British esports journalist Richard Lewis criticised part of the games press at the Esports Awards 2019 this weekend.
Richard was named Esports Journalist of the Year for the second time, having first won the award at the 2016 event.
He used his winner’s speech to call out the likes of Polygon, Kotaku and Waypoint: games media websites that have started covering esports in recent years.
In particular, he criticised their at times inaccurate and damaging coverage of esports, as well as their motives.
“There’s these external media companies, they’re looking at esports and they want to write the history and tell the stories,” Richard said. “You know who I’m talking about: Polygon, Waypoint, the Kotakus… people like that.
“Their approach to writing about esports is two-fold: they’ve consistently embarrassed themselves writing pieces that expose their complete ignorance about our scene, lack of sources and unoriginal opinions on topics we have talked to death about for 20 years.”
Richard Lewis
“The second thing has been to write hit-pieces and smears, mostly propagated on half-truths or out-and-out lies.
“They write about it because they think if they can get one or two or 12 of you out of the way, they can get their friends and cronies in and gatekeep our industry.”
Richard went on to name-drop some specific articles written by publications like those he mentioned earlier, including Kotaku’s article on a CSGO Major apparently being a Trump rally, “because the journalist mis-read a sign”, as well as when they rallied around to stop abuse of a female Overwatch player, “who didn’t exist – which they would have found if they’d done a cursory fact check”.
“And of course there’s the annual hit piece they write trying to cancel any one of you.”
Two years ago, PCGamesN wrote a hit piece on Richard Lewis and fellow British esports journalist Duncan ‘Thorin’ Shields, painting the pair as racist, misogynist, homophobic and transphobic. PCGamesN later apologised for the ‘ambiguity’ within the article.
There was one exemption at Kotaku. Richard praised senior reporter Cecilia D’anastasio and said she should’ve been in the shortlist for the journalist award. He also welcomed more journalists to cover the industry to report the stories and make things better.
Following his speech, Richard received a standing ovation from many in the audience.
Other previous winners of the Esports Journalist of the Year award include Duncan Shields (2017) and Jacob Wolf (2018).
Other British winners at this year’s event included LittleJem (Cosplay of the Year) and Henry ‘HenryG’ Greer (Caster of the Year). Dexerto – the online publication with its main offices in London – also won Coverage Website of the Year.
More than 3.6m votes were cast by the public for this year’s awards, which took place at Esports Stadium Arlington in the US. Eefje ‘Sjokz’ Depoortere and Alex ‘Golden Boy’ Mendez played hosts for the evening.
The Esports Awards 2019 winners in full
COMMUNITY AWARDS
- Content Creator of the Year in association with the Esports Stadium Arlington – Craig ‘Mini Lad’ Thompson
- Esports Cosplay of the Year – LittleJem
- Esports Personality of the Year in association with Arlington Convention and Visitors Bureau – Matthew ‘Nadeshot’ Haag
- Esports Photographer of the Year – Stephanie Lindgren
- Esports Videographer of the Year in association with eBeatz – Logan Dodson (100 Thieves)
- Streamer of the Year in association with Arlington Convention and Visitors Bureau – Dr Disrespect
- Esports Breakthrough Game of the Year – Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
INDUSTRY AWARDS
- Esports Commercial Partner of the Year in association with Blinkfire Analytics – HyperX
- Esports Coverage Website of the Year in association with Sizzle Creative – Dexerto
- Esports Game of the Year – League of Legends
- Esports Hardware Provider of the Year – Intel
- Esports Journalist of the Year – Richard Lewis
- Esports Publisher of the Year in association with Populous – Riot Games
- Esports Supporting Agency of the Year – Loaded
PRO AWARDS
- Esports Caster of the Year – Henry ‘HenryG’ Greer
- Esports Coach of the Year in association with Maika’i Copenhagen – Danny Zonic Sorensen
- Esports Console Player of the Year in association with Scuf Gaming – Dominique ‘Sonicfox’ Mclean
- Esports Console Rookie of the Year in association with Scuf Gaming – Chris ‘Simp’ Lehr
- Esports Host of the Year – Alex ‘Goldenboy’ Mendez
- Esports Organisation of the Year – Team Liquid
- Esports PC Player of the Year – Kyle ‘Bugha’ Giersdorf
- Esports PC Rookie of the Year – Kyle ‘Bugha’ Giersdorf
- Esports Team of the Year in association with Secretlab Chairs – G2 League of Legends
- Esports Live Event of the Year in association with The KOYO Store – League of Legends World Championship 2019
- Panel’s Choice Award in association with Touch of Ginger – Ryan Thompson
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.
