'It's a pretty big deal for me as a human': One of the FGC's most popular commentators is stepping away from future EVO events following its Saudi buyout

'It's a pretty big deal for me as a human': One of the FGC's most popular commentators is stepping away from future EVO events following its Saudi buyout One of the fighting game community's most prolific streamers and commentators has announced he'll no longer be attending EVO following the event's buyout by the Saudi government. Sajam has served as one of the biggest bridges between the fighting game community and the larger mainstream videogame space over the last several years alongside other figures like Maximilian Dood. His presence at EVO has been a given up to this point, but that won't be the case any longer. In a 12-minute segment from a recent livestream, Sajam explained that he will no longer be attending EVO events after it was revealed in September that the organization had been bought by the Saudi Arabian government. "You know, I've been going to EVO since 2014 and I'm not going now because of the buyout," he started. And before you type anything, I'm like 'Yeah man, if the US Army bought EVO I would also not go.'" Preempting that folks might also begin citing that "there's a lotta evil corporations out there," Sajam retorted: "Evil corporations purchasing or owning the things you like always sucks. But the difference, I think, for most people here is the purpose of the ownership and then what exactly they're doing with it. It's not just 'The Saudi government owns EVO', it's like 'The Saudi government owns EVO and lots of other things with the express intention of using these as a vehicle to promote tourism and sportwash.'" While he reckons it "won't affect EVO at all," Sajam said "It's a pretty big deal for me as a human," calling it "bad for me financially to not attend." "It means I'm not going to EVO Vegas, it means I'm not going to EVO France. It means I'm not going to EVO Singapore. It means when they open the one up in Saudi Arabia-eventually, I'm sure-I'm not gonna be going to that one," he continued. I mean, yeah, this whole thing has got to be a pretty big financial hit to him. As Sajam points out himself, he's been rolling with a pretty solid partnership alongside Chipotle-who have been terrorising EVO's in-between match ads for the last couple of years-and stepping away from EVO has a chance of directly jeopardising that. The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team. "The purpose of our events and community is that we are grassroots and we do things in person and the fighting game events and tours are tacked onto what the fighting game community owns," he said. "Street Fighter has to go to a grassroots-owned event to put the event on their tour. And they own Capcom Cup at the end which we accept and we work with them and that kind stuff....

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