Opinion - As the esports industry continues to boom, now is the time for administrators and athletes alike to do all they can to stamp out the bad actors.
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Despite the continual growth and success of esports in New Zealand and Australasia, it hasn't all been plain sailing.
In fact, some of the news that continues to come to light has the potential to do some great damage for an industry just finding its feet as a professional entity and riding the wave of momentum.
In April, serious allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced against one esports boss emerged and deliberate match-throwing was proven in a high-stakes tournament.
Both these cases had a direct link to New Zealand and came during the course of the Covid-19 lockdown, at a time when there are more eyeballs on the industry than ever before and enthusiasm was high.
First it was Team Esper to make headlines for all the wrong reasons.
Two players participating in a Lets Play Live (LPL) Rocket League tournament were caught intentionally throwing matches when competing for during the Rocket League Oceanic Championship match against their rivals Team Fury.
This resulted in the two players team receiving one-year bans from participating in any esports competitions for one year after an investigation by LPL and game developer Psyonix.
Then, co-founder of Oddity Esports Jared 'Topix' Fell was embroiled in a sexual misconduct controversy almost immediately after resigning from the popular Australasian esports organisation.
Fell was accused of grooming, offering Wellingtonian esports athlete Ellie 'EllieRoo' Hall access to his own network in exchange for sexually-explicit images.
Hall was one of six others to report the same behaviour by the former esports boss who has since apologized.
It's a problem for esports but also an opportunity as these two incidents must surely be seen as a big opportunity for esports administrators and athletes alike to come together and form a stronger messaging campaign of zero tolerance.
Now recognized as an official sport in New Zealand, getting esports to this level has been a major win for the industry as a whole, the worst way to respond to the headlines in April is to palm them off as isolated incidents performed by a handful of bad actors.
The example of Oddity esports showed a big increase in other esports athletes and hopefuls coming forward after initial news of the allegations broke, sharing their own stories of similar harassment by the former boss.
A quick scroll through the esports community on Twitter shows you that many in the community are quick to speak out about bullying and other forms of harassment.
Viewers of esports are also quick to notice when match manipulation may be also be quick to sound the alarm bells also.
Initial rumblings of the match being thrown surfaced when online viewers began to notice that Team Esper were performing far below their usual level and making oddly out of character decisions during the game which led to the defeat.
Furthermore, esports has already shown that it is an industry that uses social media well to advertise and showcase events, so why not integrate a strong promotion for a cleaner, safer industry in the process.
This should, perhaps, be the biggest and most focus as the esports train continues to barrell down the tracks.
