ds_santos_ | VLR.gg

#1

Tooker

Apologies if this topic has already been talked about today, but I just saw that he resigned from VLR.

I must say, the ability this man has to not take any ounce of criticism is personally bewildering to me. I personally didn't have any strong opinions on the daveeys tweet, and I did find the James situation a little ironic, but not too bad.

But holy shit, even now, to this day, the man can not even accept a shred of humility and admit that he might have said something insensitive, or been overly rude. Just look here https://www.reddit.com/r/ValorantCompetitive/s/QbrsXXntlE

Look at what happened when another writer, I can't remember who it was, wrote out a detailed cordial response to peoples reactions. surprising how much more engagement and meaningful feedback you can get when you actually try to engage with criticism.

On another hand, was he really a good journalist? I tried scrolling through his Twitter, and I can't find any stories that he actually did any sort of investigative journalism. It's all just retweets where he's summarizing the contents of what has happened. Now, maybe I just don't know anything about journalism or I'm missing some old stuff where he actually did talk to sources, and break news, but I can't find any of the from anything recent.

I know this was a schizo post, but the attitude of people like him just piss me off.

TL;DR ds_santos, an unassailable writer with the ego the size of the US, resigned from VLR, and I believe eSports journalism as a whole.

#2

lorenzopajaroFC

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Pretty sure he has some mental disorder

In practice he’s just a shit person tho

#3

Ballsamolee

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thank god that lobotomized fraud is gone 🙏🙏🙏

#4

NexusNomad

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Wait
Writing articles on VLR is a real job!?

#5

Tooker

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Anything can technically be a job and I don't want to personally attack the other writers, because they're all good people.

To be clear, I don't have any problem calling what happens on VLR journalism, but I don't think it's right to the use that as a way to patronize what James was doing.

Friendly reminder that the whole thing happened with James adding journalist to his Twitter bio, iirc, he never made any attacks on Santos prior.

#6

n1cf

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This just made my day Poopastyx is no more 🗿

#7

Karmine_Org_WhispeR

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No one really cares for that moron, ever since his stupid beef with James, and his shitty tweet regarding Daveey’s death, everyone has been hating on his dumb ass which he deserves

#11

Tooker

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Yeah, rest in piss bozo

I just saw that in the r/ValComp thread, he was saying that he still doesn't believe in accepting criticism from anyone on social media.

Obviously, not literally what he said but you get the point.

#8

Asuna_Yuuki

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Can somebody explain the drama with him

#9

Ballsamolee

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like rn or in the past?

#10

Asuna_Yuuki

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Both

#12

Tooker

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Daveeys Tweet: put out a tweet saying that Twistens death hit him more than Daveeys ( I think it was on the day he died) https://twitter.com/ds_santos_/status/1698726866864009354?t=daEpAOlHYzICrHO9_BUUjA&s=19

James: called James a "basement dweller who looks at twitch all day," after James started a Twitter account for posting scrim leaks, where he added the job Journalist in his bio. https://twitter.com/ds_santos_/status/1697658983480230224?t=BtPZeUN-qvDEibsugGa_Hg&s=19

Edit: added posts for context

#13

cartixuzi

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one of the tweets of all time ngl

#14

n1cf

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He basically said really stupid things about daveeyS's passing and people started to hate him for that. I don't really know if he ever apologized, but even though he did it was really stupid. After that shit, he started to make mods delete comments like ''L writer'' or ''poopastyx'' under his articles and I think that's so fucking insecure lmao. And I think he said to james_ff that posting scrims ain't real journalism or some shit like that, so basically he is a scum who can't take criticism and a gatekeeper 😂

#15

ChickenJoe

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In regards to "was he even a good journalist?", he has done far more for the site than people give him credit for. He was someone that helped onboard the newer batch of writers about two years ago when people like me, Ferahgo, redlight, etc. joined and I'm very grateful for the guidance and patience he displayed throughout it all. I only got into writing articles because I saw tama's "writers needed" post one day and figured I'd apply for the hell of it because I was bored and wanted to see where it would take me. Fast forward to now and I've been able to hone not just my writing skills, but other aspects that come with creating more in-depth articles and projects down the line. I don't ever intend to truly commit to this in a career sense, but that's not to say that I haven't learned a lot from my stay here which would not have been possible without the wonderful support Diogo and the other staff at VLR have offered me. I understand that whole situation has left many people here unhappy with him, but that shouldn't take away from his ability to do what he did for the site, which was a lot more than just write articles. Drama aside, he did a very great job at what he did and I will miss seeing him around 🙂

#16

Tooker

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I appreciate the response. I did try to ammend my statement more in #5. My attempt wasn't to dismiss anything that he did on VLR as unimportant, or not a "real job." My statement was more in attempt to criticize the fact that he gatekept an area where he probably would not have met the criteria that he was using to gatekeep. Again, I will throw in the caveat that I don't understand journalism as much as the writers, and I don't know the inner workings of VLR, but to me I don't see where the journalism aspect comes in. But never the less, I should have been more carefully worded.

Again, thank you for the response.

#17

ChickenJoe

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No worries, I understand why people are upset and nobody is stopping you from chatting about it on here. I see where you're coming from and honestly I'm probably the last person who should respond on anyone's behalf, partially because I'm still very inexperienced when it comes to journalism but mainly because I'm not involved in that situation one bit.

#18

Targu1n

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I have mixed feeling about the recent times and its sorta sad that they depart with a good chunk of the community still upset with them

Lets start with the last question first: was he really a good journalist
Without a doubt yes. They might be hard to find since theres a lot of "simple" reporting to fill the time between them, but ds_santos did write good and in depth articles from time to time. The most recent one I can remember for example is https://www.vlr.gg/282631/running-a-riot-games-esports-broadcast-is-a-lot-of-work-heres-how-much which is a nice insight into the production side of things
Of course other (older) (e)sports like cs have way better coverage than valorant. But considering Valorant was released after the decline of written media (gotta fit stuff in a tweet or people wont read it) and theres hardly any funding for Journalists over here, people like ds_santos (and now the new "generation" of vlr writers) have done an amazing job keeping us informed.

And then the drama... its stupid that it escalated to this extend. A simple clarification from ds_santos on either of the dramas would have reduced it to a "I think youre stupid" instead of whatever tf this is. However it is ironic that we as vlr users are the ones demanding accountability, when there's plenty of prominent users over the years, who have said some bat-shit crazy stuff and we forget it happened after a week or so.
(Its just an observation of different standards, dont misinterpret this as me saying I dont want him to clarify his opinions on either of the dramas and apologize should it be needed. As mentioned in the original post, especially the journalism one lead to some really interesting discussions with other writers on vlr so I would love if he did a post talking about it)

I think its a good time for him to leave. I just dont believe theres much of a ladder to climb when it comes to written content in valorant and he definitely has done enough on here for his resume.
Shame that its with a tarnished reputation, but I do wish him luck with his new journey at E2TECHpt.

#23

Tooker

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I'll admit, there are articles that he wrote that are really good, you can see either my response to ChickenJoe or #5 for a clarification on my position.

And then the drama... its stupid that it escalated to this extend. A simple clarification from ds_santos on either of the dramas would have reduced it to a "I think youre stupid" instead of whatever tf this is.

Yes... It's almost like my critique of him not engaging with criticism would change if he engaged with criticism, wow...

As for the rest, I shouldn't care about what a prominent journalist is doing to gatekeep his profession and belittle someone trying to startup because people post unhinged shit on VLR?

My critique will always be the same, you can't just ignore criticism even if you think it is from people that don't understand your field. Prior to starting my graduate education, I worked in game dev. I'm well used to people saying they want certain things about games when they don't really understand what goes on behind the scenes, and how plausible certain ideas are. You can't just sit yourself in an echo chamber and ignore outside criticism from anyone just simply because they don't have the same credentials as you.

#19

MneMaloMaloMaloTebya

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damn we lost one of the best writers smh well done vlr for bullying innocent people off of the site

#20

Kirya

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His vlr articles were W tho no?

#21

Tooker

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His articles were fine. What my criticism was meant to be was more that he made high standards for what journalism was supposed to be, tried to use those standards as a way to gatekeep the profession, and belittle the work of someone who was trying to start up in the field.

The term journalist/journalism has a very different conotation to it. I think most people see it as talking to sources, compiling information, and then choosing what information is trustworthy enough to then report it to a broader audience. The vast majority of the articles that happen on VLR are just summaries of videos or tweets that get put out by Orgs or players. Every now and then we do get in depth articles around events, but they are few and far between.

Again, I don't want to belittle the work of the VLR writers, I just think that it doesn't give them carte-blanche to gatekeep journalism.

#22

widepeepofrosty

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#PACKWATCH RIPBOZO 🚬