All Gens RoA Olympics VII - Round 4 [Won by US Northeast]

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Missing out first by 1 point is definitely sad, but it's actually fantastic to see india perform so well!! S/o to everyone in the team, thank you for having me and sorry that i couldn't contribute too much. Let's make sure we come back stronger next year and we have already proved that we can do that :swole:
Congratz US North east and Ggs everyone
 
congrats to all the medalists (flower)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~


ive tried to figure out where is the best place to put this and idk, so putting it here for now but i can move it elsewhere if that is preferred.

i was asked to play in roao again this time for rby and felt i had to decline for the same reasons as last year, having a tourn called “olympics” is pretty repulsive to me and i wouldnt feel comfortable participating for a few reasons. it was suggested that it could be worth discussing this publicly in smogon, also none of the ppl who i have engaged with about this either this year or last year seemed to know if there was a reason for the name choice or how/why it was originally chosen etc. 

i think many are likely to be unfamiliar with why “olympics” might be upsetting to a lot of ppl, so ill j focus on that in this post, and then i guess see what direction the convo goes in from there.


content warnings for race and gender violence, i ofc try not to describe violence explicitly.

1 the use of the term olympics commemorates white supremacy



this is maybe self-evident but briefly, the term olympics is used in reference to two things: the events run by the rich slaveowners of ancient athens, greece, which society is nonetheless held up as “the historical cradle of Western Civilization” or whatever; and the modern-day sporting event started by Nazi-germany as part of its ideological apparatus in order to present a positive image of Nazism to the world.




2 the ‘present-day’ international olympic committee (and its branches) are a fascist organization



the evidence of this is overwhelming and unambiguous, but i will go into detail here, since it is important and also i wouldn’t generally expect people to pay much attention to the IOC. i myself only am aware of most of this due to living in a city that is being targeted for hosting an upcoming olympics (LA in 2028), and the intensification of State violence that has already begun at the IOC’s behest in collaboration with the city government, if i didnt live here i would ignore the olympics in general much less the ioc.



~ the IOC recently exposed themselves by openly celebrating Hitler and his regime’s inauguration of the olympics in 1936, then tried to delete their statement and backtrack after even the mainstream media criticized their open celebration of nazism. 
(see for example https://www.forbes.com/sites/carlie...ut-1936-games-in-nazi-berlin/?sh=7b247f557007)
such behavior from the IOC is ‘the rule not the exception’, tho unfortunately not all of the IOC’s other violent statements and actions receive that same level of attention.



~ the USOC was aware of “USA-gymnastics” coach Nassar’s serial s**ual abuse in 2015 and deliberately allowed it to continue for years, for which they were sued as has also been acknowledged-ish in the mainstream media recently. this is ‘only’ the latest of many instances of the IOC’s enabling of abuse of the athletes it claims to protect but in reality exploits and profits off of.
 see for example https://www.glamour.com/story/simon...ing-abuse-it-was-excruciating-and-exceptionalhttps://www.ocregister.com/2018/12/...028-los-angeles-put-usoc-partnership-on-hold/ 
and https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2...on-from-governing-bodies-after-abuse-scandals


~ i am most aware of the actions of IOC’s local partner, the LA2028 committee starting with its president Casey Wasserman. Wasserman has his own history of covering up gender violence as a member of the Activision Blizzard board of directors, https://www.polygon.com/22787226/activision-blizzard-shareholder-bobby-kotick-resignation [bobby kotick is still the CEO of Activision btw] [so it is hardly surprising that he ignored survivors’ calls to put LA2028 on hold until some change within the IOC/USOC as described in the second link in the above paragraph].
 Casey Wasserman also helped lead Activision’s ongoing union busting campaign against the Game Workers Alliance, engaging in illegal labor practices ranging from wage theft to various retaliations against both individual union activists and stores that have unionized. theres way too much to cover in detail but see for example https://lawstreetmedia.com/news/tec...zzard-withheld-raises-for-unionizing-workers/
tbc Wasserman stepped down from the Activision Board six months ago (no reason was given), but Activision’s union busting has gone on for over a year, and its illegal exploitative labor practices much longer than that.
two other LA2028 board members are also on the Starbucks board of directors, Mellody Hobson and Andy Campion (Nike COO), currently leading another ‘prominent’ union-busting campaign, see e.g. https://www.vox.com/recode/2022/8/25/23309517/starbucks-union-contract-bargaining-strikes or https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...-fight-for-unions-at-starbucks-one-year-later

~ very relevant for ppl who live here in la is also LA2028’s connection to the local politicians who were recently caught on tape directing hate speech / semi-slurs at black children. Ron Herrera was quietly removed from the board of directors list that is on LA2028’s website after the tape became public. Gil Cedillo was the City Council president who pushed through LA2028’s approval. The ‘context’ in which Nury Martinez started spewing hate speech and slurs, was her and Kevin De Leon complaining about opposition/interference [from councilmembers such as Mike Bonin] to their efforts to make (secret/private) deals with the Rams and with LA2028, as well as promoting violence against houseless people who live in the sepulveda basin “as part of” their plans to build a venue for the planned 2028 games there. see e.g. https://knock-la.com/nury-martinez-la28-olympics-sepulveda-basin-rams/

LA2028 spoke openly about using the policing of last year’s super bowl as a test run for the olympics. This included CBP and ICE presence supposedly to target vendors of “counterfeit” merchandise, as well as intensified policing of the broader Inglewood area.



one could get into other cities that have recently hosted the Olympics or that are targeted for the games in the near future, and note the many instances in which the IOC has enacted violence against the most vulnerable populations, pretty much every olympics you hear about something. also other examples of overt fascism in the higher levels of the IOC, but i am speaking to what i am most knowledgeable about which is what is happening in the city i live in. plus this post is long enough as is



tldr the IOC and its affiliates function as fascist primarily-ideological apparatuses on numerous fronts, and they play a prominent role in the propagation and normalization of fascist ideology, and implementation of fascist policy, certainly where i live and also around the world generally.




3 smogon leadership’s decision to recognize ‘Israel’ and allow ‘Israelis’ to compete under the flag of the zionist state.



this part applies to any ‘nations’ type tournament, i will keep this brief mainly because i dont fully understand the details of it (eg who made this choice, does it just apply to specific tournaments or is it a smogon-wide policy) but like for example https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/world-cup-of-pokemon-vgc-discussion.3688554/ which then got promoted in social media etc. i can see there was at least one palestinian player in this wcop but palestine is not listed as a nation here, again dont know the decision process or any more details.

this is ‘just’ one example of such issues that can come up, tho it is worth noting that participating in such a tournament might be felt by some as a violation of anti-normalization so it might be effectively excluding some players solely with that one decision. im glad eg that smogon recognizes puerto rico as a legitimate nation, again dont know how it was decided. i heard some things last year about admins deciding not to try to enforce restrictions that prevent migrants from playing for their home countries, again idk the specifics and idk why not just remove that policy but rly j mentioning it as another example of the issues involved.

i also dont understands if the 'recognized nations' are different in different tournaments, and if so how that works.

oh also "israel" is listed in europe which is funny lol. (obv geographically, palestine is in southwest asia.)

leaving this part very open-ended since i dont know if i have enough info but thought it should be included in the discussion. but such decisions obv has political significance in the same way that eg russian atheletes presently not being permitted to play under the national flag in many tourns, at the same time that the world cup is about to be played in stadiums built by enslaved people over the past several years and in which states that profit off of that and/or ‘similar’ enslavement (eg Saudi Arabia and the “U.S.”) are still allowed to compete. see e.g. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2016/03/qatar-world-cup-of-shame/ . and these decisions ofc also can affect individual competitors (some players may not care, some probably will).
 
Last edited:

anique

</3
is a Tiering Contributor
congrats to all the medalists (flower)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~


ive tried to figure out where is the best place to put this and idk, so putting it here for now but i can move it elsewhere if that is preferred.

i was asked to play in roao again this time for rby and felt i had to decline for the same reasons as last year, having a tourn called “olympics” is pretty repulsive to me and i wouldnt feel comfortable participating for a few reasons. it was suggested that it could be worth discussing this publicly in smogon, also none of the ppl who i have engaged with about this either this year or last year seemed to know if there was a reason for the name choice or how/why it was originally chosen etc. 

i think many are likely to be unfamiliar with why “olympics” might be upsetting to a lot of ppl, so ill j focus on that in this post, and then i guess see what direction the convo goes in from there.


content warnings for race and gender violence, i ofc try not to describe violence explicitly.

1 the use of the term olympics commemorates white supremacy



this is maybe self-evident but briefly, the term olympics is used in reference to two things: the events run by the rich slaveowners of ancient athens, greece, which society is nonetheless held up as “the historical cradle of Western Civilization” or whatever; and the modern-day sporting event started by Nazi-germany as part of its ideological apparatus in order to present a positive image of Nazism to the world.




2 the ‘present-day’ international olympic committee (and its branches) are a fascist organization



the evidence of this is overwhelming and unambiguous, but i will go into detail here, since it is important and also i wouldn’t generally expect people to pay much attention to the IOC. i myself only am aware of most of this due to living in a city that is being targeted for hosting an upcoming olympics (LA in 2028), and the intensification of State violence that has already begun at the IOC’s behest in collaboration with the city government, if i didnt live here i would ignore the olympics in general much less the ioc.



~ the IOC recently exposed themselves by openly celebrating Hitler and his regime’s inauguration of the olympics in 1936, then tried to delete their statement and backtrack after even the mainstream media criticized their open celebration of nazism. 
(see for example https://www.forbes.com/sites/carlie...ut-1936-games-in-nazi-berlin/?sh=7b247f557007)
such behavior from the IOC is ‘the rule not the exception’, tho unfortunately not all of the IOC’s other violent statements and actions receive that same level of attention.



~ the USOC was aware of “USA-gymnastics” coach Nassar’s serial s**ual abuse in 2015 and deliberately allowed it to continue for years, for which they were sued as has also been acknowledged-ish in the mainstream media recently. this is ‘only’ the latest of many instances of the IOC’s enabling of abuse of the athletes it claims to protect but in reality exploits and profits off of.
 see for example https://www.glamour.com/story/simon...ing-abuse-it-was-excruciating-and-exceptionalhttps://www.ocregister.com/2018/12/...028-los-angeles-put-usoc-partnership-on-hold/ 
and https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2...on-from-governing-bodies-after-abuse-scandals


~ i am most aware of the actions of IOC’s local partner, the LA2028 committee starting with its president Casey Wasserman. Wasserman has his own history of covering up gender violence as a member of the Activision Blizzard board of directors, https://www.polygon.com/22787226/activision-blizzard-shareholder-bobby-kotick-resignation [bobby kotick is still the CEO of Activision btw] [so it is hardly surprising that he ignored survivors’ calls to put LA2028 on hold until some change within the IOC/USOC as described in the second link in the above paragraph].
 Casey Wasserman also helped lead Activision’s ongoing union busting campaign against the Game Workers Alliance, engaging in illegal labor practices ranging from wage theft to various retaliations against both individual union activists and stores that have unionized. theres way too much to cover in detail but see for example https://lawstreetmedia.com/news/tec...zzard-withheld-raises-for-unionizing-workers/
tbc Wasserman stepped down from the Activision Board six months ago (no reason was given), but Activision’s union busting has gone on for over a year, and its illegal exploitative labor practices much longer than that.
two other LA2028 board members are also on the Starbucks board of directors, Mellody Hobson and Andy Campion (Nike COO), currently leading another ‘prominent’ union-busting campaign, see e.g. https://www.vox.com/recode/2022/8/25/23309517/starbucks-union-contract-bargaining-strikes or https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...-fight-for-unions-at-starbucks-one-year-later

~ very relevant for ppl who live here in la is also LA2028’s connection to the local politicians who were recently caught on tape directing hate speech / semi-slurs at black children. Ron Herrera was quietly removed from the board of directors list that is on LA2028’s website after the tape became public. Gil Cedillo was the City Council president who pushed through LA2028’s approval. The ‘context’ in which Nury Martinez started spewing hate speech and slurs, was her and Kevin De Leon complaining about opposition/interference [from councilmembers such as Mike Bonin] to their efforts to make (secret/private) deals with the Rams and with LA2028, as well as promoting violence against houseless people who live in the sepulveda basin “as part of” their plans to build a venue for the planned 2028 games there. see e.g. https://knock-la.com/nury-martinez-la28-olympics-sepulveda-basin-rams/

LA2028 spoke openly about using the policing of last year’s super bowl as a test run for the olympics. This included CBP and ICE presence supposedly to target vendors of “counterfeit” merchandise, as well as intensified policing of the broader Inglewood area.



one could get into other cities that have recently hosted the Olympics or that are targeted for the games in the near future, and note the many instances in which the IOC has enacted violence against the most vulnerable populations, pretty much every olympics you hear about something. also other examples of overt fascism in the higher levels of the IOC, but i am speaking to what i am most knowledgeable about which is what is happening in the city i live in. plus this post is long enough as is



tldr the IOC and its affiliates function as fascist primarily-ideological apparatuses on numerous fronts, and they play a prominent role in the propagation and normalization of fascist ideology, and implementation of fascist policy, certainly where i live and also around the world generally.




3 smogon leadership’s decision to recognize ‘Israel’ and allow ‘Israelis’ to compete under the flag of the zionist state.



this part applies to any ‘nations’ type tournament, i will keep this brief mainly because i dont fully understand the details of it (eg who made this choice, does it just apply to specific tournaments or is it a smogon-wide policy) but like for example https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/world-cup-of-pokemon-vgc-discussion.3688554/ which then got promoted in social media etc. i can see there was at least one palestinian player in this wcop but palestine is not listed as a nation here, again dont know the decision process or any more details.

this is ‘just’ one example of such issues that can come up, tho it is worth noting that participating in such a tournament might be felt by some as a violation of anti-normalization so it might be effectively excluding some players solely with that one decision. im glad eg that smogon recognizes puerto rico as a legitimate nation, again dont know how it was decided. i heard some things last year about admins deciding not to try to enforce restrictions that prevent migrants from playing for their home countries, again idk the specifics and idk why not just remove that policy but rly j mentioning it as another example of the issues involved.

i also dont understands if the 'recognized nations' are different in different tournaments, and if so how that works.


leaving this part very open-ended since i dont know if i have enough info but thought it should be included in the discussion. but such decisions obv has political significance in the same way that eg russian atheletes presently not being permitted to play under the national flag in many tourns, at the same time that the world cup is about to be played in stadiums built by enslaved people over the past several years and in which states that profit off of that and/or ‘similar’ enslavement (eg Saudi Arabia and the “U.S.”) are still allowed to compete. see e.g. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2016/03/qatar-world-cup-of-shame/ . and these decisions ofc also can affect individual competitors (some players may not care, some probably will).
Facts
 

Sabelette

from the river to the sea
is a Site Content Manageris a Community Contributoris a Top Contributoris a Forum Moderator Alumnus
congrats to all the medalists (flower)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~


ive tried to figure out where is the best place to put this and idk, so putting it here for now but i can move it elsewhere if that is preferred.

i was asked to play in roao again this time for rby and felt i had to decline for the same reasons as last year, having a tourn called “olympics” is pretty repulsive to me and i wouldnt feel comfortable participating for a few reasons. it was suggested that it could be worth discussing this publicly in smogon, also none of the ppl who i have engaged with about this either this year or last year seemed to know if there was a reason for the name choice or how/why it was originally chosen etc. 

i think many are likely to be unfamiliar with why “olympics” might be upsetting to a lot of ppl, so ill j focus on that in this post, and then i guess see what direction the convo goes in from there.


content warnings for race and gender violence, i ofc try not to describe violence explicitly.

1 the use of the term olympics commemorates white supremacy



this is maybe self-evident but briefly, the term olympics is used in reference to two things: the events run by the rich slaveowners of ancient athens, greece, which society is nonetheless held up as “the historical cradle of Western Civilization” or whatever; and the modern-day sporting event started by Nazi-germany as part of its ideological apparatus in order to present a positive image of Nazism to the world.




2 the ‘present-day’ international olympic committee (and its branches) are a fascist organization



the evidence of this is overwhelming and unambiguous, but i will go into detail here, since it is important and also i wouldn’t generally expect people to pay much attention to the IOC. i myself only am aware of most of this due to living in a city that is being targeted for hosting an upcoming olympics (LA in 2028), and the intensification of State violence that has already begun at the IOC’s behest in collaboration with the city government, if i didnt live here i would ignore the olympics in general much less the ioc.



~ the IOC recently exposed themselves by openly celebrating Hitler and his regime’s inauguration of the olympics in 1936, then tried to delete their statement and backtrack after even the mainstream media criticized their open celebration of nazism. 
(see for example https://www.forbes.com/sites/carlie...ut-1936-games-in-nazi-berlin/?sh=7b247f557007)
such behavior from the IOC is ‘the rule not the exception’, tho unfortunately not all of the IOC’s other violent statements and actions receive that same level of attention.



~ the USOC was aware of “USA-gymnastics” coach Nassar’s serial s**ual abuse in 2015 and deliberately allowed it to continue for years, for which they were sued as has also been acknowledged-ish in the mainstream media recently. this is ‘only’ the latest of many instances of the IOC’s enabling of abuse of the athletes it claims to protect but in reality exploits and profits off of.
 see for example https://www.glamour.com/story/simon...ing-abuse-it-was-excruciating-and-exceptionalhttps://www.ocregister.com/2018/12/...028-los-angeles-put-usoc-partnership-on-hold/ 
and https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2...on-from-governing-bodies-after-abuse-scandals


~ i am most aware of the actions of IOC’s local partner, the LA2028 committee starting with its president Casey Wasserman. Wasserman has his own history of covering up gender violence as a member of the Activision Blizzard board of directors, https://www.polygon.com/22787226/activision-blizzard-shareholder-bobby-kotick-resignation [bobby kotick is still the CEO of Activision btw] [so it is hardly surprising that he ignored survivors’ calls to put LA2028 on hold until some change within the IOC/USOC as described in the second link in the above paragraph].
 Casey Wasserman also helped lead Activision’s ongoing union busting campaign against the Game Workers Alliance, engaging in illegal labor practices ranging from wage theft to various retaliations against both individual union activists and stores that have unionized. theres way too much to cover in detail but see for example https://lawstreetmedia.com/news/tec...zzard-withheld-raises-for-unionizing-workers/
tbc Wasserman stepped down from the Activision Board six months ago (no reason was given), but Activision’s union busting has gone on for over a year, and its illegal exploitative labor practices much longer than that.
two other LA2028 board members are also on the Starbucks board of directors, Mellody Hobson and Andy Campion (Nike COO), currently leading another ‘prominent’ union-busting campaign, see e.g. https://www.vox.com/recode/2022/8/25/23309517/starbucks-union-contract-bargaining-strikes or https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...-fight-for-unions-at-starbucks-one-year-later

~ very relevant for ppl who live here in la is also LA2028’s connection to the local politicians who were recently caught on tape directing hate speech / semi-slurs at black children. Ron Herrera was quietly removed from the board of directors list that is on LA2028’s website after the tape became public. Gil Cedillo was the City Council president who pushed through LA2028’s approval. The ‘context’ in which Nury Martinez started spewing hate speech and slurs, was her and Kevin De Leon complaining about opposition/interference [from councilmembers such as Mike Bonin] to their efforts to make (secret/private) deals with the Rams and with LA2028, as well as promoting violence against houseless people who live in the sepulveda basin “as part of” their plans to build a venue for the planned 2028 games there. see e.g. https://knock-la.com/nury-martinez-la28-olympics-sepulveda-basin-rams/

LA2028 spoke openly about using the policing of last year’s super bowl as a test run for the olympics. This included CBP and ICE presence supposedly to target vendors of “counterfeit” merchandise, as well as intensified policing of the broader Inglewood area.



one could get into other cities that have recently hosted the Olympics or that are targeted for the games in the near future, and note the many instances in which the IOC has enacted violence against the most vulnerable populations, pretty much every olympics you hear about something. also other examples of overt fascism in the higher levels of the IOC, but i am speaking to what i am most knowledgeable about which is what is happening in the city i live in. plus this post is long enough as is



tldr the IOC and its affiliates function as fascist primarily-ideological apparatuses on numerous fronts, and they play a prominent role in the propagation and normalization of fascist ideology, and implementation of fascist policy, certainly where i live and also around the world generally.




3 smogon leadership’s decision to recognize ‘Israel’ and allow ‘Israelis’ to compete under the flag of the zionist state.



this part applies to any ‘nations’ type tournament, i will keep this brief mainly because i dont fully understand the details of it (eg who made this choice, does it just apply to specific tournaments or is it a smogon-wide policy) but like for example https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/world-cup-of-pokemon-vgc-discussion.3688554/ which then got promoted in social media etc. i can see there was at least one palestinian player in this wcop but palestine is not listed as a nation here, again dont know the decision process or any more details.

this is ‘just’ one example of such issues that can come up, tho it is worth noting that participating in such a tournament might be felt by some as a violation of anti-normalization so it might be effectively excluding some players solely with that one decision. im glad eg that smogon recognizes puerto rico as a legitimate nation, again dont know how it was decided. i heard some things last year about admins deciding not to try to enforce restrictions that prevent migrants from playing for their home countries, again idk the specifics and idk why not just remove that policy but rly j mentioning it as another example of the issues involved.

i also dont understands if the 'recognized nations' are different in different tournaments, and if so how that works.

oh also "israel" is listed in europe which is funny lol. (obv geographically, palestine is in southwest asia.)

leaving this part very open-ended since i dont know if i have enough info but thought it should be included in the discussion. but such decisions obv has political significance in the same way that eg russian atheletes presently not being permitted to play under the national flag in many tourns, at the same time that the world cup is about to be played in stadiums built by enslaved people over the past several years and in which states that profit off of that and/or ‘similar’ enslavement (eg Saudi Arabia and the “U.S.”) are still allowed to compete. see e.g. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2016/03/qatar-world-cup-of-shame/ . and these decisions ofc also can affect individual competitors (some players may not care, some probably will).
1000% support all of this, recognize Palestine, don't recognize and normalize settler-colonial states, and ideally name this tour after something else instead of an event only resurrected in modern times to try to validate white supremacy. Smogon recognizing these things won't change the world but as a Middle Eastern person these things help make people like me feel welcomed and supported and helps to not normalize shitty things that are normalized in the world at large. I personally don't have interest in participating in ROAO because of these things but absolutely would like to if they were changed.

Congrats to all the medalists, regardless.
 

peng

fuck xatu
is a Community Contributoris a Forum Moderator Alumnus
Congrats to the medallists, really enjoyed this as a spectator, especially on the BW OU side

Unsure where to start on the posts above me. It feels like setting the bar very for what is unpaid volunteer hosts running tournaments for a childrens video game

Expecting smogon to perfectly navigate complex international conflict is expecting a lot of, again, a bunch of volunteer hosts running pokemon tournaments- especially in situations like israel-palestine where even global superpowers blunder on a regular basis. And I say this as someone who is likely politically aligned with the users above, I just don’t know if its Smogon’s place to draw the line in the sand when even international powerhouses struggle to be consistent. We can do better here but unsure stripping recognition of israel is a realistic expectation of a pokemon website

the modern olympics being created to parade nazi ideaology isn’t really true; the modern olympics was restarted in 1896 and there were 10 games before 1936- yes the 1936 games introduced elements that we now consider synonymous with modern olympics (tv coverage, torch relay among others) but calling the olympics inherently nazi propaganda off the back of a couple of its 53 iterations, now over 80 years ago, is a stretch.

likewise, points about individual olympics boards members having previous controversies when working for activision are so many steps removed from “Ruins of Alph Olympics” for it to be a meaningful reason todeny the tournament of that name. Its not like anyone would see this tournament name and legitimately believe this to be an endorsement of previous gender violence at a Call of Duty distributor

maybe there is a midground here where this tournament would be better titled “Ruins of Alph Olympiad” in line with chess / maths etc, but i don’t think its necessary for an amateur pokemon website to tiptoe around language that in the real world doesn’t immediately associate with the negative stories you have (correctly) pointed out. Nobody argues that the olympics is perfect but is it honestly so rotten to the core as an event that we can’t play on the theming for, once again, an amateur pokemon tournament. Is anyone going to think that this tournament nameis an endorsement of nazi idealogy any more than me buying a mercedes would be

holding things to this standard we would never be able to host pokemon tournaments with irl tournament theming - olympics, world cup (horrific qatar migrant treatment), champions league (bribery scandals), premier league (saudi investment of newcastle), and any potential future tournament names e.g. smogon superbowl (demonisation if colin kapaernick), smogon grand prix (mercedes-benz links to nazi party)

the world is complex and to hold everything that this pokemon website does to this standard feels like farther than we need to go when I don’t think people really see any of this as endorsement of the points made above
 
(i dont think global superpowers “blunder” on the occupation of palestine, the nato-aligned powers materially benefit from the colonization and genocide which particularly the “u.s.” directly participates in thru giving millions of $ of weapons annually to the perpetrators. also blocking any accountability attempts at the un bc security council tho not like the un rly does anything to begin with, also intervening more concretely such as preventing intl investigation of the IDF’s (or IOF, whatever ppl choose to call it) recent murder of an al jazeera journalist. at most u might get token/performative acknowledgements that palestinians are human from the us-govt, usually u dont even get that just outright endorsements of genocide.
while non nato superpowers may have more contradictory material interests around the occupation of palestine which can be seen in their ambiguous or contradictory orientations.)

yea i do think it is that ‘rotten to the core’ to use the above wording. the 1936 olypmics are generally viewed as the first ones since it was not a significant international event prior to that, but idt that needs to be the focus here anyway. after all the 1904 games were used as a centenial celebration of the louisiana purchase and of amerikkkan race slavery, and the games featured a human zoo.

i dont rly have the knowledge to do a comprehensive history of the olympics but it has always been a event designed for promoting eugenics and white nationalism. u could talk about the 1968 games where the then IOC president Avery Brundage, who defended nazi germany ie was a nazi, launched a global retaliation campaign against black athletes who protested apartheid south africa and also said that “people of that kind” [black people] shouldnt be allowed on the olympic team at all. two additional athletes were also suspended from the 1972 olympics for a ‘milder’ protest. (the olympics retains an official policy against athletes ‘using’ the olympics for any form of protest, unchanged from when Brundage established it). and ofc there was another act of protest at the 1972 games but i suppose im not supposed to talk about that one…. but ‘black september’ has been utilized for the last 50 years by the IOC and by the zionist state to justify the genocide of palestinian people as ‘evidence’ of the “threat to Israel”.
the olympics took similar actions here in la to those being taken today, vast increases in policing and militarization of police and open violent campaigns waged against houseless people (“CRASH”). u are free to go thru every olympics over the past 90 or 120 years and try to find one that wasnt responsible for class violence on a large scale. i dont rly have the time for that and theres also nothing in ur response that rly suggests that there is any amount of evidence that would be sufficient to show that the olympics is “rotten to its core” rather than just coincidentally always happens to be run by nazis, ‘for some reason.’

the point of eg mentioning activision and starbucks is about who controls the olympics and what their interests are. the IOC doesnt have public meetings so we dont know whether they use racial slurs, or talk about attacking homeless people who are ‘in their way’, or etc. but we do know what their partners at city hall and in la2028 were caught saying on tape and the violent actions that they take in order to make the olympics happen. we know that the IOC publically celebrates italy’s election of a fascist prime minister, and we have every reason to believe that the IOC is in full support of the class violence waged by the la city government that is intended to please the IOC in 2028.

as for the point that some people dont automatically associate the olympics with nazism, white supremacy, or endorsement of genocide; all this is really evidence of is the effectiveness of propaganda. its also a circular argument. ‘well people dont associate this racist event with racism, so its okay for us to promote the racist event further by adopting the same name, and its okay since people wont associate us doing that with the racism of the event since ppl dont identify it as racist.’

i will leave the ‘but what about other event names’ for now, ill potentially engage with that later depending on what ppl say in the meantime and this msg is long enough.
also i will edit this post later to add in citations.
 
I think these are valid points but I’m not sure this is the proper place to really be discussing it at this point beyond the initial post. This is supposed to be a celebration of various people playing multiple tiers of mons over a month, working hard, to earn some medals and have a good time. Additionally, the hosts worked extremely hard to run this very complex tournament and I don’t think we should be taking absolutely anything away from them or anyone else involved in helping make this work.

These concerns about the word Olympics being used should be directed at the people organizing the events, not the hosts or participants, and a proper discussion could be had with them. But this topic is generally just viewed by the participants and hosts and while it’s nice to raise awareness on the issue, taking this any further than it already has gone should be done and discussed in other areas with the proper authority on this.

Congratulations again to all the medalists, and thank you Lumii and Lialiabeast for hosting this tour, I known it can be a nightmare sometimes and it started rocky, but it ended up finishing strong and I had a lot of fun.

Looking forward to next year’s edition, whatever it’s called then.
 

Siatam

is a Tutoris a Member of Senior Staffis a Community Contributoris a Former Old Generation Tournament Circuit Champion
RoA Leader
A huge thank you to the hardworking hosts and congratulations to the winners. I hope everyone had fun participating in the tour.

Thank you for bearing with us as we experimented with the tour format.

This thread has completed its purpose, if you feel inclined please do not hesitate to reach out to me with your thoughts. The mod team will take any feedback into consideration as we work to improve the tour for next year.
 
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