There is always concern about Super Evil Megacorp not advertising Vainglory enough. The thing about advertising is that if you already use a service or have a product, then the person that’s advertised to is not going to be you. They already got you! That’s one reason many Vainglory players see Mobile Legends ads on YouTube when watching a Vainglory video. Wouldn’t make much sense for them to show a Vainglory ad before someone views a Vainglory video, right? Besides youtube ads, there are also a lot of other ways to advertise, such as product placement.

Disney seems to be embracing the game. I’m not sure what kind of deal SEMC and Disney have, but there has to be something there. We know that Vainglory’s featured in the ESL Brawlers series on August 31st that aired on Disney XD. But what I haven’t heard mentioned much or talked about is how the ABC Family show, The Fosters featured Vainglory as well.

Ok, now I don’t watch The Fosters but my wife does so she filled me in on a few of the details to help put this post together.

There was a short clip from season 5 episode 3 that got shared on social media a while back with the character Jude playing Vainglory on his phone. It was a random clip at first, but this was a set-up for a little storyline within the show.

In this episode Noah calls out Jude for always being on his phone and not paying attention to him. So, Jude and Noah make a no pot no game rules.

That didn’t last long as we see Jude towards the end of the episode playing Vainglory in bed. It turns out he almost got himself to Vainglorius but broke the deal him and Noah had made. Kind of an interesting look at how additive Vainglory and other video games are to give up. I’m sure more addictive than weed since marijuana’s addictive properties are pretty minor. An interesting commentary on some of the issues that society could be worried about instead of spending energy being concerned about pot.

So, it’s a couple of episodes later that we dive back into the Vainglory storyline. There are a lot of characters on this show, and although Jude is in the house, he isn’t on screen as much.

The episode you see the show take on gaming culture is season 5, episode 6 called ‘“Welcome to the Jungle.” In this episode, Jude and Taylor are playing Vainglory with Noah and well, he kind of sucks. To help him out Jude and Taylor show him a YouTuber with three million subscribers who is teaching his fans how to jungle in Vainglory. The YouTuber “OzoSick” says some homophobic stuff while he is playing and Noah asks Jude and Taylor why they watch the guy if he’s saying this stuff. It’s a pretty good backhanded comment to the gaming culture on the whole. I’ve always wondered why so many players and developers support players that continue to say homophobic comments in their videos and streams. I understand that as you’re growing up you say things you shouldn’t and I know I was guilty of that when I was younger. A lack of knowledge can make you do and say dumb things.

To do something to combat this “OzoSick” guy Jude and Taylor decide to share their tutorial under the name “Girl and Gay Guy.”

After they post a jungle video to YouTube, they get a ton of friend requests calling them snowflakes and telling them they suck and should delete the game. Something I think a lot of us have seen happen before… the toxic part of MOBAs. What’s interesting about this clip is that it is the real game. ABC didn’t recreate a UI but instead made sure it showed the game so for anyone who knew what the game looked like it was easily recognizable. It’s difficult to say if seeing this kind of comment was a positive take on the game for anyone watching, but I think the audience who watches The Fosters could either have had this happen to them or have seen/heard their kids dealing with it.

Noah takes the video down and says Rule number one ‘Don’t Feed The Trolls.”

This backlash from the “OzoSick” fans didn’t hurt Jude and Taylor’s passion for the game and showed positivity in the community. They instead decide to continue live streaming Vainglory on what looks like a fake Twitch website.

That was the end of that episode, but the storyline had a couple more mentions as the season wrapped up. It turns out their stream got a bit more popular and a few more people noticed it including a group called G-A-Y-mers that wanted Jude to be apart of their organization.

Unfortunately for Jude, to be a part of this, he would have to turn his back on what he and Taylor had started.

I’m looking forward to seeing a Vainglory YouTuber with 3 million subscribers, and hopefully, they are a more positive part of the community.

Overall, it’s cool to see Vainglory featured like this in a show, even if it’s a show I don’t watch. I can’t comment on this show being great or lousy, but if you do watch to see Vainglory featured, you should go check out the “Welcome to the Jungle” episode. As a Vainglory player, there are some funny comments about how he might play weapon Skaarf, and you get to see the old question mark ping in-game.