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Last weekend was MLG Providence, the final event within the 2011 season. It went great and I thought I did a pretty good job overall. When I landed back home, I received a text message informing me of a tweet from a staffer about how Zemotion, a photographer, got interviewed by MLG. At first I didn’t care because I knew she owned a team, so I assumed it was simply related to her role as a team owner. Boy, was I way off.

While (ironically) going through my MLG Providence photos, I got a Facebook message from a friend, linking me to this tweet:

I read it, and immediately felt like I got slapped in the face by the very company that has had me as their photographer for the past 13 events. I watched the interview and felt even shittier. The introduction was, “I’m here with Zemotion who’s.. pretty easily the best photographer in eSports… no offence to the other great photographers out there…”

Yeah, the “no offense” really made it all much better.

I was pretty shocked after that and utterly offended. I felt completely unappreciated by MLG, I felt like I was disregarded and my confidence was shot. Those creeping thoughts of harsh self criticism all came flooding back and I started to cry. I was really hurt. I went to the galleries linked in the interview and starting comparing my work. I just didn’t get it. What was I doing wrong? Not that I ever expected or desired such a thing, but why was I never interviewed? I have 13 events worth of story and experience to tell… is my work not good enough? I thought I have taken and shared some amazing photos with the eSports community… am I wrong to think that? I’ve never asked for anything in return, I don’t get paid to work on the photos after the event and post them on my Flickr. I don’t receive any sort of revenue from views on Flickr. All I wanted was for people to get a chance to enjoy the photos that didn’t make the cut for the MLG galleries. I take about 4,000 – 5,000 photos per event, having 25 posted per gallery leaves many behind. I just do it for you guys, so that you can see more and enjoy them. What do I want in return? Just a smile when I see you at the next event. A nod, a hand shake, a ‘hey thanks for that new Facebook profile picture’ or something. I work really hard during MLG weekends, 12+ hour days walking around the venue trying to capture everything and all the important moments on a heavily time sensitive schedule, I do this… and then I get what felt like was getting shit on.

So when I read that title, my heart broke a little. It was carelessly written with zero regard to fellow staff photographers. No respect, consideration, or thought was put in to how that would make Josh and I feel. I just don’t know what to do except sit here and wonder when the fuck will I catch a break.

In regards to Zemotion, I have absolutely nothing against her. I want to be clear that this is absolutely not about her. I have nothing but respect for her and if anything I am a fan of her amazing fashion photography. I’m making a request to please stop tweeting at her in relation to the interview, it’s absolutely not her fault and she deserves zero flack. This is between myself and Josh and MLG.

I would like to see a title change to the article and perhaps someone should link Chobopeon mine and Josh’s Flickr pages.

P.S. – I understand that this is the work of perhaps one or two MLG employees, and not the voice of MLG as a whole.