I am not convinced that hunting for AI is going to solve esports’ biggest issues

I am going to say something that might get me kicked out of a few Discord servers, but somebody has to say it. The esports community has officially entered its witch hunt era when it comes to artificial intelligence.

Every single time a game developer or an esports organization posts an image, half the comment section immediately pulls out a magnifying glass. They are scrutinizing fingers, checking for blurry logos, and screaming at the top of their lungs if a single pixel looks suspiciously generated.

Yes, AI art can be weird and lazy, but the sheer level of outrage we are seeing over tiny, meaningless instances is getting a little absurd.

If you want to see how intense this reaction has gotten, just look at a couple of recent incidents that sent the internet into a tailspin.

First, Mobile Legends Bang Bang dropped a main menu background featuring the hero Layla. Immediately, fans noticed the weird lighting, soft textures, and anatomical quirks that practically screamed machine-generated image.

People lost their minds. MOONTON was quick to release a mini-patch, although the developers never admitted to possibly using generative AI.

Before that, SNK caught massive heat for a Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves trailer update because sharp-eyed fans spotted what looked like AI-generated promotional graphics in the background. This caused a lot of backlash in the FGC, and even caused a well-known, long-time moderator to step down.

“This is against what I stand for,” she wrote.

Then you have esports teams themselves getting caught in the crossfire. The Carolina Royal Ravens posted a graphic on social media, and fans instantly torched them because the AI somehow messed up the team’s own logo.

Was it a little embarrassing? Sure. I’d even venture to say very embarrassing. And, the esports industry’s scariest word: Cringe. But was it a crime against humanity that warranted a full meltdown? Probably not.

Back when I wrote about this during my time at The Escapist, I pointed out that this witch-hunt mentality was already taking over game development. A studio would use a machine-learning tool during early development, accidentally leave a single placeholder poster on a wall in the final build, and the internet would treat it like a villainous conspiracy. Cough, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, cough.

The devs would quietly patch out the poster and replace it with human art, but the outrage machine had already moved on to the next target.

It feels like a lot of gaming fans are picking and choosing when to turn AI into a moral crusade. It is easy to rally the mob, jump on social media, and yell about a bad Mobile Legends menu background because it makes us feel like we are fighting the good fight.

But what are you truly doing? MOONTON did not replace someone with AI at the MLBB studio to create that menu art. In fact, an artist, clearly employed there, replaced it. If anything, artists at MOONTON are apparently using AI to get some stuff done faster, which could be seen as lazy or uncaring. But is it worth the X accusations and Reddit threads? What do you think it will do? Who are you trying to save?

And do you think the Carolina Royal Ravens has any money? Most esports organizations operate entirely in the red, even large ones. Do you really think they are going to pay top dollar for art every time they announce something?

They very likely paid a cheap artist who then used AI to make this. Or maybe, if they somehow have the money for it, they have a social media person on staff who doesn’t get paid enough to create graphics on top of all the other stuff they do and quickly made an AI image.

I’m not saying I love that they used AI, however it happened, but what are you expecting them to do? Why are we attacking a small esports organization with no money? What are you hoping to accomplish here?

Let me guess. You still use Claude to help summarize a boring book you were forced to read at school. You use the AI at the top of your Google search to prove a point in an argument. You use email spam filters and predictive texting on your phone. You have used an AI TikTok filter.

Let me take it even further. You own a phone made with child labor. You use Jeff Bezos’ Amazon to get two-day shipping. You bought a shirt on Shein. You drive a car that adds to the world’s pollution. You bought a dog from a backyard breeder. You read a Harry Potter book. You listen to Chris Brown or watch movies with Brad Pitt. You plan to play the Avatar fighting game even though a dev accused of sexual assault is working on it.

It’s never-ending. You are picking and choosing where to draw the line in an ineffective, flimsy way. If you think AI in esports is a bigger problem than everything I mentioned, okay. But most people are just jumping at a trending topic on social media.

I think AI is bad, too. I agree with you. But it’s sort of like hating any new technology, like our parents freaking out about texting, social media, and video games. There are a lot of bad people backing AI, and it has created a lot of bad side effects, but it’s inevitable. Nitpicking these tiny issues is not going to help at all. A struggling esports organization is not the villain here.

Here is the cold, hard reality of the situation. Esports organizations are notoriously broke right now. The entire industry is grinding through a massive economic winter where teams are struggling to keep the lights on, sponsors are pulling back, and most organizations are operating deep in the red.

I am not going to sit here and pretend AI is some magical savior. I think it is often lame, has real environmental drawbacks, and sucks when it replaces jobs of actual human artists in an industry that is already hurting.

But we are acting like an org using a cheap, flawed graphic to post an X update is the ultimate threat to competitive gaming.

Esports is facing massive player burnout, collapsing league structures, and dwindling venture capital. A slightly warped logo on a Tuesday morning tweet is at the very bottom of the priority list. In fact, it may even be the result of these issues.

If you don’t want more cringe AI, you gotta address these things.