Popular British YouTuber Deji Olatunji (aka ComedyShortsGamer) angered members of the esports community after his antics at the Esports Awards 2018 yesterday evening.
Deji, who has almost 10m subscribers on YouTube and is the younger brother of KSI, announced the winner of the Publisher of the Year award.
He initially announced Epic Games as the winner, before back-tracking and saying the real winner was Blizzard Entertainment. Deji said he was ‘joking’ as the person from Epic Games was walking up to the stage.
jesus christ the esports awards actually hired this fool LMAOOO pic.twitter.com/FJND9J3YQM
— coastward @ isaac’s grave (@coastward) November 12, 2018
Deji’s behaviour was criticised by some in the esports industry, including Paul Chaloner, who tweeted the following:
That’s a yikes from me. https://t.co/24w15JQ8ww
— Redeye (@PaulChaloner) November 13, 2018
Several people from the community lambasted Deji below Paul’s tweet.
Deji commented earlier today:
Man, I really pissed off the eSports community ???
— Deji (@Deji) November 13, 2018
Deji also took the time to have a pop at Twitch while he was on stage, sarcastically thanking them for allowing some Twitch users to illegally broadcast him and his brother’s boxing matches against Jake and Logan Paul earlier this year.
“Shoutout to Twitch for illegally streaming our fight,” he said. “You owe us money.”
At that point, someone in the audience proceeded to yell “f*ck off” at Deji.
Deji has made a name for himself over the years producing lighthearted videos, prank videos and gaming videos on YouTube.
Some expressed their disappointment around other areas of the awards, while others shared some more constructive criticism:
You couldn’t hear the sound at the back of the room, it was almost impossible, and then I think people just gave up and started chatting. You could only hear the guy in the ad breaks.
— Frankie Ward (@getfrank) November 13, 2018
Spot on about this. It really feels halfway between an industry awards show and a community choice awards show. I think going either way is fine but the weird blend does a disservice to both. This years was a networking event with a secondary community stage.
— Niall Hayward | Nolly (@niallhayward) November 13, 2018
There were a few frustrations about the evening such as audio/noise etc but that joke was beyond shocking imo
— Nay ? (@Naysayerz) November 13, 2018
Unfortunate most people aren’t paying attention to recognize the #esportsawards winners and their speeches, the hosts on the stage, or the presenters. Thank you to those that did.
Jacob and I cut our speeches short because of the crowd. There’s an after party for a reason 🙁— Darin @ ESPN Esports (@darink) November 12, 2018
Esports Awards also showed the wrong person in one of the nominee reels:
— Mitch Leslie (@UberShouts) November 12, 2018
There was also discussion in the Esports News UK Discord earlier today around the focus of the awards, and whether or not it placed too much emphasis on streamers over actual esports.
Some in the Twitch chat and others in the community also disputed the use of a fan vote, as those with the most fans are more likely to win.
Despite all this, the evening presented a good networking opportunity and it does help to put esports on the map and shout about the top talent in the scene.
Further reading: Esports Awards 2018: All the winners listed
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
