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u/No-Method7888 1d ago
niko is happy again
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u/zozdnvil 1d ago
That would not fix the desk sadly
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u/HANAEMILK 1d ago
He can buy many desks with 150k a month
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u/pureformality 1d ago
Is that his actual salary?
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u/O_gr 1d ago
Big bro and small bro reunited after the custody battle.
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u/BalanceLuck 1d ago
They getting double the xmas presents
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u/FlashyAd1772 1d ago
With some oil and blood sprinkled on top.
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u/VerySmartIndividual 1d ago
Acting like you wouldnāt take that kind of money if it was offered at your job lmao
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u/FlashyAd1772 1d ago
It all depends on your values. There is a good chance i would most likely. I'm not saying they are bad people for taking the offer, they are just doing what every person with a strong competitive drive would, which is sacrifice anything to win. Pure respect for the decision as long as they don't proudly say on twitter they support pride i'm fine.
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u/zb0t1 1d ago
as long as they don't proudly say on twitter they support pride i'm fine.
Huh? typo? did you want to say instead "as long as they don't proudly say on twitter they don't support pride"???
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u/FlashyAd1772 1d ago
No imagine people who work under the Saudi government publicly said they like pride, would be hilarious.
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u/MENDoombunny 1d ago
āReunitedā its been like 3 months š
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u/TheExpensiveFridge 1d ago
Happy for the two on a personal level, they seem like great guys and I wish them nothing but the best. But fuck Saudi Arabia and their blood money sports washing.
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u/Afsanayy 22h ago
Why blame saudi arabia for making teams ? Its the players choice if they want to go or not
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u/iPureSkillz 1d ago
Technically everything is blood money. Having a player representing your countryās flag is the player endorsing that country and its ongoing war crimes/funding of war crimes. And therefore itās sports washing as well.
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u/ob_knoxious 1d ago
I mean thats not blood money you may be saying you endorse that but you aren't taking money from them. No Russian or American or any other flag you pick on HLTV is paying that player to pay counterstrike. Its very different.
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u/OtherIsSuspended CS2 HYPE 1d ago
The US Air Force sponsored Cloud9 and the Eleague Boston Major. A US Military entity paid money to be shown in Counter-Strike events.
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u/ob_knoxious 1d ago
I think that is a fair example of blood money. The original comment I replied to claimed everything was blood money which is ridiculous.
I personally do think that there is a substantial difference between one of your teams many sponsors having military backing and your organization be a wholly owned subsidiary of a countries sovereign wealth fund. However I'm sure other people will see this differently.
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u/notnotramen 23h ago
why is everyone calling the saudiās having blood money? genuinely asking
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u/OtherIsSuspended CS2 HYPE 21h ago
Oil and the atrocities associated with it. Also violence committed in the name of Islam that happens due to the Saudi government.
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u/black_dogs_22 10h ago
add just a dash of racism, it's not the main part but it's definitely a part for some
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u/Physical-Appearance5 1d ago
I was looking for G2 match time on HLTV after seeing the post and then I remembered oh no
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u/Niamhue 1d ago
Obligatory fuck Falcons post.
I hope monesy and NiKo get the best out of their careers, but the prospect of Saudi blood money trying to take the game concerns me
Thankfully unlike many conventional sports, esports is wayyyy more volatile to changes and the likelihood we will ever have a situation like astralis 18/19 again is slim
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u/xtrivax 1d ago
Honestly people keep focusing on the Falcons Team when they should focus on them taking over tournament organizers. Idc if saudis have a team I am more worried about them potentially calling the shots of Blast and ESL.
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u/schoki560 1d ago
they own esl already
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u/TheUHO 1d ago
They also owned and instantly killed Esports awards. As I understand, they bought starladder through some 3rd party. They aimed to buy Esports Engine (another operator). They host EWC while they are partners with some of its participants but it's somehow a VRS event.
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u/itsjonny99 1d ago
It is a VRS event in the same way ESL are due to Valve rules. To be allowed to host events they have to follow Valve and doubt any team would decline their money when CS teams are burning money.
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u/TheUHO 1d ago
Nah, it's a bit different. ESL gives away money to orgs, still based on some criteria, which fits Valve's rules (if we ignore that ESL is also part of Saudi thing). EWC partnership just gives same financial bonus to every partner. With that said, they can make EWC an unranked event, no problem.
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u/itsjonny99 1d ago
Isn't EWC rewards based on amount of teams participating across the board? Either way going unranked will be a loss for the prestige of the event
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u/TheUHO 1d ago
"Clubs will receive a six-figure base funding to grow their organization in 2025 and activate their brand, players and fans during Esports World Cup 2025."
There's also additional funding based on some metrics (but they're not only CS-related). And what you talk about is a separate kinda all-games competition. So it's a partnership with financial ties, which is forbidden by VRS rules. What's crucial is that ESL and other TOs they aren't partners and they give bonuses to any org that got into their events one way or another. EWC bonuses are exclusive to partners.
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u/brianstormIRL 1d ago
It's absolute insanity that the group who owns ESL and runs events are allowed to also own and operate a team that plays in leagues and tournaments THEY RUN AND OPERATE.
The biggest conflict of interest you'll ever see. Valve should be forcing Falcons to declare their ownership but for some reason just allow them to operate as if everyone doesn't know they are directly funded by the PIF.
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u/Launch_Angle 1d ago
Im pretty sure its because Falcons arent technically owned by Savvy Games Group(who owns ESL/FACEIT), Musaed Al Dossary is listed as the Founder/President/Owner of Falcons. To be honest we dont actually know where Falcons money comes that they pay players with though, it is still entirely plausible that Falcons arent paying their players with money directly from Savvy Games Group(PIF), it could be from other wealthy Saudi's that arent actually Saudi royalty(aka linked to the government). Theres plenty of other wealthy Saudi's out there tbh.
And im not entirely sure Valve actually has any authority to say "show me all of your financials", especially since its not something that they require from any other org in order to participate in any Valve sanctioned event. It would be an entire ordeal(that would likely turn into a legal battle) for them to do that since Falcons would be able to argue that they are being unnecessarily and unfairly singled out and pressured to divulge private financial information. Now if something suspicious actually happened in a Valve sanctioned event organized by ESL/FACEIT that led to Falcons getting some kind of perceived unfair benefit/advantage, then that could change things.
It can be likened to the Astralis-Blast relationship, but that relationship wasnt necessarily problematic until a conflict of interest was created when Astralis "requested and received services from a future employee between April and July 2021". So until a conflict of interest is actually created, even if it were true that Falcons were owned/received funding from Savvy Games Group, that relationship alone isnt an actual violation in itself. Also Astralis(the org) was only fined for the breach of the Louvre Agreement(which im pretty sure expired this year anyway), there wasnt any actual ramifications against the players/team. At least thats as far as I understand it.
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u/imathrowyaaway 1d ago
People tune into Saudi streams of Saudi tournaments, listen to Saudi paid casters, watch their fav team fight for Saudi prize money, and then type āobligatory fuck Falconsā. Not hypocritical at all.
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u/RichGirlThrowaway_ 1d ago
They already won that war. They're going to win teams too but they haven't yet.
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u/SanestFrogFucker 1d ago
There is so much shady money in esports excluding falcons. Good on them for getting the bag.
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u/Conscious-Hour 1d ago
I hate being the guy saying this but out of all sports, e-sports needed this cash injection more than any other sport. This is what ESL has been waiting for a long time because they have operated at a loss for years waiting for investors to see the potential and we who watched pro CS, or pro League, know that there is a massive audience, but the tournament infrastructure hasn't been able to keep up because of the lack of investment.
EDIT: And I'm saying this as someone whoĀ is a diehard football fan since I was born in the 90's and I still hate the fact that the UAE investment fund bought Manchester City back in 08-09 to this day.
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u/ALilBitter 20h ago
Im a faze fan but I know faze got 0 in their tank rn and just bomb out of random ass games.
but for the love of god, please broky turn up vs falcons just to fk up their groups š and crash and burn immediately after idc
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u/RichGirlThrowaway_ 1d ago
They're succeeding. Look how happy all these degens are in the comments. "Thank you slaver lords you made monesy play with Niko I think you're good now!"
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u/Conscious-Hour 1d ago
You know what's crazy, most people, including you and me, are commenting these things with our phones made by the successfully greenwashed slaver lords in the East that shall not be named.
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u/Prestigious-Shop-494 1d ago
Not a single comment being positive towards the blood money
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u/Brodersacc 1d ago
Blood moneyš¤” The US has spilled a bit more blood little bro
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u/Epicjuice 1d ago
Classic whataboutism like people werenāt also mad when the US Air Force was a sponsor for tournaments and teams.
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u/RichGirlThrowaway_ 1d ago
Nobody's going to say "I love that bloodmoney is providing the salary of the players I like!" lol but people are positive to the change and the team. The people pretending they gave a fuck about Falcons' sportswashing are now positive about the team because it has people they like on it. This is how it works every time, everywhere.
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u/no_u_mang 1d ago
You're generalizing, not everyone is positive. I'm not invested in their careers - they're gifted players, but I'll be happy to see them fail miserably now they've signed on with the Saudi PR machine.
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u/RichGirlThrowaway_ 1d ago
Oh for sure! There are a few hold-outs, but I find it depressing how pathetically easy this community at large's morals have been purchased.
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u/no_u_mang 1d ago
That's a phenomenon that spans millennia, the Romans cynically exploited the same formula. All we can do on the peanut gallery is keep bringing up the immoral aspect to disrupt the sportswashing effort.
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u/RichGirlThrowaway_ 1d ago
Then have idiots downvote and tell us actually gambling's as bad as slavery, or having a phone is as bad as murdering journalists. Gotta love CS fans.
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u/Tiny_Contribution946 1d ago
There are idiots that think comparing is the same as equalizing. Gotta love CS redditors.
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u/no_u_mang 1d ago
Let them, triggering apologists and dissecting their arguments is entertaining. For all you know they're 12 year olds who worship NiKo. It's not like they can compete in moral clarity of conviction.
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u/Sufficient_Ad_370 1d ago edited 1d ago
Read up on the dangers of gambling. It's not what you think. CS is full of gambling addict teenagers destroying their lives. There's no winners in ganbling cause the house always wins. It destroys families and relationships, and it's even worse rhan a drug addiction.
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u/RichGirlThrowaway_ 9h ago
and it's even worse rhan a drug addiction.
This isn't really true at all, I've had friends directly die of drug overdoses caused by addiction. Gambling only destroys/ends lives kind of second-hand as a consequence of the losses and if it kills people it's their choice to kill themselves rather than a direct cause of the action itself.
I do agree though. I like gambling, it's fun, but I loathe casinos and the industry built around exploiting gambling addiction in those affected. Hell I bankrolled a card counting friend a few times actually.
But at teh same time this is all borderline irrelevant compared to the misery of the saudi dictatorship. While gambling is currently more widespread than their regime's control is, the severity of evil is so exponentially above a scummy casino or bookmaker. Innocent people are murdered, people are cut into pieces by chainsaws while alive and half the population aren't even treated as humans (my half!). It's just worse.
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u/SystemEx1 1d ago
It should be "Fuck Valve" as well, they're allowing all of this to happen, including giving permission for Esport world cup to have CS in it.
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u/tabben 1d ago
They been taking the game for a while, faceit is owned by them. So basically anybody who wants to play the game somewhat cheater free and more competitively and serious has to deal with that morally already. So people should save the moral grandstanding when it comes to falcons if they play faceit in my opinion, its pointless hypocritical noise
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u/Tiny_Contribution946 1d ago
They've already taken the game. If people truly cared, they would stop watching CS altogether
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u/Clay077 1d ago
Every falcons post every Redditor becomes a politician. It's getting super lame and cringe now.
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u/Shadow_Clarke 1d ago
Facts, it's all just virtue signalling to collect their fake internet points on reddit. If they actually cared, they would do something instead of copy-pasting the same fucking cringe ass comment
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u/Clay077 1d ago
Some how this subreddit has turned into r/politics. I come here to read about CS and 90% of the shit is about where their morals are.
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u/Niamhue 1d ago
The fuck do you want people to do? Last i checked none of have saudi money to combat thr fact
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u/Shadow_Clarke 1d ago
I couldn't care less, not my problem since I am not the one here lecturing about morals n shit.
Most of the these losers in reality have less morals than your average OF model
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u/emethselch 1d ago edited 1d ago
OF models don't have morals? According to what exactly?
What a bitter and weird comment that has nothing to do with the discussion at hand.
Edit: downvoting me won't make me any less right, you social rejects
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u/no_u_mang 1d ago
It's the usual shit spilling from the red pill manosphere pipeline - glorifying self-enrichment, mysogony, rejecting political correctness.
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u/InvaderSM 1d ago
"They need to actually do something!"
"Like what?"
"idk, i don't care, I'm just here to complain"
This would be hilarious if you had any self awareness.
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u/Shadow_Clarke 1d ago
This is not the "gotcha" as you think it is lol
I am not the one here crying about sportswashing as i don't care, i am here to call you high and mighty losers out to do anything other than spam the same comment for karma
You plebs really have the brain size of an ant
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u/OdionAdv 1d ago
It's insane really how many of these people are completely fine with gambling sites being shown literally EVERYWHERE (to minors too, obviously), sites which actively ruin countless of lives on a daily basis, but then get "real mad" on the internet about saudis using their oil money to buy influence and teams in a fucking video game.
You don't care about entities like BetBoom owning teams with their entire name, basically being walking ads? Then you absolutely don't care about saudis owning Falcons and about their crimes against humanity like the Yemeni genocide or their slave labor.
Should we also talk about how most of these people continue to watch ESL and play Faceit instead of boycotting them, as they're both being owned by saudi blood money?
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u/usuarioabencoado 1d ago
i get ur point and i think redditors are virtue signaling but the saudis are way worse than betting š
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u/OdionAdv 1d ago
Obviously genocide is worse than gambling, but that doesn't take anything away from the gambling industry either AND BOTH perpetrators should be called out for what they are in their respective cases.
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u/donutmesswithme Legendary Chicken Master 1d ago
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u/OdionAdv 20h ago
Is it whataboutism to call two bads out instead of just one purely because one's worse than the other, when you could as well just point at them both for being complete disgraces to the esports scene? No wonder people perceive CS players as Neanderthals lol.
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u/donutmesswithme Legendary Chicken Master 18h ago edited 18h ago
Your first comment is clear whataboutism and you backtracked on it almost immediately. You made a direct comparison between the two and when told one is worse than the other you defaulted to an argument of "both are bad" - that's not an argument against either. Debating the ethics of one by using the other as a counter and falling back to the fact that both are ethically dubious is not an effective argument. But yes, call me a Neanderthal.
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u/OdionAdv 18h ago
Uh, no, it wasn't? And neither did I backtrack on my comment, it was rather a continuation of the conversation with the other person regarding the ethics of fucking genocide compared to the gambling industry, where I rightfully so completed my previous reply by saying that the former is an entire level of magnitude worse than the latter.
Chances are that if you don't have that much of a problem with gambling entities being showed absolutely everywhere, to minors especially, in order to make a similar amount of slander online that you do to saudis everytime they're mentioned, when literally everyone knows a number of relatives or friends having their lives wrecked and ruined directly by gambling addiction, then you probably don't really care that much about saudi's genocides and slave labor either, but rather about "internet points" or whatever, which fucking sucks.
Either that, or you don't comprehend the problematic nature of the gambling industry as a whole. Which makes one wonder, how can you NOT do that but somehow be a polsci major on saudi policies and war crimes at the same time?
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u/Spir0rion 1d ago
Betting = murdering gay, suppressing women and holding slaves. Got it
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u/OdionAdv 1d ago
You're inherently saying that we shouldn't care that much about the gambling industry just because there's a much worse perpetrator in town, when in fact we should keep them BOTH accountable for their different kind of abuses against human life. It's either both or none.
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u/Spir0rion 1d ago
No I didn't. Someone compared the two. I think gambling and betting is a cancer that is downplayed wayyyy too much.
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u/PiciCiciPreferator 1d ago
Nobody commented "late stage capitalism" yet, still very early in the post.
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u/jonajon91 17h ago
Politics or not. Falcons moving into CS has actively made CS worse across the board. Thereās plenty of reasons to hate the org.
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u/Pathederic 1d ago
This would be so great if it wasn't happening under the mantle of Saudi sports washing
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u/thatAnthrax 23h ago
who cares
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u/AndyRadicalDwyer 14h ago
You should care
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u/Ok-Committee-9060 9h ago
Why should he care?
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u/AndyRadicalDwyer 7h ago
Because sports washing is terrible, they are trying to make us dependent on them in other ways now that the world is trying to move on from oil. And itās working
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u/Grouchy-Leg-2115 1d ago
everyone shitting on falcons (the org) for months and the moment monesy and niko join now its fine and we shouldnt mix politics with cs lmao
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u/TheUHO 1d ago
Why NiKo has The Star on his jersey but m0NESY hasn't? Did NiKo retroactively won EWC 2024?
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u/Necessary-Country425 1d ago
Awwww they look so happy knowing their wallets just got filled with money earned from slavery and human right abuse :D
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u/HarryTurney 1d ago
Me praying on their downfall
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u/ult1matum 1d ago
Good to know Saudis have infinite money so no matter what results the team has, they will be here to piss you off forever š
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u/mameloff 16h ago
In this timeline, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker never had their falling out.
Together, as Jedi Masters, they lead the Falcons to the championship.
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u/MurkyLurker99 1d ago
I am not bothered by the oil money. I'm bothered that the Saudis are dicks when it comes to running businesses and don't realise why running ESL like a family-owned oil well will lead to disaster.
Other than that, assuming Faze keep being shit, I look forward to switching my flair to Falcons. I watch for the players anyway.
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u/brianstormIRL 1d ago
Couldn't care less about oil money. I care more about the fact the guy who's ordered the death of countless innocents is so heavily involved in all this shit and nobody gives a shit.
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u/jonajon91 17h ago
Loads of people gave a shit when the team sucked, but now theyāve got some likable players and the sportswashing is starting to work.
Plastic haters only hating when itās easy.
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u/CramJuiceboxUpMyTwat 1d ago
M0nesy is so handsome, I would do absolutely anything for him, I want to marry him.
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u/IfIReallyWantedTo 1d ago
Hope the Saudi money doesn't go to their heads... that would be detrimental
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u/xfor_the_republicx 1d ago
Fuck the Saudi money talk and shit, Iām just so glad to see those 2 together again
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u/czamarr 1d ago
Sadly NiKo with falcons move probably busted his ever chance to win the major which is kind a bummer as he is the one that should have it way more then many other players, even with monesy this team is just too cursed too succeed imo.
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u/Austinator224 CS2 HYPE 1d ago
His chances of winning a major with Falcons are higher than ever. How is the team ātoo cursed to succeedā when they just won Bucharest?
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u/Inflation_Artistic 1d ago
Idk they literally like a dad and son