Official State of the Game Podcast Thread - Page 668

Attitude problem
In esports, typically, the concept of manners is something that we take only semi-seriously. It’s often a joke about cheesy strategies or someone forgetting to say ‘gl hf’ at the beginning of a game. For us mere ladder players, we encounter truly bad mannered or downright abusive players on a daily basis (although I have noticed it a lot less in SC2 than in other games thus far). But generally we just shake it off and move onto the next game.

In professional level games, such things are obviously far less common. Players generally understand that they have a responsibility to their teams and their sponsors, not to mention the example they set for other gamers. In other words, most professional players live up to the job description. The odd ragequit in an online tournament is much more forgivable when it comes from a player who is usually well behaved.

Of course, there have always been exceptions. In WC3 there was the infamous Elakeduck. There are numerous stories about him acting like an asshole, but he was still quite young when he was in the spotlight, and his career ended up being fairly short. Any community will have its “characters” – for want of a better term, because I don’t think that insulting fellow professionals is a show of character – but there is usually a cut-off point. Eventually the player is punished and learns from his actions, or maybe he just grows up.

But in Idra, we have a 21 year-old who is a veteran of esports. What’s his excuse? Yeah, I get it, people think it’s funny when he rages and he’s at least somewhat more erudite than most pro gamers, but does that make it “okay” for him to act like a dick? I admit, I’ve found it funny from time-to-time, but the whole badass thing got tired pretty quick, and now it’s clear that he’s basically a whiny brat who obviously got his own way far too much as a kid.

What is he so angry about anyway? Thousands of people all over the world would love to be in his position, playing computer games for a living. Everyone gets angry from time-to-time when they lose, but that’s no excuse for telling another player to fuck off in the middle of a tournament match – it’s no wonder MLG seemingly tried to hide all evidence of the match against Huk. It will be interesting to see if this replay ever sees the light of day.

Every sport has its renegades but most of them don’t get away with it like Idra has. Wayne Rooney is only a few steps up the evolutionary chain from a Gorilla, but at least the FA and the Premier League fine him and suspend him when he acts out. What do MLG and ESL do about Idra’s continuously bad attitude? To their detriment, they do nothing. Most of these leagues share the stated goal of bringing esports to the mainstream public, but that isn’t going to happen while high profile players like Idra are allowed to act like children.

My solution is pretty simple. ESL already fines players part of their potential prize money for misdemeanours at EPS level, why not just move that scheme up to the highest level? Hit the players where it hurts and they’ll soon take some responsibility.