Adam Fitch was a veteran esports journalist from 2018 until 2023. It was until 2023 where he began to be disenchanted by the industry that he was voted a finalist for Esports Journalist of The Year for 2020, 2021, and 2022. Adam Fitch was a bonafide esports journalist veteran in the industry and was at one point unmatched for journalistic volume of articles. But he soon began to be disenchanted by the entire industry. To listen to the entire interview, check out our video here.   Esports Heaven got the chance to talk with Adam Fitch about his exit from esports and what he think about it from afar, after being out of the industry for at least one year. Adam Fitch started at Cybersport and just googled “esports news” and just emailed the top results sites. One was Cybersport and the other was Esports Insider. The funny thing is, Adam Fitch joined Cybersport.com, but this website was owned by ESForce (which is a subsidiary of mail.ru) and they own Virtus Pro, as well as have ties to a Russian oligarch. “I effectively entered esports in a conflict of interest as a journalist without knowing the conflict of interest because I didn’t know the shady business ties”. He goes on to talk about freelancing for VPEsports during the time when Kevin Hitt was Editor-in-Chief and they had agreed on a rate for an article. “We agreed on a rate, it went live, [then I] never got payed. Tried chasing, never got payed. Kept chasing Kevin, still didn’t get payed. Tweeted about it, Kevin said, ‘you didn’t need to go public about it. What are you doing man, you should have just messaged me.’ I said, ‘check your emails’. [I then] got paid. And then that was the end of the relationship”. Adam also talks about his time at Esports Insider where he was the only full-time editor, which posed an issue with trying to get things accomplished that he personally wanted to write or create. “I was the only full-time editorial staff[…] Every day was a grind[…] with freelancers who have no real obligation to be around at certain times and to get stuff done[...] I had to muck in a lot more than I’d like to which obviously takes away your time to think high-level strategy-wise about what you’re going to do”. He also talked about the grind of working at Esports Insider. “Every day I was working beyond my contracted hours”. Adam also talks about one of his biggest stories which was the breaking news about Immortals purchasing OpTic gaming in 2019. “I remember when I was ready to pull the trigger on that article, I was questioning everything. ‘Am I sure these people aren’t playing me’? But I had done my due diligence. It was a huge story for esports as a whole because it was a homegrown team”. Adam then shared some insights on the first story he had pulled from his publication because it was just too hot for them to handle in regards to Bayes Esports, which is a statistical data company that creates in-game data for Riot Games, ESL, BLAST and other organizations. All of the information he gathered was alleged reporting. Adam Fitch also shared his beef with the lack of esports editors in the esports journalism space because of the pay rates. “No wonder there’s nobody established that’s going to come into esports[...] At most you’re going to get $50k for it. I was paid $21K a year to be the editor for Esports Insider. If I worked in Subway, I would probably get that or a little bit more”. Adam goes on about his time at Dexerto as the Business Lead, particularly his critical opinion piece about FaZe clan’s appearance on Sports Illustrated and how it was denied publication. “Somebody high up in the company basically said this was a moment of celebration, so let’s not shit all over FaZe. If you looked at the cover story, they mentioned esports in like 2-3 sentences out of the full feature and it was not a celebration of esports whatsoever[...] Somebody thought my opinion was basically shit”. Adam then talks about the problems with SEO and Upcomer’s most viewed articles. “I got access to their dashboard just before everything went to shit and it was all Yugioh video game SEO that was bringing in their views.” Adam talks about the difficulties about reading financials statements and Sheep Esports. “That’s why you have to speak to people about what they’re on about [people that are knowledgeable]. I got confirmation that I looked at things right a few times before I went off on my own[...] I don’t think you should ever assume as a journalist, it’s about being certain in what you’re doing. Let’s say they were certain and still butchered it, that’s makes it even better [worse]. It just shows how cloudy they are mentally”. Adam then discusses his time at Hitmarker, which is his last publication he worked with. He called himself the “king of churnalism”. We asked what he meant by that and if this was the reason why he quit. “No! That was the reason why I got good! I was writing 4-5 pieces a day and that’s how I was learning[...] I think I just became jaded with the industry in general because I could see the direction it was going. Spoiler it was going the way I fucking said it would and partnered with a government I agree with how theory handle things”. Adam Fitch also had something to say about Esports Journalist of The Year Award from the Esports Awards. “The journalists that are nominated are safe. James Fudge is not going to get nominated or win. And if he does, he should not go[...] When your tournaments are now Saudi-based, and your teams are all working with them[...] and now even your awards are now working with them[...] I’m now going to view it as, ‘who does Saudi Arabia want to win Journalist of The Year’”? Adam Fitch also has some parting words about his career in esports journalism. “ I’m pretty proud of what I’ve done. I didn’t have the impact that some other people have had, but that’s them and not me. I can point to things that nobody are aware of that I’ve impacted behind the scenes positively, so I can look at certain things and go, ‘oh I’ve made a bit of a difference’. On the journalism side, I was happy enough with what I’ve done, but not satisfied. I felt like I could have broken more important stories[...] It was fun until it wasn’t”. To hear more about this interview with Adam Fitch, please visit the Youtube video to gain more insights. This entire interview was in the wake of the Esports World Cup and several esports journalistic outlets closing down, conducted on July 19, 2024.

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Previously this article said Adam called himself the king of journalism. This was an error and been corrected to "churnalism". Izento has been a writer for the LoL scene since Season 7, and has been playing LoL since Season 1. Follow him on Twitter at @ggIzento for more League content. For more LoL content, check out our LoL section