In April, crypto exchange FTX paid esports company TSM $US210 ($292) million to change its name to TSM FTX. On Wednesday, TSM FTX changed its name back to just plain old TSM days after FTX filed for bankruptcy following the biggest crash in crypto history. And it only had to spam Twitter’s save button hundreds of times to do it.
“We’ve suspended our partnership with FTX effective immediately,” TSM posted on Twitter earlier today. The largest esports company in the world said this meant it would remove all mentions of the crypto exchange from its existing branding and merchandise while also stressing that it was still a “profitable and stable organisation” despite the uncertainty around the previous agreement to receive $US210 ($292) million from FTX over a 10 year period.
There was just one problem: TSM was still TSM FTX on Twitter. “Better change that twitter name then,” replied one user. “Unfortunately at this time with the changes to Twitter verification, we’re not able to,” the company wrote back.
when the A story and B story finally connect pic.twitter.com/sI7xtAVBBw
— Rob DenBleyker (@RobDenBleyker) November 16, 2022
Ever since Elon Musk took over Twitter and started pissing on the walls and shitting on the carpets, the social media platform has been wracked by sudden and cruel layoffs, half-assed product launches, and broken features. One of the big changes is that verified users are no longer able to change their name because at one point accounts started responding to the chaos by posing as blue check parody accounts posing as Nintendo, Lockheed Martin, and even Musk himself.
FTX’s big blowup as a result of its CEO’s hubris and negligence thus intersected at a transcendent 90 degree angle with Twitter’s own big blowup as a result of its CEO’s hubris and negligence. At least for a little while.
Pro gamers that they are, it didn’t take those at TSM too long to figure out an exploit. It turns out that trying to save a name change over and over again as rapidly as possible will eventually make it stick. “For any verified people wanting to change their display name. Giga giga spam save when changing your display name on DESKTOP only. TSM social team fingers are now worn out,” tweeted the company’s global head of social, as first reported by Axios.
Outside of that initial hiccup, TSM’s post-FTX transition appears to have gone smoothly. It’s not really clear how much deeper the relationship between the two companies went besides plastering those three letters everywhere TSM fans might see them.
VCs were impressed by Bronze III??🥉 (no offense to bronze IIIs) https://t.co/ArcyzEo4pM
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) November 15, 2022
Notably, Sam Bankman-Fried, FTX’s founder and the new face of crypto Ponzi schemes, was a big fan of League of Legends. He played it during meetings with big investors. He was also reportedly terrible at, leading even U.S. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to dunk on his Bronze III ranking. But whether his love of the Riot Games MOBA had anything to do with him pushing the TSM sponsorship in the first place, it didn’t even end up leading to FTX appearing at League of Legends events. Riot prohibited the letters from appearing anywhere near its competitive games, including Valorant, because of the “activation risks” to fans associated with crypto promotion.
And while TSM will no doubt miss that $US210 ($292) million, especially at a time when esports companies are battling layoffs amid the ongoing recession, things could have been worse. FTX was pushing its token, FTT, as part of the deal, but TSM told The Washington Post that it sold off that crypto months ago, before it plummeted after the exchange blew up.
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