UK and Ireland casting talent join Gamers8 Rainbow Six Siege broadcast, Fluke defends Milosh’s decision to work at Saudi event

UK Rainbow Six Siege broadcast talent have joined the desk line-up for the Gamers8 tournament taking place in Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh Boulevard.

This includes host Barney Banks, caster XRTROIKA and analysts Fresh and Saethus. And from Ireland there’s casters Whippet and Gibson.

You can see the full broadcast line-up announcement below:

The Gamers8 2022 Siege tournament runs from August 4th to 7th 2022. It features a $2m prize pool and eight teams taking part, including Ireland’s Wylde Esports, who recently won the Siege Gamers Without Borders tournament to qualify for this tournament.

The Gamers8 participating esports teams are as follows:

• BDS
• TSM
• Team Liquid
• Damwon Gaming
• Wylde
• Spacestation Gaming
• MIBR
• Falcons Esport

There have been other Gamers8 esports events, with a Guild and Tundra duo winning the recent Gamers8 Fortnite Zero Build tournament.

Fluke defends Milosh’s decision to work at Gamers8

After the broadcast talent announcement, some parts of the Siege community called out Lebanese caster Milosh for working at the event following past comments he made about supporting colleagues fighting discrimination.

UK caster Fluke, who was awarded the ‘Best LGBTQ Contribution to Esports’ award at the Gayming Awards 2022, commented on the situation.

UK caster Fluke said: “I disagree heavily with the comments in this post about Milosh, who I obviously have worked with for a while now. He is an Arab man exceptionally proud of his heritage from Lebanon, who has only ever wanted to improve the support for the LGBTQ+ [community], women and others that are looked down on in this world, including and especially his home region.

“There is no one BETTER to be at this show than a clever, good hearted man from that region who believes in these because they are the people that are going to bring change to the region. I personally am against the heavily romanticised idea that, as a White westerner, ‘I can go over there, change peoples minds’ like some white messiah complex. But I truly believe he can, the same way I fight for change against the shit I put up with for my identity in the UK, he is making sure someone is doing that in MENA.

“I know his morals, I know where he stands and I know he won’t move on them, and if it wasn’t him in that position, it would be someone who would take the pay and not be listened to, or worse, someone who would push worse ones.”

The news comes as the community conversation around Saudi’s increasing involvement in esports continues.

Last month, Moist Esports declined to play at Saudi’s GWB Rocket League event, with UK coach Noah vowing “not to associate with a country that doesn’t recognise LGBTQ+ people as human beings”.

In other recent UK Rainbow Six Siege news, MNM Gaming qualified for the Rainbow Six Berlin Major as Wolves won the European League, and the UK Ireland Nationals (UKIN) is returning, offering a pathway to the Northern Premier League from Insomnia, Epic.LAN, NSE, NUEL, Gamerfest and open qualifiers.

Dom Sacco

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.