Can you love something and be viscerally disgusted by it at the same time? Doesn’t something have to break? City of the Wolves would likely not exist without the Public Investment Fund. SNK probably wouldn’t either, and I can’t blame anyone who developed this game for using this opportunity to make something they loved. But people like Ronaldo get thrown out of the fighting game community. Guys like Infiltration, a multiple-time EVO champion who was convicted of beating his wife, and TempestNYC, another EVO champion who couldn’t keep his hands to himself. The list goes on. This community is deeply queer, largely made up of people of color, and extremely protective of its grassroots origins and the people in it. Corporate, moneyed influence is something it — no, we — have always fought against because this community is ours. We built it. It’s not for sale. Every year, some of the greatest fighting game players in the world turn down the chance to compete at the Esports World Cup for life-changing money because it is funded by the Public Investment Fund and they do not feel safe, as queer people, in Saudi Arabia. I’m sure City of the Wolves will headline the next event in Riyadh next year, and more people will have to decide what they believe. At some point, you are who you choose to be.