Popular Twitch streamer Félix “xQc” Lengyel was met with a week suspension from Twitch following his broadcast of the Olympic events. He was hit by a DMCA notice by the International Olympic Committe, which forced the week-long suspension. Lengyel filed a counter-claim, which, for all intents and purposes, threw the ball back at the IOC's court. If the IOC wants to move forward, it could file a lawsuit against Lengyel. This has sparked a conversation around the limits of fair use. In Lengyel's case, he was watching a badminton event, to which he was adding his own expressive reactions and commentary on top. This week, Imad is joined by Brandon J. Huffman, a digital media lawyer at Odin Law and Media, to discuss the case, potential previous precedents, as well as where this case could go.

To say that a new, disturbing layer of the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing's lawsuit against Activision Blizzard seemed to come to light every day since the suit's initial filing last week would not be that big of an understatement. These included, but were not limited to, further allegations of harassment and pay disparity towards female employees, crude remarks at the Blizzard booth during the Black Hat Cybersecurity Conference, men walking into breastfeeding rooms, and a bombshell report detailing goings-on at the so-called Cosby Suite at BlizzCon 2013. As the web of allegations grows, so do the legal complexities of the case. This week, Imad is joined by Irene Scholl-Tatevosyan, a labor and employment attorney and senior associate at Nixon Peabody LLP, and Vice President of the Esports Bar Association, to sift through the allegations, old and new, through a legal lens.

The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing filed suit against Activision Blizzard, alleging that the company fosters a "frat boy" workplace where female employees are mistreated. And that's just the legalese -- the allegations require a much stronger stomach to read. The suit was filed last Wednesday, July 21, after a two-year investigaiton into a company culture that allegedly allowed binge drinking, discrimination against and harassment of female employees, and a bevy of ignored HR complaints about events disturbing in quantity and content. Hunter Cooke, who helped break the story for Dot Esports, joins Imad for this episode to help break down the parameters of the suit and to recount what the backlash has been internally and externally.

Evo is back! Sony's aquisition of the world's most famour fighting game tournament has been well-received by the fighting game community, and the benefits of the increased investment and resources from Sony have expanded to include the ability to not only put on a year-end, in-person event in Las Vegas as is tradition, but to also give a portion of the spotlight to smaller games and studios. Also, Slap City developers Ludosity have taken a page out of the Super Smash Bros. handbook to launch Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl -- a multi-IP platform fighter that will include a roster ranging from Spongebob to the Teenage Mutant Ninja turtles to Powdered Toast Man. To talk about both of these topics, usual producer and temporary Imad fill-in Henrique DaMour is joined by Dot Esports FGC writer Cale Michael to talk about Sony's present and future relationship with the most grassroots esports scene's biggest tournament and Ludosity's newest title.

From the jump, the Overwatch League was supposed to bridge the gap between esports and traditional sports, from its regionalized model to the organizations and people that bought into the league before its inaugural season in 2018. To maintain competitive integrity, a soft salary cap exists in the OWL, but a players' union does not. The U.S. Department of Justice recnetly launched an investigation into the OWL's practices around this issue and the legality of it from an antitrust perspective. Imad is joined by Dot Esports lead investigative reporter Jacob Wolf to break down why the existence of a salary cap in the U.S. will raise red flags without the presence of a players' union, where America's jurisdiction ends given the international representation in the League, and more.

Traditional sports franchises buying esports teams or creating their own is nothing new in the modern esports world. But the very new COVID-19 pandemic and the financial trouble it plunged a lot of sports teams into has very real trickle-down consequences for those teams' esports ventures. One of the oldest soccer clubs in Germany, FC Schalke 04, suffered a historic relegation into the 2. Bundesliga in 2020. Combined with the pandemic's effect on its finances, the club felt it had no choice but to sell its League of Legends team's slot in the LEC to Swiss buyers Team BDS. This week, Imad is joined by Dot Esports investigative reporter Pablo "Bloop" Suárez to break down the massive sale.

The mobile gaming esports market is exploding -- probably at a higher rate than you think. In overseas markets, the genre dominates the playerbase and ecosystem to a far larger degree, and in India specifically, Garena Free Fire is king. Imad is joined by Rishi Alwani of IGN India to discuss just what makes Free Fire so popular in India, and what the takeaways are for Western esports fans from its meteoric rise.

Twitch and esports have fully embraced co-streaming, and by doing so, have jumped on the wave of personality-driven content by giving popular personalities the rights to their broadcasts in order to have their product reach as many people as possible. Consumers of the content find themselves interacting with the personalities associated with it, and fans of the co-streamers themselves are introduced to the product being streamed. It's not as simple a win-win on the surface, however. Imad is joined by Venn's dGon to talk about the newest emerging content delivery system in esports.

Another year, another online convention. E3 2021 will be online this year, which, while an upgrade from 2020, still leaves developers and journalists alike with unique challenges to adapt to at one of the world's biggest trade shows. Imad is joined by CNN Underscored's Mike Andronico to talk about the differences between this year's con and last year's, as well as what to expect from Sony and Nintendo, both of which will try to overcome self-imposed adversities as E3 nears.