Kotaku’s Nathan Grayson — yes, the same Grayson who was responsible for destroying what little remained of video game journalism integrity by forcing #GamerGate to become a thing because he refused to apologize and admit to his unethical practices — is back in hot water. This time, an e-sports consultant named Rod Breslau fact-checked Grayson about his article regarding Kim “Geguri” Se-yeon not being signed to any major teams on the Overwatch Legaue.

The article was originally published on January 10th, 2018, and it attempted to shame the major e-sports teams for not signing Geguri, claiming that the most notable South Korean female player of Blizzard’s sociopolitically-entrenched shooter was left out of playing in the big leagues.

However, it turns out that this wasn’t the case at all. Breslau actually spoke to Geguri and she tells him a different story than the one that Kotaku tried to paint by stirring up controversy involving gender politics and the continued separation and division within the community pushed by identitarianism and agitprop.

Across multiple tweets on January 11th, 2018, Breslau exposed Kotaku’s agenda to further drive a wedge between the sexes, writing…

“I spoke to Geguri this morning regarding Kotaku’s [Nathan Grayson’s] faulty report on no women being chosen for #OverwatchLeague. Geguri told me not getting signed to a OWL team had nothing to do with her being a woman. Further, she is uncomfortable with the controversy itself. “Geguri declined to speak further. Last year after dealing with cheat accusations she tweeted “I don’t want people to use my story as a way to forward their own ideologies”. Using Geguri for the lack of women in OWL esports ignores her request & does a disservice to the issue. “If these recent articles and twitter takes were to highlight and further the discussion of women, lbgt, poc, and overall diversity in esports, they have missed the mark. These are important issues for our community that are being drowned out.”

Kotaku wasn’t the only one who jumped aboard the anti-meritocracy train.

There was also Madeline Ricchiuto from Bleeding Cool who published an article on January 11th, 2018 reiterating Kotaku’s talking points.

Kellen Beck from Mashable, also had an article published on January 11th, 2018 covering the exact same talking points.

Shades of the GameJournoPros was in effect, as Holly Green from Paste had an article published on January 11th, 2018, too, broadcasting the same falsehoods that were present from the Kotaku article.

Even larger outlets got in on the propaganda action, with Matt Porter from the Daily Mail toeing the line set by Grayson at Kotaku, with an article published on January 11th, 2018 further pushing the gender politics angle that creates division and sows distrust among the genders.

One thing all of these articles have in common is that none of them talked to Kim “Geguri” Se-yeon.

Grayson, however, defended this lack of fact-checking, writing across a series of tweets on January 11th, 2018, shortly after Breslau called out his unethical approach to use Geguri for his own ends without her consent. Grayson wrote…

“I was doing on the ground reporting at an event, and this was a major topic. as a result, I decided to prioritize publishing asap. What mattered, I felt, was what teams were saying, bc the excuses they gave for the lack of women players in OWL were thoughtless, hand-wringing, and ignorant of why issues like this persist. the best don’t always just magically make their way to the top, regardless of context. That’s not how anything in real life works, no matter how much we wish it was so “I agree that I should’ve reached out to geguri. and so I have “However, none of the teams I spoke to cited anything from geguri as a reason for not attempting to add her (or any women players) to their rosters, instead, they offered insights into their own processes, which I felt were telling of some wildly faulty (yet highly pervasive) lines of thought in esports and beyond. that, in my mind, made them worthy of reporting and critiquing, bc if you don’t do that, nothing ever changes “Thanks to everybody who’s discussed the article, said kind things about it, and even debated it. I cover topics like these bc I want to see things I like become better. discussions like these (slooooowly) turn tides, and so I will do my best to keep fostering them”

People have grown sick and tired of being a footstool underneath the integrity-bereft agents of acrimony posing as game journalists. This clown-show of politically tainted cacophony has not only turned the community inward against itself, but it’s also done nothing to push progressivism forward. Instead, we now have regressive ideologies harming the people it falsely claims to help, and all who would have supported actual progressivism have instead turned their backs to the cause with embittered disdain, or worse yet… apathy.

Gamers are now soured on this tireless shtick of identity politics that game journalists keep forcing upon them. It’s absolutely no surprise that Kim “Geguri” Se-yeon wants nothing to do with a conversation that only festers a tumorous rancor within a tired and sullen community.

(Thanks for the news tip Lyle)