In a VALORANT tournament run by Knights, the internet found out a 13-year-old with little experience was producing the first match for 100 Thieves vs. MELIOREM on a community stream, according to Max “Purest” Katz a reporter with Dot Esports. This game was the first match of 100 Thieves after significant roster changes, but the stream for it changed in the lead up. The original community broadcast ends after a high-pitched voice can be heard producing the stream. Soon after the stream was ended, the event manager for Knights, Jasper Ko tweeted that the producer was “no longer broadcasting this event as a whole.”
https://twitter.com/sfX_x1/status/1496597475406319617?s=20&t=RYBQVEa-HtoFGpqS6dxGDw
It all started with the first 100 Thieves match of the Knights Monthly Gauntlet for February 2022. In setting up the event, casters, analysts and observers were set up, with big teams like T1, 100 Thieves and TSM competing against each other. Multiple streams would go on simultaneously, with the 100 Thieves stream starting off poorly. While the casters were seen, they were muted, while the broadcaster talked about the muted audio and talking about “going to countdown.”
Soon afterwards, the child producing the Knights stream abruptly ended it, with plenty of people on the internet focusing on this event. The tweet above with the video sparked the conversation, as others chimed in.
Purest talks with the producer
I've spoken to the kid who produced the 100T stream.
He is 13 years old, he claims that Knights knew about his age and they had called prior to the broadcast.
Additionally, he claims that he told management that he was not well versed in producing a broadcast.
— Max Katz (@purest) February 24, 2022
Purest said he talked to the person who produced the stream and revealed he was thirteen years old. Then Ko replied to this tweet, and further in the Twitter thread mentioned how the producer confirmed that he could produce the stream on Discord and had the qualifications needed.
“Additionally, he claims that Knights knew about his age and they called prior to the broadcast,” Purest wrote.
Mimi “aEvilcat” Wermcrantz chimes in
vetting talent/production staff, ensuring they are of legal age to work, and paying them fair wages tend to stop these problems
broadcasts cost money. not paying people is not the solution to that
if a TO is sanctioning a broadcast, all involved should be fairly compensated https://t.co/IYUuAUEKi3 pic.twitter.com/NzRfzZw6sy
— mimi (@aEvilcat) February 23, 2022
AEvilcat talked about the video, and the entire saga, referencing how paid broadcasts don’t have this problem. She said how “paying [staff] fair wages tend to stop these problems.” This turned into a thread discussion with Ko, who went into further detail about this topic. He explained that the logos on the stream were Knights partners, not sponsors and that no sponsorships were sold for the event and thus no revenue to pay the staff.
https://twitter.com/sfX_x1/status/1496639335235559427?s=20&t=rH3Li1kwfb7zbLt4E2V-6Q
Jake Lucky then commented, and was retweeted by Ko, that the producer is “likely a younger family member of the person selected by the Knights to produce this community stream. They were mislead in the qualifications of the person who produced the stream, so they have shut it down and will be better checking these things in the future.”
Ko signed off for the night by asking for kindness to be shown to the casters and observers for the failed stream.
Knights issue a statement
Knights released a statement hours after the stream addressing the controversy.
“The stream in question was not the official Knights Arena stream, it was a community stream, and the producer in question was not a member of staff,” Knights told Upcomer in a statement. “The community stream is intended to be an opportunity for fans to watch more game play than the main stream allows, and for aspiring talent to have the opportunity to hone their production skills. We are currently reviewing our practice of sharing official event graphics with these unofficial streams.”
The statement said that a tournament administrator from Knights posted in a VALORANT broadcast Discord that they were looking for extra hands and the underage producer reached out. They also dispute his claim that Knights knew his age and that he was not familiar with the software.
“We normally look for VOD’s and/or a resume when vetting community stream participants. We also lean on the community of VALROANT talent Discord server. Which has been a reliable source of capable production talent…” the statement said. “We’ve never faced an issue like this before and take full responsibility for not ensuring the quality of out community streams and for not adequately vetting producers.”
— Knights Arena (@KnightsArena) February 24, 2022
Editors Note: This story has been updated on Feb. 23 10:05 EST to include a statement made by Knights
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