Ryan Fairchild

While some e s p o r t s happened during my Twitter absence, it all happened regardless of whether I was here. I'm also better off without Twitter so I'm signing off permanently. Reach me at fairchild. on Discord ryan (dot) c (dot) fairchild (at) gmail for email Cheers friends

For my birthday, I'm ditching my phone and computer for a week. I'm also gonna get off Twitter for thirty days to see if my account actually gets deactivated. Here's hoping.

@piethrouer How many are in the folder for a Heroic loss, Adam?

Heroic when it’s a Major

when you ask midjourney to make you an ad campaign for doordash's partnership with raytheon

@ZacharyDiaz This tweet is art of the highest order

@TeaGuvnor 👀

@fairchild My next idea would require a lot of energy 👀

🗣️TI11 - Said Battlepass 16,905 times 🗣️Diretide - Said Diretide 20,000 Times ✍️7.32e - 12 hours of continuous hand writing 🍚7.33 - counted 17,468 grains of rice LOOKING FOR SPONSORS - To scale up the challenge & production for TI12 Battlepass waiting room👍 RTs appreciated <3

@ldf_gm @kaimeariver This is so much better than betting money on a game. The stakes are so high now.

@kaimeariver im so invested in this

in my dumbest bet of all time, i bet the lakers would win tonight or i would pay for verification on twitter and instagram why can’t i just bet money like everyone else

Riot gave each team $3 million this year to operate in LCS + NACL, but only 3 could afford to spend 15-20% of that to promote the future of NACL? Shame on Riot for letting teams get away with it and shame on every team that pocketed the future of the league.

@HarrisPeskin @JacobWolf @esportslaw What I'm saying is that's not the only way. And if you only do that, then you're definitely going to have losers (9 of them in fact).

@fairchild @JacobWolf @esportslaw There’s a direct correlation between winning and eyeballs.

These LCS teams backed by multi-BILLION dollar companies claiming they can't afford an NACL roster is just so rich. The reality is that the owners of these teams don't actually care about League. And their apathy is going to bring about the LCS's demise unless reversed.

@HarrisPeskin @JacobWolf @esportslaw That's all good, but get Riot to pony up what amounts to esports-related revenue. How do you disentangle it? Also, when you don't have a league that can make financial decisions that will grow that pie (as opposed to growing the publishing side of pie), you have a real problem.

@JacobWolf @fairchild @esportslaw Pre 1983 the NBA was spending closer to 67% on player salaries. After the cap the number went to 56. Leagues are able to grow when the threat of folding franchises is less prevalent. This is exacerbated in esports because of an undiverse revenue stream and extra stakeholder.

@HarrisPeskin @JacobWolf @esportslaw You don't need to win, you need something that draws eyeballs. Winning is one way. Building a brand is another. Winning is not a brand. I like what Liquid has done with Liquid+ as well with incentivizing engagement.

@JacobWolf @fairchild @esportslaw It’s a problem of incentives. When 70% of your team rev comes from sponsorship and sponsors care about eyeballs, you need to spend more to win because the winning gives you eyeballs. It creates a structure where teams climb on top of each other to get the rev.

@JacobWolf @HarrisPeskin @esportslaw Unionizing doesn't happen without Riot at the table, though, and that's the hard part. I think Riot is fine to let the rest of us fight over what dollars exist out here.

@fairchild @HarrisPeskin @esportslaw I agree with that too. And I think Harris and Bryce probably would too if they didn’t have to risk clients by saying such. It’s a problem of the teams own doing for sure but without being emotional about the past, unionizing is the way forward in my third party IMO.

@JacobWolf @HarrisPeskin @esportslaw Also, have you asked players whether they'd be willing to take paycuts to keep NACL going? You might be surprised that there aren't as many sharks as you think, if any.

@JacobWolf @HarrisPeskin @esportslaw with no justification other than to reduce costs). It's bad faith. Players haven't acted in bad faith, they've just taken what's been offered. Teams have no one to blame but themselves (and Riot for not providing a $$ pool) for what they've paid or the situation they've created.

@HarrisPeskin @JacobWolf @esportslaw Love-tapped in the face

@fairchild @JacobWolf @esportslaw It’s the one where I say these owners have poured millions into these investments with no return. Then I say the players can just solve this problem themselves through bargaining, we can make the market more stable with caps on salary. That gets me punched in the face

@JacobWolf @esportslaw The one with @HarrisPeskin is actually that we play basketball and he ends up with a black eye

@fairchild @esportslaw A team and a player's lawyers walk into a bar...

@esportslaw DIG and GG's announcements are what just triggered this, so I'll stick to them. DIG, afaik, is owned by Harris Blitzer, and GG is owned by GSW. And even if they keep it separate (which I acknowledged), NACL is THE pipeline for NA talent. Cutting it off is going to hamstring LCS.

@fairchild Ok list which owners you’re referring to. Because I’m not sure it’s fair for basically anyone. Billion dollar companies treat business units separately because they have to. Different budgets, KPIs, & expectations. You can’t just lump it all together because small stuff adds up.

@esportslaw I'm also not talking about ones that are just VC backed but ones actually owned by billion dollar companies, in case that clarification helps.

@esportslaw Love you, too, so note I didn't say ALL teams, but the teams backed by billion dollar companies. And I know companies treat separate verticals separately, but the splash in the bucket that NACL is compared to overall spending, esp. relative to return, is really upsetting + myopic