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I'm writing this in direct response to what was discussed in the last sober (ish) state of the game of the year: that there's few if any unbiased, unaffiliated interviewers and talk personalities in the community.
I'd like to create a space where anyone from players, team managers even tournament organizers can come and speak on neutral ground about a specific event, trend or just give more of their perspective than we get at events and more basic, structured interviews.
Why me? I'm a completely unknown remember of the community who has contributed exactly nothing prior to this point. Which is precisely why I want to do something. I have experience in improv, stand up and hosting and feel very comfortably speaking my mind, being direct and even making someone uncomfortable in front of a large audience.
Of course, this only works if people are willing to buy in and generously give me their time to see if this is going to be worth it. Personally, I'd be OK if this failed spectacularly, as long as I get to try. Anyone interested in humoring me or giving suggestions please shoot me a PM.
Either way, if TLO comes to PAX East I challenge him to a fashion off.
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Well, it's a tough way to start but definitely good if you can pull it off. I'd like to help contribute to this if you ever get it off the ground.
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I’ve been thinking about the problems that were reported on SotG between the players, the casters and the tournament organizers where everyone is apparently disrespecting everyone else. Naniwas recent probe usage vs. Nestea churns that discussion up again, this time through a lens focused on poor Johan. I’m in a doctoral program in school psychology focusing on neuropsychological assessment. A lot has been said about recent events but the developmental perspective is one that hasn’t been covered in depth. It’s useful because it relieves a lot of the blame from the discussion.
The assumption being made by the casters and the tournaments is that players will be able to regulate their behavior. What I know about brain development, particularly for males in their early twenties, tells me that this might not be the case. The last part of your brain to finish developing involves long term planning, and emotion regulation. This means that the people that age are more likely to act impulsively in the moment and not recognize the long term consequences of their actions. For guys that age under a tectonic amount of internal and external stress in an important tournament series, the demand of the situation far outpaces their ability to keep their emotions in check.
I’m sure Idra would love to keep himself under control and not tilt and I’m sure Naniwa regrets the probe rush. However, their ability to mechanically play the game is developed out of proportion with the affective challenges of playing the game at the top level. Even mannered players like Sheth can show it in less defiant ways by forgetting a spawning pool. This isn’t all bad news; it’s for the same reason why players like White-ra, Nestea and Sen don’t get rattled or tilted nearly as much as other players. Part of it is their larger body of experience, but also their ability to regulate their behavior under stress is neurologically more developed. This means that younger, more impulsive players will only improve as their mental control develops in line with their physical control.
The application of this information for tournaments is clear cut. If the players are challenged by regulating themselves, then there must be some external regulation. This can be both positive and negative. For example: a player should have the option of a 2 minute break after a game where they can talk to a coach or breathe for a moment. This is only the span of a few more commercials or one more piece of caster banter. There should also be penalties when players don’t utilize supports; more external regulation to compensate for poor internal regulation. Recognize the stress the players are under and give them a choice. Possibly allow coaches to call a quick time out to speak with their player and reground them as in a traditional sport. I’m sure tournament staff could easily come up with many other ways to tweak the flow of events to give this sort of flexibility after this year’s experiences.
This is not to say that there’s a blank check for player misbehavior, but that it should be recognized for a potential deficit in many of the professional player population. There may be situations where players are set-up, which does not excuse their behavior, but should spark the questions of what we, in all parts of the community, can do differently to prevent these unfortunate occurrences.
It’s important to recognize that steps can easily be taken to support the players which require only a small amount of conscientious accommodation by the casters and tournament organizers. Hopefully, these sort of steps should result in a smoother experience for everyone involved.
Thanks for having the patience hopefully read all this.
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Well said! I agree that (especially in naniwa's case as well as those in the younger category) can't be expected to regulate their emotional state in the same way and as well as say a WhiteRa, or a Nestea, as you said the Maturity and breadth of experience simply isn't there yet. It's a long hard road to understanding that sometimes the appropriate reaction and the one that is about to burst out of you are not one and the same.
This post actually hits pretty close to my own heart, since I am a very emotional/competitive person and as much as I love to win, I HATE TO LOSE even more! Yesterday was actually one of my biggest freakouts, I had a game won (so I thought) and proceeded to throw it away. The actual scenario though is not what is important, suffice it to say I blew up on my opponent after the game. I said all of the usual insults that terran gets thrown its way, Imba, mmm more, etc. etc.. And the guys reaction astounded me...he was not only extremely smpathetic he actually watched the replay with me (at the same time as me since there is no replays with friends mode >,< Blizzzzzaaaarrrrdddd!) and step by step we worked out where I had gone wrong and what I should be focusing on in order to actually get better.
This person ( who doesn't know me from Adam) took time to sit and talk with someone who had just said all sorts of nasty things to them and not only turned the other cheek but embraced me and turned me towards a better more balanced view of my time spent playing this game, in the process of teaching me not only about the game but about myself. In short RangerJim the guy who did this astounded me with his level of maturity and his passion for the game, so much so that I accused him of being a smurf of Day[9]'s
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Also this sounds like an awesome Idea, getting it started is going to a chore though, I'm an editor and marketing assistant let me know if I can do anything to help!
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I've tried to find the right software set-up to get the interviews started. A negative side effect of perusing an education in social sciences is that you get technologically incompetent pretty quickly at least in comparison to my engineer friends. Is there a program that goes with Skype that is efficient for recording conversations into an easily readable format? As usual, my ambition outpaces my practical knowledge. I apologize if this information is readily available somewhere that I missed.
As with many things in Esports, I feel like I'm "building the bicycle as I ride it".
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EPT
