Will Unicorns of Love be Required to Change Their Name?

FatedTitan·9/15/2014, 7:05:56 PM·3 votes·3,653 views

Maybe I'm just not a fan of silly names like UoL in a professional setting, but I'm wondering if Riot is. Unicorns of Love is an incredibly unprofessional name and is the type of name that most would stereotype eSports as. It's hard enough to gain credibility in this new industry and to gain fans that don't think it's something for little kids. When you have a team like "Unicorns of Love", it won't help public perception at all.

Imagine that you've finally convinced your friend to check out LCS. You're excited that he's going to watch because you know if you can get him to watch once, he'll be hooked. He turns it on and the first thing he sees on screen is "Unicorns of Love." You think he's sticking around to watch LCS? Heck no. He's Xing out and turning the TV back on. He probably thinks they're sponsored by My Little Pony and thinks that's typical of what he'd think a pro gamer team would be like.

Unicorns of Love leaves a bad mark on the entire LCS structure and turns any professional credibility gained into just another laughable joke that outsiders think is typical of pro graming. There's no reason to lose the credibility we've gained due to the immaturity of one group of players. And yes, I do believe the name Unicorns of Love is immature. It sounds like a name that middle schoolers would come up with.

12 Comments

sp4419/15/2014, 7:27:56 PM4 votes

Yes, ONE NAME is going to completely and utterly demolish the entire eSport circuit credibility.

Y'now, I don't give one half of a crap about eSports, but if I did, I doubt that one stupid name would completely turn me off the entire thing.

The Chin9/15/2014, 7:26:00 PM3 votes

I would be pretty upset if Riot forced UOL to change their name. Sure e-sports is a profession, but these are professional GAMERS and silly names is basically an intrinsic part of gaming.

More importantly, who cares what anyone else thinks of their name!? It's not offensive, it's not hurting anyone. They climbed up the ranked 5's ladder all the way to the challenger series because they're that good at the game. They've earned the right to have whatever team name they want.

Don't take everything so seriously :p

Wheatloaf9/15/2014, 7:20:43 PM2 votes

And Supah Hot Crew is terribly professional? We'd have more names like these if it weren't for the fact that most teams are named after whatever organization backs them. I don't think we really need to care what other people think of esports. If they actually care about them, a silly team name won't be a huge turn-off.

Sir ArmaMalum9/15/2014, 7:20:34 PM2 votes

This is an interesting topic.

Part of me wants to say that the team name is the team's problem, and any ridicule and/or lack of professional regard should be expected if they're determined to carry the name. But you do bring a good point of the fragility of e-sport's reputation right now. We're on a nice little precipice of breaking into mainstream (e-sports in general, not just LoL) and having people who aren't hardcore players actually looking forward to watching the games as they would a college football game. I'll give more lee-way to e-sports teams due to the less serious nature of e-sports (we have robots bashing on spartans bashing on small children) but when it gets to the pro level there are indeed going to be lines drawn. Hopefully the expanding collegiate scene (and their pre-established mascots/names) will help this issue along. Until then though I'm inclined to agree with you, at least until e-sports as a whole has a decent reputation buffer.

Teenbus9/15/2014, 8:09:50 PM2 votes

Because having casters yell "AND I'M A CUTIE PIE GETS THE ACE" destroyed esports as we know it, right?

Sunfield9/15/2014, 7:48:19 PM1 votes

Lol esport has this sweet allowance to be silly and amusing while being equally entertaining to a normal sport.

IâmMe8/22/2015, 5:53:39 PM1 votes

Just BTW not everybody thinks everything needs to be pseudo-mature. True maturity is doing what you do! UoL does what they do, so they are mature.

P.S. Unicorns of Love are the reason why I watch LCS at all.