Vitality’s Paris office attacked during protests

Yesterday, October 17th, French youths took to the streets of Paris to make themselves heard.

There was a protest held over, in their view, high taxes and the welfare state’s prioritization of the elderly. Many argued that the nation was willing to sacrifice its future to maintain a fragile present. For many in Europe living in similar situations, that message likely resonates.

However, not everyone on the streets yesterday had good intentions, as social media made abundantly clear.

Most notable to us, as an Esports website, was people attacking Vitality’s office.

People are seen smashing the windows. Attacking the building as a whole. Which seems a bit much for a protest that barely involves Vitality. You can argue they’re involved with capitalism, and that it’s poison to society, if you’re so inclined. But we don’t get the impression that that was the thought process here.

Especially as moments later, PCs were being dismantled to sell for parts, and the StarLadder StarSeries trophy was stolen. They later threw gaming chairs onto heaps of fire.

We aren’t convinced that this was a necessary step towards achieving their goals. We want to make that clear, but we also don’t want to engage in the discourse this has caused.

Many people online have taken to racially discriminating against people based on these actions, as well as making sweeping statements about different groups of people. This is simply ridiculous. It’s clear these bad actors are opportunists who saw a real moment of civil unrest and used it to enrich themselves. These guys are obviously awful, but they don’t represent the whole protest, or anyone but themselves.

The Esports community has seen this — obviously shocking — footage, and too many of us have drawn the wrong conclusions.

A big credit in that regard goes out to Neo, Vitality’s CEO and co-founder. He released a statement after the footage surfaced, saying how much this place means to him, how it was a dream and a symbol of how Esports came together.

And, as he put it, “I see a part of me go up in smoke.” He has every right to be angry and to admonish people, but instead, he stressed the following:

“The right to demonstrate is a fundamental freedom that I will defend all my life. Thank you to those who mobilize for their convictions. But looting and destruction should never be part of these fights.”

“Tonight, I simply have a lot of sorrow.”

It must have been hard for him to say, and we respect his measured, thoughtful response. Instead of pointing fingers, deflecting, or worse, he pointed out the importance of protests. A personal part of him was impacted, and he maintained a level of cool twitter fans weren't able to replicate.

We hope Vitality recovers from this incident and that the damage is not too severe. Our thoughts are with anyone at the organization who has to deal with the aftermath and sees their workplace ransacked.

If we can leave you with anything, let it be this: please, be kind to others.