signing sponsors much easier. The culmination of the following season, in 2014, was bittersweet. Cloud9 lost 3-to-2 to Dinh’s Team SoloMid.

League of Legends is a war between two teams of five players each. The winner is decided by which team’s archer, mage, monster, warrior and healer can work together to murder their enemies and destroy their opponents’ base. To be a dominant force in League of Legends, you need to be really good at clicking and typing quickly and precisely, while predicting your opponent’s movements and coordinating with your team. It requires incessant practice.

To watch Sneaky play League of Legends is to watch someone transform the game’s most vulnerable characters into powerful opponent-destroyers. It’s satisfying to watch someone do it so effortlessly.

Millions of people watch Sneaky play for hours on Twitch while he delivers a dour running monologue. “The main reason I started streaming more was because I talked to Jack with the team, and we were actually wanting higher salaries,” Sneaky said. Etienne suggested they make extra cash on Twitch, where spectators could pay him for advice on in-game weapons and characters, Sneaky said. He’s required to plug Cloud9’s sponsors from time to time, and that’s why his legions of fans are so important to the team. When the U.S. Air Force Reserve ran ads during his Twitch stream last year, Sneaky would stand up and salute, earning many lulz from his fans.

Under Etienne, Sneaky quickly became the cornerstone of Cloud9. While Sneaky won game after game, Etienne recruited top players around him—and he secured investors to buy their way into the top League of Legend competition. Over the years, other players came and went. But Sneaky remained, and that was good for business.

For months, Etienne grew convinced that Sneaky was taking an increasingly lackadaisical approach while playing with his teammates. And in June, Etienne had had enough, announcing he was benching Sneaky along with two other top players. “We’re looking for players to always be hungry,” Etienne said.

Sneaky’s public reaction was muted. He began playing on Cloud9’s second-tier team with the promise that he could try to earn his way back onto the main team. On Twitter, the team posted this message: “No one said it was easy being a C9 fan. We appreciate everyone who sticks with us regardless of what changes are made.” The message: Cloud9 is bigger than any one player.

The same month that Etienne demoted Sneaky, he announced a major business deal with Red Bull, and soon its logo was plastered all over the team’s jerseys. A national advertiser was betting on Cloud9.

In June, Etienne held a meeting with his investors modeled after the WWE. Thirty top executives showed up to one of his team houses in Burbank, California, to get an update on the business. They eagerly boarded a bus to the Blizzard Arena nestled between Warner Bros. and Walt Disney studios to watch a Cloud9 team play Overwatch, a game where friendly-faced, gun-wielding avatars blast each other to bits over a small plot of land. Cloud9 won and a month later, won the national tournament broadcast on ESPN.

Meanwhile, with Sneaky off the premier League of Legends team, Cloud9 lost four out of five games at the start of the season. Etienne relented and put Sneaky back on the main roster.

The post Can This Man Make His Video Gaming Team a $1bn Business? appeared first on Bloomberg Businessweek Middle East.

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