GeoGuessr has made the decision to withdraw from the Esports World Cup after facing significant backlash from its community. The popular geography game, which boasts an impressive 85 million users, places players in random locations worldwide, challenging them to pinpoint their exact position. With a wide array of customization options, players can tailor their gaming experience, choosing opponents, maps, and settings like urban or rural environments, geographical restrictions, and movement capabilities, including the popular "No Move, Pan, or Zoom" (NMPZ) mode. The game's success is also bolstered by a vibrant community that contributes a vast array of custom maps.
The controversy began when Zemmip, representing creators of many of GeoGuessr's most popular maps, initiated a "blackout" on May 22, rendering their maps unplayable. This action was a protest against GeoGuessr's participation in the Esports World Cup in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Zemmip's statement, posted on the GeoGuessr subreddit, highlighted the severe human rights issues in Saudi Arabia, including the oppression of women, the LGBTQ community, apostates, atheists, political dissenters, migrant workers, and religious minorities. The statement accused GeoGuessr of contributing to Saudi Arabia's sportswashing efforts, which aim to divert attention from these human rights abuses.
The blackout involved numerous map creators and was set to continue until GeoGuessr canceled its wildcard event in Saudi Arabia and committed to not hosting future events there as long as the country's oppressive regime persists. The statement concluded with a powerful message: "You don't play games with human rights."
Following the blackout and subsequent outcry from fans on social media and the subreddit, GeoGuessr responded swiftly. On the same day, CEO and co-founder Daniel Antell released a statement announcing the company's withdrawal from the Esports World Cup. Antell emphasized the company's initial intent to engage with the Middle Eastern community and spread GeoGuessr's mission of exploring the world. However, he acknowledged the community's strong opposition, reaffirming GeoGuessr's commitment to being a community-first game. The statement promised forthcoming information on how the wildcard spots would be redistributed.
The GeoGuessr community celebrated the decision, with one top comment on the subreddit humorously referencing the game's scoring system, saying, "Now that's a 5K," indicating a perfect score. Another user praised the community's unity and effectiveness in advocating for their values.
Despite GeoGuessr's withdrawal, the Esports World Cup, set to take place in July, will still feature participation from numerous other games and publishers, including Dota 2, Valorant, Apex Legends, League of Legends, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, and Rainbow Six Siege, among others.
In other news, GeoGuessr's recent launch on Steam faced its own set of challenges, initially debuting as the second-worst-rated game on the platform. Players criticized the lack of features in the free-to-play version, such as the inability to play solo for practice, the presence of bots in the amateur mode, and the fact that paid features from the browser version do not transfer to the Steam version. Despite these issues, the game's rating has since improved to the seventh-worst on Steam.
