Hey there, I’m Tate (aka captenredbeard). As part of the ‘Rift Life’ NALCS blog series, I’d like to chat about professionalism in esports. The landing page for this week’s issue can be found HERE

Professionalism in the NALCS

Gripe session #1

This is a topic I’ll probably cover in detail in more posts throughout this blog series, but I bring it up now specifically because of something that happened in week 1. The very first game TL vs. TSM had so much hype, and that hype was continued by the team owners/directors (Steve-TL and Reginald-TSM). During a pre-game interview, these two trash talked in the most cringe-worthy way and ended up making a $15,000 charity bet. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with trash talk in general and a charity bet is actually a great way to create buzz and such...that being said, I think it was very poorly handled during this live interview.

Source: Giphy

These games are being broadcast live on a variety of platforms, youtube, twitch, etc. and the goal of esports, in general, is to become mainstream. This means reaching an even wider audience via ESPN, FOX, etc. The problem with eSports right now is that the mainstream views esports as childish. “Kids playing games”. Esports has come very far and that viewpoint really isn’t justified anymore...until role models in the scene decide to act like children...playing games. Using the trash talk session between Steve and Reginald as the big example here. Let’s take a look.

Steve started out SO well, until the end of his first sentence. Could you not have responded without saying “we're going to shit on you”? You can literally tell these guys just don’t know how to act properly while live on camera. What purpose is there to act so stupid? To give some credit, they both had partial sentences where they STARTED to say things in a good way. Steve showing some respect for the TSM roster, Reginald starting to say TL put together a good team, anddddd 2 secs later back to cringy back and forth talk. Even the charity bet was just poorly handled back and forth. In my opinion, Reginald was the worse offender in this back and forth of stupidity, that being said, maybe he was taken down a peg by his team getting completely obliterated.

The pros, owners, analysts, coaches, etc. all need to recognize that they are interacting with an audience and that audience includes kids...impressionable minds. The toxicity that can, and does, exist in the league community is well known. So why would the ‘elites’ of the scene choose to basically foster that? Who knows. I think it can be, and will be, a huge detriment to esports if these professionals continue to act that way.

All is not lost though. Look at the beginning of the video. Actually, look at any content created by the analysts and casters. High quality, well thought out, and well dressed. They treat this as a career that deserves respect. Even the coaches are showing this type of style. The pros and the owners need to turn their attention to these guys as their leaders and take notes. I’m happy to say that the new organization owners/directors also appear to be showing much more professionalism in the way they interview and interact as well. So things ARE looking up, but it really bothers me when some of the biggest names in the scene can’t act right. Even someone infamous for trash talk such as doublelift has managed to trash talk with some semblance of professionalism take a look at his piece on the player’s tribune, he still had some childish moments in the piece, but it wasn’t horrible, which shows his growth as a professional.

I know that trash talk is in the spirit of competition, but can it be done in a way that puts eSports on the map as something that is NOT childish? requires professionals with true skills and determination? as well as providing an example to future generations? I think it can.

Source: Giphy

What do you think? Is trash talk necessary? should it have a place that isn’t live on stage? Are twitter battles something that should be a thing? (such as Keith Olbermann’s response to doublelift’s article the fanbase's response to this seems to show agreement with my argument in this article, that this isn't just children playing games)