Fed Up: Black Gamers Love Marvel Rivals. The Creator Tournaments Don't Love Us Back.

We were wrapping up Inside The Screen and I had to get this off my chest before we ended the show. I really want Black gamers to wake up on this one. You love Marvel Rivals. A lot of us love Marvel Rivals. The Black community is heavy on that game. But when it's time for the creator tournaments, look at who gets the invite.

Count the invites

Do you know how many big Black creators I know that play Marvel Rivals? A lot. Now go look at the creator tournaments and count how many of them are in there. That's the whole point of this piece. I'm looking for us and I'm not seeing us.

And these aren't small events either. The Marvel Rivals Creator World Championship this summer was a $300,000 event with 72 streamers from 12 regions. xQc ran his own $250,000 invitational last year. That's real money and real exposure, and the guest list decides who gets put on.

So here's the cheat code, and it works both ways. If you're on a gaming team or you're a third party host, here's how to actually reach the Black community. If you're in the Black community, here's the glasses to see through the smoke and mirrors. If they host a tournament and the whole bracket is the same type of creator, you got your answer.

People mix up the players and the people behind the game

My cohost Ray said something on the pod that I think is important. People mix up toxic players with the team behind the game. Those are two different conversations. Every game has bad players. The question is who the game and the people running its events are actually building for, and to me Rivals hasn't shown it's building for us.

Ray and I both said Overwatch is way more in tune with the Black characters it does have. They try. And I'll admit that, they at least try.

Valorant, I'm on you too

Valorant, y'all are doing a little bit better. We're seeing some Black talent at the pro level for the first time and I see it. But I'm on your ass too. The infrastructure on these teams still needs to get better.

And I want to be clear, I'm not telling anybody to stop playing a game they love. Play what you want. I'm telling you to pay attention to who gets the opportunities that come with it, because that's where the money and the careers actually are. I wrote a while back about why diversity in game development matters, and the same thing goes for who gets a seat at the events.

If you're a Black Rivals creator who's been passed over for one of these, or you've been in one, I want to hear from you. Pull up to the CXM Discord.