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[Syriel]

ESL (Electronic Sports League) is cutting its association with pro group Team YP because its primary sponsor is the adult entertainment website YouPorn. The organization, which holds tournaments and ongoing pro seasons for a number of games, has enacted a new rule that prohibits any sponsors “widely known for pornographic … or other adult/mature themes and products,” according to an email that ESL officials sent to Team YP. This move comes as a direct order from ESL’s directors in what is a clear effort to purge YouPorn from ESL-backed events despite constant efforts by Team YP heads to separate its esports brand as a “safe for work” spinoff that does no direct promoting of XXX entertainment.

In an email correspondence GamesBeat got its hands on, Team YP made several appeals to ESL and even offered to rebrand in a way that did not refer to YouPorn or even “YP” in any way, but the ESL turned down that offer and solidified the expulsion of Team YP from its events.

For Team YP, this is going to limit its potential to compete, which — in the end — is going to hurt its members and those who enjoy watching them compete.

“I am disappointed that Team YP’s growth is being stunted by this decision, not to mention the effect that this will have on our roster of players,” Team YP manager Claire Fisher told GamesBeat. “While for some, our participation in esports has been controversial, stopping our players from competing because they are sponsored by us, in spite of Team YP operating as a completely SFW [safe for work] brand, clearly separated from any adult content, seems unfair to say the least.”

We feel like this rule has been implemented in direct connection to our sponsor’s efforts,” Team YP’s Rainbow Six: Siege and Evolve captain Eril “YP_Nightwane” Djoehana told GamesBeat. “It was only created after we started entering ESL cups and started getting noticed.”

This is frustrating for these pros because they see how Fisher and the other leaders have put a ton of work into building Team YP as its own brand apart from YouPorn, and they don’t understand what else they could do.

“What is even more upsetting for my team in particular is that we were worried about these kinds of problems,” said Nightwane. “We decided to be proactive, and we asked both [Evolve publisher] 2K and ESL how they felt about our sponsorship, and they were both very happy to accept Team YP as a participant. This leaves us confused on why this ruling has been made. We would love to continue competing with other teams within the ESL while being sponsored. We have always strived not to cause any troubles, and we want to follow the rules properly.”

Team uses no YouPorn branding, has ensured that Team YP SEO doesn't turn up YouPorn links when searching via Google and makes sure that, as a team, everything they do is completely work safe. Sponsors and the league have known about them and haven't had an issue until recently, when the team was making inroads and this rule suddenly appears.

Can't help but think that ESL is channeling SNL's Church Lady here.

Source:
http://venturebeat.com/2016/04/23/esports-league-bans-youporns-pro-gamer-squad/

 

[Enter the Dragon Punch]

this is a christian battlefield 4 server if you swear you will be banned

 

[Warxard]

Titty bans

 

[Holden]

yet G2A and Kinguin are ok....

 

[Enter the Dragon Punch]

yet G2A and Kinguin are ok....

I mean... Porn "tube" sites carry a TON of pirated/copyright material uploaded by users. G2A and Kinguin are less illegal than that

But we all know that isn't why they don't want them there

 

[Paganmoon]

Proper step I guess, if they want to make E-sports more mainstream. Not saying it's the next TV-sport, but if it's going to grow, and get a more diverse viewership, this is a good step towards that.

 

[kadotsu]

Hope they ban other vices like gambling, too. Otherwise they would be hypocritical fucks.

 

[7DollarHagane]

Not about morality, it's about sponsors and image.

Simple math, do they gain more by allowing a porn sponsored team or lose more from other sponsors who hear "porn sponsored team" and get weird about being involved?

Seems it isn't worth the risk.

 

[Baron_Calamity]

I mean... Porn "tube" sites carry a TON of pirated/copyright material uploaded by users. G2A and Kinguin are less illegal than that

But we all know that isn't why they don't want them there

Not really anymore. Only a hand full of companies now own all the tube sites and they have revenue sharing agreements if a user uploads something that came from another site. There are a few exceptions ofcourse.

 

[MrDaravon]

Not about morality, it's about sponsors and image.

Simple math, do they gain more by allowing a porn sponsored team or lose more from other sponsors who hear "porn sponsored team" and get weird about being involved?

Seems it isn't worth the risk.

This. I highly doubt it's a moral outrage thing and more about concern or potential concern regarding attracting and keeping sponsors, especially as esports goes more and more mainstream. Team YP's parent company is still youporn no matter how much they try to separate the two, it's all semantics. IIRC at Capcom Cup Finals last year they wouldn't allow the players to use the YP tag on stream at all and the shirts the YP players worse had the YP logo censored out etc (which they still wear, not sure if it's as a form of "protest" or what exactly).

 

[SkyTurnsRed]

this is a christian battlefield 4 server if you swear you will be banned

I laughed really hard at this.

 

[JeTmAn81]

Good. Porn is exploitative trash which has no place in mainstream society.

 

[Arcticfox]

There have been Playboy sponsored teams in auto racing for decades and I never heard of any complaints. Plus that is more blatant with the full name of the site/magazine on essentially a moving billboard. TeamYP never mentions porn.

 

[IsntChrisL]

Not about morality, it's about sponsors and image.

Simple math, do they gain more by allowing a porn sponsored team or lose more from other sponsors who hear "porn sponsored team" and get weird about being involved?

Seems it isn't worth the risk.

Bingo. This isn't about morality. It's about business. Sponsors don't want to be associated with porn. And guess what? The porn industry doesn't get to put its logos on banners in NFL/NBA/MLB games either. Youporn can pretend that they want this to purely be separate from their porn network but they still opted to connect the team's name with their site.

 

[OrlanisWorks]

Business is image. I don't see anything wrong here besides a general human hypocrisy that's been rolling for a long time and won't be going away soon.

E: "I dont watch porn, that's sick! Oh shit- my browser history- oh shit oh shit!"

 

[UnemployedVillain]

Bingo. This isn't about morality. It's about business. Sponsors don't want to be associated with porn. And guess what? The porn industry doesn't get to put its logos on banners in NFL/NBA/MLB games either. Youporn can pretend that they want this to purely be separate from their porn network but they still opted to connect the team's name with their site.

What sponsors don't want to be associated? Where is the ACTUAL fallout as opposed to the hypothetical fallout? Is there any?

 

[FZZ]

Not about morality, it's about sponsors and image.

Simple math, do they gain more by allowing a porn sponsored team or lose more from other sponsors who hear "porn sponsored team" and get weird about being involved?

Seems it isn't worth the risk.

Yup.

 

[Aselith]

ESL finally decided to visit YouPorn and left shook at the size of the dicks

Business is image. I don't see anything wrong here besides a general human hypocrisy that's been rolling for a long time and won't be going away soon.

E: "I dont watch porn, that's sick! Oh shit- my browser history- oh shit oh shit!"

But it seems like Team YP worked hard to avoid that association and the only way to know about it is you look at where the money came from.

 

[rocketskates]

I mean... Porn "tube" sites carry a TON of pirated/copyright material uploaded by users. G2A and Kinguin are less illegal than that

But we all know that isn't why they don't want them there

Oh how wrong you are

 

[shira]

yet G2A and Kinguin are ok....

G2A is basically funding 90% of esports.

They have friends in the highest places with fat pockets

 

[jediyoshi]

But it seems like Team YP worked hard to avoid that association and the only way to know about it is you look at where the money came from.

Trying to hide things on the internet always works out well.

 

[Aselith]

Trying to hide things on the internet always works out well.

They don't need to hide it, you want to avoid casual association not hide it.

 

[Syriel]

This. I highly doubt it's a moral outrage thing and more about concern or potential concern regarding attracting and keeping sponsors, especially as esports goes more and more mainstream. Team YP's parent company is still youporn no matter how much they try to separate the two, it's all semantics. IIRC at Capcom Cup Finals last year they wouldn't allow the players to use the YP tag on stream at all and the shirts the YP players worse had the YP logo censored out etc (which they still wear, not sure if it's as a form of "protest" or what exactly).

Bingo. This isn't about morality. It's about business. Sponsors don't want to be associated with porn. And guess what? The porn industry doesn't get to put its logos on banners in NFL/NBA/MLB games either. Youporn can pretend that they want this to purely be separate from their porn network but they still opted to connect the team's name with their site.

You guys are totally correct. Porn companies have never been accepted as sponsors by major sports events.

I mean, the Indycar series is just a little, backwater thing that locals do for fun, right? The Indianapolis 500 doesn't bring in any money at all, does it?

Same thing with Grand-Am racing. No one watches that.

And MotoGP is just some rich guys taking their bikes out for a spin, amirite? Honda probably had no idea what Playboy was when it secured Playboy as a sponsor.

Celebrities most definitely would never want to be associated with a porn brand.

http://www.playboynrg.com/#!celebrity-pictures/c22sl

If porn was that scary, Playboy (as an example) wouldn't have had decades long sponsorship opportunities across various sports. If it wasn't scandalous to have a Playboy logo on an IndyCar in 1988, Team YP shouldn't be scary in 2016.

Neither one is bringing naked models to the competition (though Playboy does occasionally bring the bunnies out to events), they just happen to be sponsored by companies that make a profit off the human form.

Trying to hide things on the internet always works out well.

They didn't try to hide the association. They just didn't flaunt it or throw it in your face. The only "hiding" of any sort was the SEO so that a search for Team YP wouldn't spit back a whole bunch of YouPorn links.

 

[notworksafe]

Real sports have "adult" product sponsorships all the time. eSports just proving they are still kiddy shit.

 

[potatohead]

Playboy has always been very different from hardcore pornography. They've consistently shied away from doing hardcore pornography despite it causing them to lose business drastically in the internet era.

There are aspects which are similar, but it is not nearly as exploitative.

Porn has always been heavily tied to the prostitution culture, in regards to how it finds its "models" as well. Playboy is not particularly like that.

 

[IsntChrisL]

What sponsors don't want to be associated? Where is the ACTUAL fallout as opposed to the hypothetical fallout? Is there any?

Going by the partners listed on their site: Redbull, Intel, Commerzbank Arena, zdf.kultur are some of them. I'm gonna wager a guess that none of them want to be known for directly associating with or sponsoring a porn company (no matter how twisted the story might be).

And as far as I know, there hasn't been any sponsorship fallout. It's likely the ESL wanted to eliminate Team YP before they became a problem for anyone.

 

[JDB]

Not about morality, it's about sponsors and image.

Simple math, do they gain more by allowing a porn sponsored team or lose more from other sponsors who hear "porn sponsored team" and get weird about being involved?

Seems it isn't worth the risk.

They were willing to create a team with a name not related to porn but ESL wouldn't allow it because the parent company is still YouPorn.

Don't make excuses for this joke of a company. If YouPorn were to sign Fnatic/NiP, I guarantee the following day ESL would rescind their ban. They would even let them use their YouPorn name instead of YP or a completely new rebrand

 

[DannyDanger]

Dumb

 

[IsntChrisL]

You guys are totally correct. Porn companies have never been accepted as sponsors by major sports events.

I mean, the Indycar series is just a little, backwater thing that locals do for fun, right? The Indianapolis 500 doesn't bring in any money at all, does it?

[Playboy logos on cars/bike]

Celebrities most definitely would never want to be associated with a porn brand.

http://www.playboynrg.com/#!celebrity-pictures/c22sl

If porn was that scary, Playboy (as an example) wouldn't have had decades long sponsorship opportunities across various sports. If it wasn't scandalous to have a Playboy logo on an IndyCar in 1988, Team YP shouldn't be scary in 2016.

I knew this post wouldn't take long. Playboy is pop culture and it has been for quite some time. There's a major difference between what most people associate with Playboy and what they associate with You Porn. It's all about perceptions. And even Playboy would likely scare off the ESL too.

 

[Syriel]

Playboy has always been very different from hardcore pornography. They've consistently shied away from doing hardcore pornography despite it causing them to lose business drastically in the internet era.

There are aspects which are similar, but it is not nearly as exploitative.

Porn has always been heavily tied to the prostitution culture, in regards to how it finds its "models" as well. Playboy is not particularly like that.

I knew this post wouldn't take long. Playboy is pop culture and it has been for quite some time. There's a major difference between what most people associate with Playboy and what they associate with You Porn. It's all about perceptions. And even Playboy would likely scare off the ESL too.

What about Hustler then?

Larry Flynt ran a popular video game magazine for longer than ESL has even existed...and no one batted an eye.

Advertisers certainly didn't shy away from it and parents didn't prevent their kids from reading it.

 

[KyleCross]

Good. Porn is exploitative trash which has no place in mainstream society.

There's nothing wrong with sex, and most porn actors want to be there and get paid well for it.

 

[notworksafe]

Easy way for YP to solve this is to sponsor the biggest names in their respective games and say "If you don't want us around, our players refuse to play on stream at all". ESL/Capcom/etc would change their minds real quick. YP Infiltration or YP Daigo would be a bigger deal to not see than YP Filipinoman

 

[tmarg]

If you want everyone to feel comfortable attending your event, you shouldn't have it sponsored by Jack-off material. What other companies have done in the past is irrelevant.

 

[Brashnir]

Good. ______ is exploitative trash which has no place in mainstream society.

you could use this exact sentence to describe a lot of games, too.

 

[Salty Rice]

Good. Porn is exploitative trash which has no place in mainstream society.

Next you wanna tell me eating and breathing air is trash also.


This is ridiculous. Shame on you ESL. Its time to grow up especially Murica!

 

[KojiKnight]

Good. Porn is exploitative trash which has no place in mainstream society.

We will now take comments from the senator from Utah.


I can understand ESL's reluctance... But top basically not even give them the time of day and being unwilling to work with them at all? Seems over the top.

 

[IsntChrisL]

What about Hustler then?

Larry Flynt ran a popular video game magazine for longer than ESL has even existed...and no one batted an eye.

Advertisers certainly didn't shy away from it and parents didn't prevent their kids from reading it.

I must have missed the "Hustler Presents: Video Games" magazine that was so popular.

Team YP isn't that in your face about it but the still very much want you to associate the team with their parent company. They use the same logo style, color scheme, and of course the initials.

 

[PAULINK]

Just change the name to something else, problem solved.

 

[IsntChrisL]

Just change the name to something else, problem solved.

I'd guess that keeping the branding was contingent on getting the team started at all. They'd probably just get out of esports if they couldn't use it a way to promote their real bread and butter. Unless this team was raking in enough cash for YP to consider it worth a rebrand.

 

[Aselith]

I must have missed the "Hustler Presents: Video Games" magazine that was so popular.

Team YP isn't that in your face about it but the still very much want you to associate the team with their parent company. They use the same logo style, color scheme, and of course the initials.

But that only MEANS anything if you already know about youporn. Do you see how that makes it less of a problem?

It's like posting this image:

That means something but you have to be involved already to see it

 

[Brashnir]

Just change the name to something else, problem solved.

Yiffing Pretties.

 

[graywolf323]

the Washington Post actually had an article recently about porn being a health crisis

https://www.washingtonpost.com/post...hat-doesnt-matter-its-a-public-health-crisis/

there's really no good reason for ESL to have something this controversial involved with the league

 

[Syriel]

I must have missed the "Hustler Presents: Video Games" magazine that was so popular.

Team YP isn't that in your face about it but the still very much want you to associate the team with their parent company. They use the same logo style, color scheme, and of course the initials.

The confusion is easy, as Larry Flynt published more than one video game magazine.

Two of the most well known are:

They were published out of the LFP offices, same as Hustler.

The magazines themselves had no porn, just as Team YP doesn't have any porn and is completely work safe, but the parent company of both those magazines and Team YP are porn companies.

If Nintendo and SEGA (and various third parties like Capcom) didn't have an issue back then, why would they have an issue now?

 

[MrDaravon]

I must have missed the "Hustler Presents: Video Games" magazine that was so popular.

Team YP isn't that in your face about it but the still very much want you to associate the team with their parent company. They use the same logo style, color scheme, and of course the initials.

This.

Just change the name to something else, problem solved.

Yup. "Oh we have nothing to do with YouPorn it's totally a different thing! By the way our name is Team YP."

Having all of the branding/logo etc being SO incredibly easily connected to YouPorn is what's killing them here. If they really truely wanted to separate themselves they'd have radically different naming etc. They obviously want to wink and have people make the connection which in other cases might work, but since esports is still in it's relative infancy and isn't a fraction as big as say racing (which was the most hilarious analogy I've seen attempted in weeks on GAF, thanks for that) people are going to be scared of doing anything that might hurt potential sponsors since growth is extremely important right now and they're not gonna want to take any chances.

 

[la_briola]

Good. Porn is exploitative trash which has no place in mainstream society.

I hope you think the same about all these gambling sites that sponsor MAJOR sports, or all the alcohol and tobacco corporations?

 

[Aselith]

I hope you think the same about all these gambling sites that sponsor MAJOR sports, or all the alcohol and tobacco corporations?

And fast food companies

 

[IsntChrisL]

But that only MEANS anything if you already know about youporn. Do you see how that makes it less of a problem?

It's a business playing it cautious, simple as that. They don't want to end up on the O'Reilly Factor with a headline suggesting that the adult industry is going after kids through esports. ESL could have come up with all kinds of crazy scenarios that may never materialize. They don't want sponsors to have these fears either. It's not absurd to think anyone in the media would ever discover that this very cleverly disguised team was being sponsored by porn.

 

[la_briola]

And fast food companies

and all the soft drinks!

 

[JDB]

Just change the name to something else, problem solved.

Team YP made several appeals to ESL and even offered to rebrand in a way that did not refer to YouPorn or even “YP” in any way, but the ESL turned down that offer

It's like the second thing in the OP

 

[Aselith]

It's a business playing it cautious, simple as that. They don't want to end up on the O'Reilly Factor with a headline suggesting that the adult industry is going after kids through esports. ESL could have come up with all kinds of crazy scenarios that may never materialize. They don't want sponsors to have these fears either. It's not absurd to think anyone in the media would ever discover that this very cleverly disguised team was being sponsored by porn.

No problem with the gambling sponsors though