Team Secret blasts OG and Alliance for NFTs, Gorgc chimes in

NFTs are a controversial subject but that isn’t stopping a number of esports teams from trying to cash in on them.

Various esports organizations including Dota 2’s OG and Alliance have attempted to get fans to buy into the company through NFTs. That isn’t sitting well with Team Secret, which threw a few barbs at their rivals about it on social media.

An NFT, short for non-fungible token, is effectively a one-of-a-kind digital trading card that exists in a blockchain in the same way that cryptocurrency does. They can be traded and purchased in a number of different ways and have exploded in popularity in 2021. A long list of artists, media companies, and content creators have mobilized looking to capitalize on this newfound popularity.

NFTs have still drawn a great deal of criticism. As with cryptocurrency as a whole, the lack of governmental oversight and regulation has made NFTs a hotbed for ethically questionable activity. NFTs and cryptocurrency also have an enormous environmental footprint and the popularity of NFTs could evaporate in an instant, leaving people with nothing to show for the money they’ve spent.

Team Secret’s diss still left a sour taste in the mouths of some fans, however. Many labeled the move as hypocritical since Secret signed a large partnership with cryptocurrency exchange Uniswap. Though NFTs and crypto exchanges are very different entities, the overlap between the two industries is sizable.

Gorgc joins Team Secret in calling out esports NFTs

Team Secret wasn’t alone in this criticism. Dota 2 streamer and Team Bald player Janne "Gorgc" Stefanovski delivered a rambling argument against NFTs in the Dota 2 esports scene.

“All these people that said ‘I care about the tournament organizers,' where the fuck are they? They don’t give a fuck about this game, they don’t give a fuck if people are scammed,” Gorgc said.

Gorgc then spiraled this into a criticism of Kyle “Kyle” Freedman, who previously criticized him and other streamers for their detrimental impact on Dota 2 tournament organizers. Gorgc also then went on to bash Alliance while making no mention of former sponsor OG, who was one of esports’ earliest adopters of NFTs.

Though Gorgc’s attempt to connect Kyle’s lack of discussion regarding NFTs with his advocacy for tournament organizers when it comes to broadcasting rights is perplexing, there’s definitely a lot of possible speed bumps ahead in esports when it comes to NFTs.