Late last week, the Esports World Cup – a known vehicle for Saudi government sportswashing – announced that popular location guessing game GeoGuessr will be participating in its upcoming Esports World Cup Festival tournament program, putting the game’s community in an uncomfortable position not unlike the pretzel fighting game players found themselves contorted into a couple months ago. Difference is, GeoGuessr might constitute one of the most geopolitically aware gaming communities on the planet as a result of what it’s, you know, about. Outcry was immediate, and now GeoGuessr map makers have taken their protest to the next level.
Today a conglomerate of map makers published a statement on the game’s official subreddit announcing a full-on blackout of many popular maps.
"We, the creators of a considerable share of GeoGuessr’s most popular maps, have decided to make our maps unplayable in protest of GeoGuessr AB’s decision to host a World Championship wildcard tourney at the Esports World Cup (EWC) in Riyadh,” reads the note, attributed to the GeoGuessr mapping community. “The GeoGuessr community is diverse and includes many members of groups that would be harshly persecuted were they to live in Saudi Arabia. In solidarity with those currently residing in Saudi Arabia while being subject to oppression, as well as members of the community who would feel and be unsafe attending the tournament in Riyadh, we have decided to black out our maps by replacing all their previous locations with random garbage locations, rendering them unplayable.”
The map makers went on to say that the blackout will continue until GeoGuessr’s developers take action: “Specifically, we demand that GeoGuessr cancels its wildcard event in Saudi Arabia and commits to not hosting any events there as long as it continues its oppressive regime.”