[IEM] Gamescom - Day 5 - Page 12

On August 21 2011 19:14 billyX333 wrote:
The crowd killed it for me. I don't understand why IEM/MLG don't adopt an anti-booing policy and a warning then ban for repeat offenders. Most of these gamers are young 20 year olds and no body wants to feel hated by an entire crowd of people. Its hard enough to talk and get in front of a huge crowd so I can't even imagine what its like performing in front of a crowd that wants you to fail.

I'm a fan of mr. bitter's casting but he should seriously try to get the crowd to cheer for the unfavored players. Again, they are 20 year olds who play this game because its their passion and mr. bitter essentially lead the crowd on so they could feel proud of their bias and obnoxiously boo or ignore the winner.

On August 21 2011 19:01 kusto wrote:


Can you summarize what happened? Biased german crowd?

On August 21 2011 06:39 chocopaw wrote:
I was there today and enjoyed the good games. What I did not enjoy was the following. I'm not sure if the incident has been mentioned before.

If you watched the stream you probably saw how enthusiastically Socke was greeted by the fans. The crowd got heated up by Take even more.
Don't get me wrong, while I wouldn't call myself a fan I have nothing against Socke, I enjoyed quite a few games of him. But as an anti-nationalist I don't see why I should root for him because of where he was born.
When Puma entered the stage there were quite a few "boo"-shouters. I don't know if they did it because of the EG "scandal", because he is Korean or simply because he was Sockes opponent and they would have done it against anyone else.
When I cheered for Puma after good actions by him, showcasing his superior play, I in fact earned angry reactions. Just because I was for the wrong player. Again, this might have been anti-EG, it might have been anti-Socke's opponent, but the point is, it doesn't really matter.

I don't know if the following was on the stream:
In the commercial break between the second and third match Take entered the stage to announce that there had been attempts of glaring Puma with a laser pointer while the second match was going on. Take said that if they were continued they would send everyone away and let the players end the series backstage to assure the matches could be played under fair conditions. They actually had an IEM guy stand in front of Puma in the third match to prevent further incidents.

Now, while I am a political person, I usually try to not let that interfere with my hobby. If people have to root for a player because of his home country I let them have their fun, as long as they don't hop on the "No Koreans at MLG!"-bandwagon or shit like that. But today a line was crossed for me when I experienced hostility because I rooted for the "wrong" player. The laser pointer act might have been executed by a stupid troll, but it might as well have been a overzealous Socke fan.

My point is: I am disgusted by even the possibility of this being a trend in the esports community. What if that weren't just a few stupid individuals? I hope that every esports fan who witnesses behavious similar to what I described in this post distances him- or herself from it and feels ashamed if people not related to esports see them as representatives of our hobby and scene. Please do everything to keep esports positive, international and open to everybody, and first of all: keep it revolving around the fun!

On August 21 2011 19:18 Finrod1 wrote:


Well the anti-stuff in general is no problem for me as long it isn't something like laser pointers. The line get's crossed clearly if they are just booing someone out because he is from country x.
As a football example: If my local team play's somewhere else there are 40k people chanting and booing against my hometeam. That is a part of sports but you should do it because you don't like a player and not his nationality.

On August 21 2011 19:29 Jaedong4thOSL wrote:


Team sports and individual sports are different though. Team sports, such as soccer, basketball, football, booing is expected for guest team. But for individual sports, usually there is not much booing at all, it will just get too personal. And also, these kids are only 20 years old, and they are not making millions like Kobe.

On August 21 2011 19:14 billyX333 wrote:
The crowd killed it for me. I don't understand why IEM/MLG don't adopt an anti-booing policy and a warning then ban for repeat offenders. Most of these gamers are young 20 year olds and no body wants to feel hated by an entire crowd of people. Its hard enough to talk and get in front of a huge crowd so I can't even imagine what its like performing in front of a crowd that wants you to fail.

I'm a fan of mr. bitter's casting but he should seriously try to get the crowd to cheer for the unfavored players. Again, they are 20 year olds who play this game because its their passion and mr. bitter essentially lead the crowd on so they could feel proud of their bias and obnoxiously boo or ignore the winner.

On August 21 2011 19:18 Finrod1 wrote:


Well the anti-stuff in general is no problem for me as long it isn't something like laser pointers. The line get's crossed clearly if they are just booing someone out because he is from country x.
As a football example: If my local team play's somewhere else there are 40k people chanting and booing against my hometeam. That is a part of sports but you should do it because you don't like a player and not his nationality.

On August 21 2011 19:31 Corrik wrote:


I don't buy that reasoning. If you want to be center stage, you take the jeers with the cheers. Just as long as they don't cross the line.

Picking and choosing examples. So Duke fans ;chanting overrated while Harrison Barnes shoots free throws isn't personal because he is on a team? Or there is reasoning behind it? Because a kid "not making millions" who is "twenty something" played for a rival school?

There is nothing wrong with it. It's normal.