Ahead of the start of the Rocket League competitions at the Esports World Cup, scheduled to begin on August 8, a controversial advertising billboard appeared in the Paris Metro. On the poster, created with the assistance of artificial intelligence, former World Champion Alexis "zen" Bernier was mistakenly pictured wearing a Team Liquid jersey.
This incident has caused a stir, as the 19-year-old esports athlete has competed for Team Vitality for almost his entire professional career and is the organization's main franchise star. Although Team Liquid plays a prominent role at the EWC (in 2025, they finished second in the Club Championship standings, winning three titles and $4,000,000 in prize money), the organization has not fielded a Rocket League roster since the conclusion of the Gamers8 tournament in 2023.
The billboard near the Porte de Versailles exhibition center is part of a massive EWC promotional campaign. It promotes tickets for the tournament and seven of the event's partners, including Qiddiyah City, the stc Group, and Secret Lab. However, due to the sloppy use of AI, the EWC logo and Team Liquid's sponsors—Monster Energy and Alienware—were merged together in the image. It is worth noting that neither of these brands has previously been associated with zen's team or the tournament itself.
The low-quality generation affected another player as well. Axel "Vatira" Touret was pictured in a pink EWC 2025-era Karmine Corp jersey featuring a Logitech sponsor logo. This collaboration ended back in January 2026 after a partnership was signed with Team Razer. Furthermore, the poster shows the Frenchman playing with a keyboard and mouse, whereas in reality, he always competes using a controller.
The situation has already raised questions not only about the quality of the advertising campaign but also regarding the observance of the players' image rights. The head of Prodigy Agency and zen's agent, Jérôme Coupez, publicly confirmed that he has taken the incident under his control.
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