SCS 7 is starting up with a lot of buzz. One of the biggest T2 tournaments in the NA scene is back and making big plays already. One of those big plays was inviting Oxygen to the tournament. Bringing a big Tier 1 team into an amateur competition for the future stars to play against. However, this announcement brought a fair bit of backlash against the TO and the OXG players. Let’s get into why this backlash happened and if the arguments even have legs to stand on.
The main arguments against having a team like OXG compete in an amateur tournament like SCS go like this: 1) This is an amateur tournament for up and coming players, not professionals 2) Teams have to pay to compete and it’s likely that OXG will win, effectively taking prize money away from amateur players, and 3) OXG will troll, making this a waste of everyone’s time.
So are these concerns valid? The first point has some worth, OXG is a cut above almost every team that will compete in SCS unless other T1/T2 teams are invited. (As of writing Luminosity was just announced) Were they to play seriously the public perception is that only a select few teams would be able to shoot back. However, this is also an opportunity for these T2/3 players. Siege is a very segregated ecosystem. There isn’t a lot of cross pollination like this where T2 gets to compete against T1 teams. Usually that kind of event is relegated to ‘bad’ luck in the qualifiers of S.I. Underagers and T2 players now get a chance to play OXG seriously in a tournament that isn’t a brutal, single elimination bracket to go to the biggest tournament in the world. Letting players play against such a high quality opponent will give them important experience and possibly highlight players that were unassuming at first.
If there’s any SCS hopefuls reading this I’ll be frank: You probably won’t be winning against OXG. But that isn’t the point. The point is to play seriously and get that experience against a team way out of your league, see what kind of damage you do, and use that information for improvement. Only a handful of teams are actually going to be threatening to OXG and even then I don’t expect many to win.
As far as the second point is concerned this is a less valid criticism. I may sound a little heretical here but OXG is competing in a tournament. If they win they should win the prize (money). But the fact that many assume Oxygen are going to win off the bat should be concerning the very people complaining are the ones who’ll be competing. Regardless, it’s true that OXG is ‘taking’ money from amateurs, but there is no other reason for them to compete. Honestly speaking, what does a team like OXG get out of playing in SCS if not the prize money? What does any team or player? Accolades? Recognition? OXG players and staff have that. This is a team that’s making time to compete in this tournament, calling them assholes for wanting the prize money if they win is a bit much. Redeemer already announced that he’s donating the money to charity or giving it away, I can’t imagine players under the Kraft Group’s esports division are hurting for money so others on the team are likely following suit. Money is a concern, but most players and teams will be at a net negative from playing in SCS, regardless of whether it’s OXG that wins or not.
The third point is the most valid concern here. As I’ve already mentioned, OXG is a heavy favorite and probably won’t have to try too hard to beat most teams. There’s a good chance they troll and there’s a precedent of T1 teams doing as much when competing in these lower leagues. As Cookiez notes, when T1 teams troll against opponents it devalues the whole tournament.
For SCS it would be a death knell if their league was seen as not worth playing in seriously. For the OXG boys it makes sense to not show strats at a tournament like this, but if they troll everyone loses. Any teams that they beat look terrible. Any teams they lose to are discounted because “OXG weren’t trying”. The casters and analysts have to pretend the match is interesting when the T1 team is uninvested, one of the most difficult tasks in the field. The amateur players feel like it was a waste of time to play against the T1 team. And the T1 team feels like it was a waste of time because the prize money was smaller than T1 prizepools. It also gives credence to the other 2 concerns people had regarding OXG’s invite. If they troll and still win, they aren’t giving SCS or the teams value, they are just taking the money and fucking off. The T2/3 players wouldn’t learn anything from a trolling OXG except Neurs has good aim. This is by far the biggest concern about bringing in T1 talent for a tournament like SCS. But if OXG plays it straight, all of these concerns are moot and the value they bring is immense.