U.S. Army Esports is an

esports Esports, short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, individually or as teams. Although orga ...

team sponsored by the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

. The team, which consists of active duty and reserve personnel, was announced in November 2018 as a public outreach initiative operating within the

Fort Knox, Kentucky Fort Knox is a United States Army installation in Kentucky, south of Louisville and north of Elizabethtown. It is adjacent to the United States Bullion Depository, which is used to house a large portion of the United States' official gold res ...

-based Army Marketing and Engagement Team. Games in which the team announced it would compete include ''

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'', '' Counter-Strike: Global Offensive'', ''

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'', ''

League of Legends ''League of Legends'' (''LoL''), commonly referred to as ''League'', is a 2009 multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published by Riot Games. Inspired by ''Defense of the Ancients'', a Mod (video games), custom map for War ...

'', ''

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'' and ''

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''. In 2020, U.S. military esports activities garnered widespread media attention after a successful legal battle led by the ACLU forced them to lift the bans on the people they had removed for discussing war crimes committed by U.S. armed forces.

History

The U.S. Army Esports team was founded in November 2018. After the Army missed its recruiting goal for the first time in 13 years, the team was founded in an effort to modernize outreach efforts. In 2022 the team finished second in the inaugural Armed Forces Sports Championship in ''Halo Infinite'' that was played against the other U.S. service branches.

First Amendment concerns

The official US Army Esports Discord server and

Twitch Twitch may refer to: Biology * Muscle contraction ** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation ** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction ** Myoclonic twitch, a jerk usually caused by sudden muscle con ...

became the target of activists who began to post comments and

meme A meme ( ) is an idea, behavior, or style that spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture and often carries symbolic meaning representing a particular phenomenon or theme. A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural i ...

s referencing

war crimes committed by the United States United States war crimes are violations of the law of war committed by members of the United States Armed Forces after the signing of the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 and the Geneva Conventions. The United States prosecutes offenders throu ...

. This led to moderators of the Discord server temporarily restricting people from joining, and a number of Twitch users being banned from the U.S. Army Esports Twitch channel. The

American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...

and other organizations have claimed that the banning of Twitch users from the channel is a violation of the

First Amendment to the United States Constitution The First Amendment (Amendment I) to the United States Constitution prevents the government from making laws that regulate an establishment of religion, or that prohibit the free exercise of religion, or abridge the freedom of speech, the ...

. An official spokesperson for the U.S. Army noted that users were subsequently banned after trolling and harassing members of the team; however, some bans were lifted.

Fake giveaway accusations

The team has been accused of promoting fake giveaways on Twitch by providing links that they claimed would enter viewers into a giveaway for an Xbox Elite Series 2 controller, but rather redirected viewers to a recruitment form. Twitch asked the channel to remove those links, which the Esports channel complied with. The team noted that they had given away ten controllers, gaming stations, and chairs in the past year.

Return to Twitch

In response to the mass criticism, the U.S. Army Esports team announced on 22 July 2020 that they would halt activity on Twitch and would likely resume activity in Spring 2021. However, the team returned to Twitch on 14 August 2020. On 22 July 2020, U.S. Representative

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (; ; born October 13, 1989), also known by her initials AOC, is an American politician and activist. She has served as the U.S. representative for New York's 14th congressional district since 2019, as a member of th ...

filed a draft amendment to the House Appropriations Bill that would prohibit the U.S. Military from " aintaininga presence on Twitch or any video game, e-sports, or live-streaming platform." This amendment has since been defeated however, with the final vote being 292–126 against it and 13 members abstaining from voting.

References

{{Reflist Esports teams based in the United States Fort Knox Military recruitment United States Army 2020 controversies in the United States Video game controversies Twitch (service) streamers