U.S. Army Esports

U.S. Army Esports is an esports team sponsored by the United States Army.[1] The team, which consists of active duty and reserve personnel, was announced in November 2018 as a public outreach initiative operating within the Fort Knox, Kentucky-based Army Marketing and Engagement Team.[2][3] Games in which the team announced it would compete include Call of Duty, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Fortnite, League of Legends, Overwatch and Magic the Gathering.[4][5]

U.S. Army Esports
DivisionsCall of Duty, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Fortnite, League of Legends, Overwatch, Magic the Gathering
FoundedNovember 2018 (2018-11)
Based inUnited States
LocationUnited States
Parent groupUnited States Army
Websiterecruiting.army.mil/army_esports/

History

The U.S. Army Esports team was founded in November 2018. After the Army missed its recruiting goal for the first time in 13 years, the team was founded in an effort to modernize outreach efforts.[6]

The initiative has been accused of using internet memes and gaming to persuade people, namely younger internet users, to enlist as soldiers within the U.S. Army; it has also been criticized in its recruitment efforts for portraying both enlistment in the armed forces and experiences of serving during wartime inaccurately.

Much of the criticism aimed at the Esports team arose from a tweet posted by the team's official Twitter account in response to another tweet by the official Discord Twitter account. Following negative attention aimed at the Esports team, both the official Discord server and Twitch channel run by the team became the target of trolling, as several Twitter users, in a style satirizing speedruns, jokingly competed for how fast they could be banned for posting anti-U.S. Army messages, memes, and references to war crimes committed by the United States. This led to moderators of the Discord server temporarily restricting people from joining, and a number of Twitch users being banned from the U.S. Army Esports Twitch channel.[7][8][9][10]

Vera Eidelman, a staff attorney at the ACLU's Speech, Privacy and Technology Project, has claimed that the banning of Twitch users from the channel is a violation of the First Amendment.[11] The Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University sent a letter to the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy Recruiting Commands claiming they violated the First Amendment by banning users, and demanding an end to banning users from their Twitter accounts and Twitch channel on the basis of their viewpoints.[12] A spokesperson for the U.S. Army responded to these allegations by denying they violated the First Amendment and stating that the banned users sent comments that were "meant to troll and harass the team".[13] However, the team has later since announced that they would reinstate users banned for "harassing and degrading behavior".[14]

The team has also been accused of promoting fake giveaways on Twitch by providing links that they claimed would enter viewers into a giveaway for an Xbox Elite Series 2 controller, but instead merely redirected viewers to a recruitment form with no mention of the giveaway on it.[15] Twitch asked the channel to take the links down, which the Esports channel complied with. The team admitted to a lack of transparency with the giveaways, but claimed they were still legitimate.[16][13][17]

In response to the mass criticism, the U.S. Army Esports team announced on July 22, 2020 that they would halt activity on Twitch and would likely resume activity in Spring 2021.[18] However, the team returned to Twitch on August 14, 2020.[19]

On July 22, 2020, U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez filed a draft amendment to the House Appropriations Bill that would prohibit the U.S. Military from "[maintaining] a presence on Twitch or any video game, e-sports, or live-streaming platform.”[20] This amendment has since been defeated however, with the final vote being 292-126 against it and 13 members abstaining from voting.[21]

On August 6th, the team announced in a statement to the Verge that they would unban users that were banned for "harassing and degrading behavior". Along with this, they claimed to have reviewed and clarified their policies so they would only allow users who are at least 18-years-old to watch streams and take action against users who harassed or bullied other users in their streams, as well as those who post personal attacks, crude language, or pornographic material.[22] They claimed to have done this in an attempt to give banned users a second chance to participate in streams as long as they complied with their rules.[23]

References
  1. Brown, Fraser (November 14, 2018). "The US Army is starting its own esports team". PCGamer. Retrieved November 23, 2018.
  2. Garland, Chad (November 23, 2018). "Uncle Sam wants you — to play video games for the US Army". Stars & Stripes. Retrieved November 9, 2018.
  3. McMahon, James (November 23, 2018). "The US military is using video games and esports to recruit – it's downright immoral". The Independent. Retrieved November 23, 2018.
  4. Kaser, Rachel (November 23, 2018). "The US Army's Fortnite esports team is totally not for recruitment". The Next Web. Retrieved November 14, 2018.
  5. "U.S. Army wants to pay you to play video games competitively". WSOC-TV. November 10, 2018. Retrieved November 23, 2018.
  6. Nervest, Marjolaine Grappe and Nora. "We followed the US Army's official esports team as it recruited gamers at a national video game convention". Business Insider. Retrieved 2020-12-31.
  7. "Internet Declares War On The U.S. Army Esports Discord Channel". GameSpot. Retrieved 2020-07-06.
  8. "US Army Esports Tweet Causes Backlash". Game Rant. 2020-07-03. Retrieved 2020-07-06.
  9. Hernandez, Patricia (2020-07-01). "The US Army is losing the war in Discord". Polygon. Retrieved 2020-07-06.
  10. "The Internet Has Declared War On The U.S. Army Esports Discord Channel". www.msn.com. Retrieved 2020-07-06.
  11. "U.S. Army Esports Team May Have Violated the First Amendment on Twitch". www.vice.com. Retrieved 2020-07-22.
  12. "U.S. Army and Navy Must Stop Banning Speech About War Crimes from Their Twitch Channels, Knight Institute Says in Demand Letter". knightcolumbia.org. Retrieved 2020-07-23.
  13. Venhuizen, Harm (2020-07-20). "Army esports team denies accusations of violating First Amendment, offering fake giveaways". Army Times. Retrieved 2020-07-22.
  14. "US Army Reinstates Twitch Commenters It Banned for Asking About War Crimes". www.vice.com. Retrieved 2020-08-07.
  15. "US army retreats from Twitch as recruitment drive backfires". the Guardian. 2020-07-23. Retrieved 2020-07-24.
  16. Vincent, James (2020-07-17). "Twitch tells US Army to stop sharing fake prize giveaways that sent users to recruitment page". The Verge. Retrieved 2020-07-22.
  17. Cox, Matthew (2020-07-21). "Army Denies Violating 1st Amendment in Esports Recruiting, Sponsoring Fake Giveaways". Military.com. Retrieved 2020-07-22.
  18. "Amid Backlash, U.S. Army Retreats From Twitch". Kotaku. Retrieved 2020-07-23.
  19. Gault, Matthew. "The U.S. Army Makes an Awkward Return to Twitch". www.vice.com. Retrieved 2020-08-18.
  20. "AOC Introduces Measure to Stop the Military from Recruiting on Twitch". www.vice.com. Retrieved 2020-07-22.
  21. "AOC Amendment to Halt Military Recruitment on Twitch Defeated in House". The Esports Observer｜home of essential esports business news and insights. 2020-07-30. Retrieved 2020-08-07.
  22. Nervest, Marjolaine Grappe and Nora. "We followed the US Army's official esports team as it recruited gamers at a national video game convention". Business Insider. Retrieved 2020-12-31.
  23. Vincent, James (2020-08-06). "US Army esports team unbans commenters who asked about American war crimes". The Verge. Retrieved 2020-12-31.
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