RWF - Don't turn Mental Health into a scapegoat

Don’t get me wrong: mental health is important.

It is very important that it has become a subject in the last years that every single corporation is handling with their employees and people have (thankfully) started giving an importance.

But I have seen it being used as a scapegoat.

First, Olympic athletes abandoning the competition and using mental health as an excuse.
And now, more recently, Liquid (former Complexity Limit) giving up on the RWF (they had lost already at that point) and people talking about mental health.

There is a HUGE difference from a person working 60-80 hours / week for a year or more barely taking a day off in a week being almost burnt out by the work or working under heavy stress without having time to discharge the stress and recharge their energy.

But when we are talking about Athletes or e-athletes, those who are paid for the competition, have sponsors, who have weeks if not months to prepare for the competition (talking about Olympics it could be even years of preparation), I feel unacceptable that people will simply go and use mental health as a scapegoat.

This topic is TOO IMPORTANT for “when everything is hard, let’s just push mental health button and give up collectively”.

If your team is extremely tired and calling on “mental health” to give up the competition, it means that you haven’t prepared well, and maybe you could say that you failed at preparing for the competition instead.

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You don’t get to judge mental health issues.
Working on anything for 60-80hs a week for multiple weeks can be extremely exhausting.
Never dismiss mental health issues.
You don’t know how it affects the individuals. You can’t assume it is just an excuse.

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they can give up for w/e reason.

mental health is a good reason to quit as any. they are competitors not soldiers. The world doesn’t end with them quitting.

inevitably a few win and many lose. this is as valid reason to lose as any.

edit: I’m hurting after 3 hours of progression sometimes and do far less effort than they do. I can appreciate the weight of being focused that long.

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We have to talk about it.
Athletes and e-athletes compete on high level.
They have sponsors. Streamers who prepare for a competition.

They should be prepared for the pressure of the competition.

Continuously, yes, for less than a month, indicates poor preparation, which is unacceptable for a professional gaming team or athletes.

You don’t know either, so you can’t say otherwise.

The only thing I’m saying is: they were not prepared for this.

Mental health can’t be the ultimate excuse for failure.

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They are not slaves to their sponsors.

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Okay. Do your job for 16 hours a day for 18 straight days, with no days off including weekends, while staying at a hotel instead of your own place, and let’s see how long it takes for you to pull the mental health card.

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Who called them slaves?
You just called them slaves.

Don’t put words in my mouth. They are YOURS.

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Sounds like oil rigs and navy ship deployments.

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A LOT people do that.

They are professional e-athletes. They should be prepared for this competition.
They didn’t prepare enough.

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but the $150k / year is nice…

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You realized these people aren’t just taking 10 months off a year right?
Especially Olympic level athletes who spend the entire year training and competing in other events.

This is why there is still such a stigma around mental health, people like you brushing it off.

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Yes, they can give up for any reason.
Calling out mental health is just wrong.

Because as professional athletes they should’ve been prepared for this.

They could’ve simply said “well, we didn’t prepare enough for this. We didn’t think we would need to work this hard and for this long.”

Perhaps they should be casual players instead.

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You are saying their obligation to their sponsors overrides their own physical and mental health. In your opinion there is no excuse for not continuing to slave away 18 hours a day, even if they’re ready to crack.

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There is no stigma.

People creating stigma on it are those that for ANY reason call out “mental health” issues to just give up without being called out for it.

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I’m not inclined to dismiss the claim. Outside influences can render even the most prepared person unable to compete.

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I am saying they are professional e-athletes, they have obligation to their sponsors.

If they are NOT feeling well, it means THEY HAVE NOT PREPARED WELL for this competition. Mentally or phisically.

It is not about mental health, it is about preparation.

If they are not feeling well, well, call it out and be honest “we didn’t prepare enough for the competition, we can’t handle this pressure at this level”.

Being honest is very important, in special being a guild with this high visibility.

Using mental health as scapegoat actually creates a stigma on it, and people starts brushing it off because “everything is just mental health”.

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Definition of stigma:
a mark of disgrace associated with a particular circumstance, quality, or person.
What you said:

You are shaming them and saying what they do couldn’t possibly be hard enough to have mental health be a concern. As if they aren’t worthy of suffering from such a thing.

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Don’t get me wrong: mental health is important.

It is very important that it has become a subject in the last years that every single corporation is handling with their employees and people have (thankfully) started giving an importance.

This is what you’ve said in order to preface your conversation before…

First, Olympic athletes abandoning the competition and using mental health as an excuse.
And now, more recently, Liquid (former Complexity Limit) giving up on the RWF (they had lost already at that point) and people talking about mental health. There is a HUGE difference from a person working 60-80 hours / week for a year or more barely taking a day off in a week being almost burnt out by the work or working under heavy stress without having time to discharge the stress and recharge their energy. But when we are talking about Athletes or e-athletes, those who are paid for the competition, have sponsors, who have weeks if not months to prepare for the competition (talking about Olympics it could be even years of preparation), I feel unacceptable that people will simply go and use mental health as a scapegoat. This topic is TOO IMPORTANT for “when everything is hard, let’s just push mental health button and give up collectively”. If your team is extremely tired and calling on “mental health” to give up the competition, it means that you haven’t prepared well, and maybe you could say that you failed at preparing for the competition instead.

…Yep. Right before you just said the exact opposite. What a lazy way to wrap your trash opinion in trash takes about mental health. At first it’s SO important, but then it’s immediately less important to you because you “should have been prepared”?

They were doing 16 hour days in WoW for 25 days at this point. The SECOND it stops being fun? It’s the worst job you’ve ever had.

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damn…they giving up on their nike deal with a wheaties box spread as well.

Oh wait…they aren’t.

Only a few jobs in this world have you contracted for life, or x amount of years of it.

I was in one. they want to step away, let them. my last year in the military as crap piled up was one of the worst years in my life. someone doesn’t want to be there…don’t be there if you can. Bad things can happen. Like looking for solutions in the bottom of bottles. They aren’t there.

It took the death of my mother then father 6 months apart and both at the age of 61 to finally understand an old cliche.

No one on their death bed says you know…I wish I spent more time at the office.

live that real life. Ain’t no guarantees you will see even 65 to retire in this world sadly.

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It just seems like a bit of a poor sportsmanship in the races case.

I’m not saying it’s not exhausting and not a lot of mental and physical work it just was amusing that this popped up when they knew they had no chance to catch up and then quit.

Its never fun to be the loser but can only have one champion, read like a tantrum to me.

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