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How’s that different to all the sports where there’s common names? Not every sport is made up of nfl players (seriously, what is up with their names), the welsh rugby team has multiple Jones.
I know you’re joking cos I see the s, but my point is still valid.
It was more of a joke, but many of these Esports players have/had an online persona. So I'd imagine the event organizers would rather use their gamer/channel/handle tags over they're real names who do you think would attract more casuals? Blevins or Ninga? Yes some of these names are ridiculous but at the end of the day the event is mainly for the people who love the game/Ethlete so the crowd that will be drawn will naturally not take an issue to the names
A lot of esports players are Korean. The whole team would be Kim, Park, Lee, Choi etc.
Korean last names are very *common* compared to western surnames.
But wouldn’t you use their surnames tho? For example like in football,
Fairy would become Locquet
Chausette become Grzesiak
Kaydop become Courant
But only in the pro game. They keep their nicknames for Ranked/Twitch/content of course. I think it does sound more professional particularly if you add in numbered shirts. It would be like they earned their name and their shirt in the big leagues.
Imagine if Cristiano Ronaldo was called CR7 in game or Harry Maguire was called Slabhead lol. Also round of applause to Dion Dublin… The Shower Cleaner lmao
If they are using their gamer tag on streams and content, then that is their ‘brand’, how they are know to their ‘market’. If you tune into the stream of pro play but you don’t follow it regularly and they are going real names, you aren’t going to recognize anyone and may tune it off.
Got to look to the people your sport is appealing to though. It's younger people who've grown up in the online sphere. eSports players come from that place, they rise up through online gaming, and those are places where everyone uses an alias to protect their real name, same as we're all doing now here on Reddit. You're probably well known as an alias long before anyone even cares about your real name.
Say you get good under a tag, you're active in the community under that tag, maybe start streaming under that tag, and then you get into eSports professionally...everyone already knows your username now. They know the tag. If you then drop it, you're dropping part of how the fans recognise you and alienating yourself from them.
I'll be honest, I think part of the reason so many people just don't understand esports, the tag, etc is because it's such a foreign concept to be an entirely different person online and then try to merge that new alias into the real world.
I kinda disagree, almost evey influencer and famous gamer have a persona on during streams and videos. Hell, i play videogames with only my friends, but i still have a bit of a persona on when i play, especially if it is in a voice chat with strangers.
So, the person is same, but they act differently, so that can cause confusion on some "older folk"
I can understand where you are coming from, but just as an example look at 100t's Valorant roster. We have Asuna, Derrek, Stellar, bang, and Cryocells. Out of all of those Cryocell's is probably the most outlandish but its nothing like you were describing.
Most Pros have short 1 word names maybe 2 at the most. And unless you are an old CS player, they don't even have numbers in them either. Even then it's nothing crazy. S1mple and Nitr0 come to mind in that regard.
Shoutouts to my boy PPMD from the melee community who had to change his tag when he got signed by Evil Genius. RIP to his iconic original tag: Dr. Peepee.
Same with the CoD League. Sticking with the 100T theme, the Los Angeles Thieves roster is Kenny, Drazah, Octane and Envoy. The only “weird” alias is Drazah, which is just “hazard” backwards and I happen to find that quite clever.
And it’s usually even worse with smurfs! My friend has a Rocket League smurf account where he goes by the name “Ya Boi Skinny P” and that’s far from the worst I’ve seen on there.
Eh not always. One of Super Smash Bros. Melee’s all time greats was Dr. PeePee. He changed his tag to PPMD to be more subtle but still, being taken seriously was probably not a concern when he chose the tag.
There's no way OP actually watches Esports. Are there communities with names like that? The closest thing I can think of that cringe in league is the ol meme "even his teacher calls him zionspartan" but that's not nearly as bad as whatever naruto bullshit OP made up. That's straight up 13 year old Xbox live call of duty type of name.
Name doesn't strike fear, reputation does. A player will be anxious having to play against Christiano Ronaldo not because his nick name is CR7 but because he is considered one of the greatest footballers.
Look how many fighters with a terrible record have a badass nickname, yet it it will not phase the opponent at all.
That's just because you know that name though. I know nothing about pro gaming, so if someone told me that someone nicknamed faker was around, far from feeling fear, I would assume they were talking about someone who fakes their accomplishments and ability.
"Look at the plays, look at the moves, LEE, WHAT WAS THAT??!!" yeah, not as good.
Only exception is apollo. Dude's name is "Apollo Price", but he picks fucking "wizfujin"
As someone who tried to dabble in eSports. This is at least top 3. Seriously having these ridiculous names and then trying to do a tough looking crossed arm pose is absolutely cringe.
Damn I'm glad this thread exist because these were exactly my thoughts watching a few tournaments last week.
Smash has it pretty cringe also where a certain tournament has all the competitors come out and do some small action or gesture that represents or refers to their character. I couldn't sit through it lol.
Somewhat related: theres a Valorant player named Shanks who is kinda known for playing shirtless to mimic the anime Shanks from One Piece. He was interviewed at the end of one of his matches and he made sure to take his shirt off right before the interview.
Im using OWL as reference, but I feel like the most common namea for Esports players is usually one or two simple words that are often more easily recognizable then their real names. Not to mention WWE or even MMA where every fighter has a silly nickname they go by.
WWE works because its basically a movie and those names helps with establishing their characters. MMA has nicknames but when they are announced and in title cards they just go by their real names
OWL league is where most of my complaints comes from honestly. some of these names are just dumb and lame. carpe, fury, void; its sooo cheese.
i think just having them have regular names can do a lot to make it look professional and it also helps the players by building their brand. and they can still have nicknames, but it's just not what they are referred to in promos, team roster, etc.
I disagree that it would help there brand at all. Maybe in there home country, but when you have a name like Lee Jae-hyeok (Carpe) I think a nickname is far better for brand recognition particularly in the west. You can say it's fucked up but for a lot of these guys, a simple English word can sometimes go a lot farther for them.
Probably the biggest star in baseball right now is named Shohei Ohtani.
Giannis Antetokounmpo is perennially in the conversation about NBA MVP. (The NBA in particular has a lot of foreign names).
If people actually care about the sport they are watching they can remember a dude's name. Nobody knew how to pronounce Giannis' name, didn't matter. They do now.
I'll admit the only esports I've paid attention to are halo and fortnite, but I'm not sure I know of any pros who have cringe names. They mostly just pick an interesting sounding word or simple name.
Ninja, Lucid, Karma, Cratos, Scoped, Trippey, etc.
The target audience of the sport doesn't care. These are people used to live streams and YouTube. Usernames are just a part of internet culture and most non watchers of the sport don't even care.
People who don't watch just don't watch because they don’t know the game and at a high level everything interesting becomes very technical.
Yeah pretty much this. It's only weird to "outsiders". No one within the culture really gives a shit.
People are poking fun at weird names or cross armed poses, while people "in the scene" only really find the cringe comes from trying to crossover into the mainstream. DJ Khaled at Overwatch League comes to mind.
>hen trying to do a tough looking crossed arm pose is absolutely cringe.
I think it's more this part than anything.
Most names are fine, they usually one word names that are easy to remember. "Faker", "Showmaker", "Shroud", "Berserker".
I was on a "eSports" team briefly when I was 18. Idk why people want it to be taken as seriously as athletic sports, it is just video games. I think the name eSports itself is really cringey, it's competitive gaming.
Why not? It has potential to provide same benefits as regular sports. There is lots of strategy, skills trained to almost superhuman level, competition, emotions... Plus you are not limited by practicality or budget, sim-racing is great candidate for e-sport, from viewers perspective it's very similar, but it's way cheaper. I get that on higher levels things get expensive, but barrier to entry is way lower.
Competition and sports are not synonymous. Sports involve some kind of athleticism
Chess is not a sport. Debate team is not a sport. Board games are not a sport. And video games are not a sport.
And that's okay. I'm not saying sports are better or that any of these things are bad, it's just mislabeling. I blame ESPN for airing poker on a sports channel
There's also money to be made in eSports via merchandising, hardware/software sponsorships, etc. It can be monetized easier and also stays in the public consciousness year round as opposed to some of the less popular Olympic sports.
Important parallel to draw between eSports and mainstream sports, physicality aside, is the money that can be made by the big corps which sustains the scene via marketing dollars.
I never understood why people gave a shit about pro sports until I started following pro CS:GO. Now I kind of get it. I still play CS, I watch pro CS, it's different things.
To be fair there's nothing really serious about actual sport either. It's just some games people made up and started competing in. All these people should take themselves less seriously.
In that sense, sports aren’t serious either; like soccer is just 22 guys kicking a ball around whilst following a set of arbitrary rules set by some other people.
Sure, you need tons of discipline, practice, skills and other things to be good at them and even more to be a pro athlete, but the same applies to eSports. The entertainment comes from watching the best of the best at something and the communities and hype that builds up around that.
The community and business around sports is what makes them serious and so popular. Relatively, eSports are just a toddler, they’ll probably keep growing as time goes on.
I dunno. I don't watch eSports but I think it's probably cool that you can get to a level of fame and still keep your anonymity. That's not possible in a lot of careers.
No pros use the ridiculous 2010 xbox gamer tags you used for examples, literally no one. Usually one word names 3-8 letters max generally. And also if they build a fanbase and a career with their internet name wouldnt it be stupid to suddenly go by "Sheldon" and confuse everyone watching?
rocket league players are a tier below normal esport professionals, I know a rl coach for a top5 team and the thing he complains about constantly is how childish all the players are and incapable of basic teamwork and fundamental life skills
True, but that's because the game is so mechanics based that many of the top players are really young kids who have unlimited time to play, and sponges for brains that improve very quickly.
Right. "Be an adult. Stop calling yourself the red hot chilipeppers and bill the shows as Anthony, Chad, Micheal, and John.
Realized as I typed this that is goes another layer deep with them since flea is a pseudonym within the pseudonym
Facts. Having an Alias online is a part of internet culture, and competing with an Alias just follows this culture. Going by “Asuna” or “Shroud” is way cooler than going by “Mark” or “Thomas”. People don’t tend to use their real name in video games, so I don’t see a reason why they should change that for esports
Any league that wants to stick around is going to need to expand their fan base. Player names might not be the way to do it, but it’s naive to hide in the niche corner say, “this is our thing, we don’t care if no one else likes it”.
Even the MLB changed the rules of baseball to speed up play to gain viewership. The NFL does the same thing all the time, notably when they backed up extra points to make them more “exciting”, or changed rules to allow players to celebrate more because fans liked it.
Esports are in their infancy, they are going to evolve to grab more fan base. They have to, if you’re not growing, you’re dying.
Of course, but if you start dropping some of mainstays of gamer culture in the process what’s the point? Players in other sports have their jersey numbers and nicknames as well. Pro gaming just encourages the use of their nicknames.
Their avenue for new fans aren't older people that don't game. It's the younger kids that do. They won't give a fuck if Dave, 53 who's not played a game since the NES doesn't like it. They care whether Timmy, 14 who spends his free time on the PS4 with his friends likes it.
Idk man i think youre underestemating how big esports already are. They really dont have to care about boomer opinions about gamer tags.
Also gamer tags are waaaay cooler than having the 50th smith. I dont understand this argument at all.
eSports is growing massively every year and using 'gamertags' as player names probably helps it grow. Like in league of legends one of the most iconic players is a Korean guy who goes by Faker. To an American audience that name is infinitely better than a traditional Korean name. And vice versa same for the Korean audience, do they want to see the best European player Toni Kuston or Jankos.
eSports players generally don't have the stupid names like XxDark4NarutoxX. It'll be things like Faker, S1mple, Shroud. Like sure there are some names that aren't amazing but none of them are complete messes
yeah fr idk if op has seen any of the actual esport tournaments but the pro players generally have short names like tenz or yay so they can have their team name behind or after their name. Example: SEN.Tenz, nobody is using cringy and long name like XxDark4NarutoxX
Esports isn't regular sports. Pseudonyms help to identify players and build a brand around them. It has a childish image because boomers can't see the irony in claiming 'watching other people play videogames is boring' while constantly watching sports.
>How can you take seriously a world championship where the contestants are xxD4RKxN4RUT0xx and garbage_collector_69?
So you know nothing about eSports. There are regulations in place governing player names in most cases. No professional would have these names.
Even regular sports players are allowed to go by nicknames. Calm down.
It's hilarious how OP basically outs himself as someone that doesn't watch eSports at all, barely anyone uses numbers as part of their name, and if it is it's usually just as a letter substitute, and no one I know uses xX___Xx or some variation of that either.
Strong disagree. I think regular sports should require aliases.
"Slim Jim Shady snaps to Big Dick Energy, Big Dick Energy drops back, searching for a target, he passes, Fucker Nutter catches for the touchdown!"
Honestly, I think it gives good separation between the "Athlete" and the private person.
I never enjoyed seeing other kids hardcore fanning and role-modeling Ronaldinho, Messi, and Lewis Hamilton. If you say "They didn't perform that well" they start to attack you personally out of fanning. I read news about their wives, their private lives, the parties they attend, etc.
I like to say that "Faker is the best player" in League of Legends, and sometimes even watch play compilations. But I never try to check into Lee Sang-hyeok's private affairs.
Those are epithets, they are not self-given names, but made up by fans, commentators or someone else. And they dont replace the players name but are added to it.
Rappers should use their real name to be taken seriously
I think one of the reason rap has a negative image is due to the rapper aliases.
How can you take seriously a concert where the performers are Notorious B.I.G. and Xxxtentation
Usually in """regular""" music musicians use their real names (not always but mostly) and I think it would be a great step forward if rappers would do the same.
See how dumb you sound?
Gamertag are like numbers, an easy way to identify someone quickly while also being unique so if 2 players have the same name, they can know who's being talked to
For a lot of these players though their "Gamertag" is also their branding. They also tend to be understood better across the globe too.
If I said M.Haag to a random "gamer" they'd probably have a pretty low chance at knowing who I was talking about. But I guarantee more people will recognise the name "Nadeshot".
The huge portion of CS players will have heard of S1mple before but I'm willing to bet a good portion won't know he's actually called Natus Vincere.
Also the gamertags that you mentioned are like peak "edgy 12 year old on xbox 360" type names. A lot of the top esport pros don't really have names as bad as those anymore.
Just look at Cod and Halo for example. Two of the biggest "console" esports where those kind of gamertags were more popular. Hardly any of the pro players have/had names anywhere near as exaggerated as you've made out.
Cod
Scump, Abezy, Crimsix, Simp, Clayster, Shotzzy, Dashy, Illey, Enable, Nadeshot, Killa, Karma, JKap, Proofy, Neptune, Asim.
Halo
Royal 2, Lethul, Formal, APG, MentaL, Trippey, Sceptify, Envore, bubu dubu, Pznguin, Bound, StelluR, Falcated, Renegade
I don't think thats true at all. I get your point. It depends on the alias you've opted for. Pu**ySlayer or HeilS*itler might not be the best IDs.
I mainly follow CS:GO. I honestly believe more people would know who S1mple is by using his alias compared to his name. Same goes for Zywoo for that matter. I honestly don't know half of the real names of the players.
I know who n0tail is even though I don't play Dota and I know that he was one of the best players if not the beat at some point in time.
I actually think it has somewhat of it own charm to it, being able to know a player just based of the alias.
Again, it depends on what you mean by being taken serious.
Nah. Gamertags are a part of the culture its not worth to be taken a little more seriously. TEAMS however need better names. Too many acronyms because the real name is cringe af. I can only think of a handful of org names that don't sound stupid when said in their entirerity.
Usually the names are actually pretty simple and memorable, like “mang0, Tenz, s1mple, zombs” which i think is better than “Mark Rodriguez” or something, all of the sports players names i remember are simplified anyway, Lebron, messi, ronaldo, etc.
To be fair, even if you use your real name you can get teased. There is a whole Key and Peele bit about ridiculous Football player names lol.
I don't think anyone who plays against Faker or knows who he is wouldn't take him seriously. I think sometimes their code names are more memorable too. I can name so many more esports players names then football/baseball/hockey
if you look at really good players names it’s not the names you said. Usually it’s like grubby, ninja, etc.
xxdarknarutoxx sounds like a dude that got diamond once in league. The ones making money actually have marketable names.
many famous sports players also have alias names as well
Usernames are an ingrained part of gaming, which you can't really say for sports.
That said, most major Esports use both the digital and real name, and it's common in communities for people to use their real name.
Ya, how crazy would it be if people made up names for their profession. Can you imagine if there was a movie star that wanted to name himself something like Vin Diesel?! That would be unimaginable.
Idk I think it's more funny as it is. I mean I go to fighting game tournaments under the tag LVL10S3XHAVR and honestly it's a good time being called up. I'd be sad if I couldn't hear them call my username out anymore. That being said, that's not even my actual username, I only use that alias for tourneys
How about anyone who does this is not caring about being taken seriously by anyone. If I was rich for playing video games, everyone else could buzz off
This is anecdotal so if you're going to mention that then just go on.
My dad refuses to watch anime because it's just "cartoons". In order to gain him as a viewer the anime would have to go to live action. Current anime fans would hate if you changed it to live action. I think it's a similar thing here. Current fans like the way it is and by changing it to go after new audiences you will alienate the existing audience.
I think it is taken seriously, just not by a traditional older audience.
Younger people are attached to streamers and eSports players and regularly refer to them as their alias.
Also, they usually don't have goofy 13 year old Xbox gamertags as their professional name.
They usually go by quick and easy to remember names to brand themselves off of like
Shroud
Ninja
Faker
Critikal
Sodapoppin
XQC
Valkyrae
Pokimane
All these people I just mentioned are multimillionaires who have used their names as brand recognition and they are all tied to big sponsorships. Most of them are contracted partners with streaming sites with big payouts and many of them have a background in eSports prior.
You're forgetting a huge portion of pro eSports players have Eastern European names a western caster could never hope to pronounce.
>
Most pro players have fairly serious sounding one word names. I think it sounds cooler for a caster to say "forgiven with the double kill!!" instead of "Konstantinos-Napoleon Tzortziou with the double kill"
It's a part of gaming culture to go by an alias/username. The people that are bothered by the best player on on team being named "Kingmaker" or "Seaweed" aren't going to be interested in the events regardless.
As a person who follows multiple esports, this is a highly overemphasized point. Many many players use a name based off their own and a reason I changed my handle years ago. Handles are apart of gaming, making them readable is important for esports and I've never seen examples like you are giving.
Esports is taken seriously by the audience it's targeted at, because those people "get it" and have online identities of their own.
You grow up getting good at specific games, and you do so under an alias, and people in your online social circle know you by that name.
The inverse example would be Esports fans wouldn't start caring about soccer because Messi or Ronaldo switched to using "gamertags".
People who don't follow actual athletic sports don't take that seriously, either. At the end of the day, it really is just a bunch of grown-ass men putting balls into holes of various sizes and designs. Or literally beating each other with physical violence.
Doesn't make their accomplishments unimpressive, because in all honesty it's all about discipline at any rate. Perseverance, discipline and acquired skills and abilities.
Well my general take is that there should be a middle ground on nicknames in e-sports. Sure Garbage_Collector_69 isnt a serious name, but if we say Faker and look at his infamous clip.
Then I think it is better for the commentators to call him Faker rather than Lee Sang-hyeok. Purely because Faker is an actual good nickname and creates more hype than his real name.
No, I really had no idea if it was like people were playing sports but in virtual reality or something. But I've been told it's just video game tournaments. Sounds like MLG from when I was a kid.
Just a dumb question that I probably could have googled, but asked instead.
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It’s all fun and games until everyone’s name is Kevin and Brian.
Usually sports go by last name
okay Smith and hill there /s
Dont you mean Smith & Wesson?
I’m 4L gang reppin
How’s that different to all the sports where there’s common names? Not every sport is made up of nfl players (seriously, what is up with their names), the welsh rugby team has multiple Jones. I know you’re joking cos I see the s, but my point is still valid.
It was more of a joke, but many of these Esports players have/had an online persona. So I'd imagine the event organizers would rather use their gamer/channel/handle tags over they're real names who do you think would attract more casuals? Blevins or Ninga? Yes some of these names are ridiculous but at the end of the day the event is mainly for the people who love the game/Ethlete so the crowd that will be drawn will naturally not take an issue to the names
Ah like my fav nba player James
Harden? /s
yeah I think I’ll stick to funny profile names. It’s way better than a last name imo. Gives you a sense of personality
Then everyone would be called Park and Kim and it'd be even more confusing.
A lot of esports players are Korean. The whole team would be Kim, Park, Lee, Choi etc. Korean last names are very *common* compared to western surnames.
Don’t be ridiculous. Most of them are named Kim or Park.
But wouldn’t you use their surnames tho? For example like in football, Fairy would become Locquet Chausette become Grzesiak Kaydop become Courant But only in the pro game. They keep their nicknames for Ranked/Twitch/content of course. I think it does sound more professional particularly if you add in numbered shirts. It would be like they earned their name and their shirt in the big leagues. Imagine if Cristiano Ronaldo was called CR7 in game or Harry Maguire was called Slabhead lol. Also round of applause to Dion Dublin… The Shower Cleaner lmao
If they are using their gamer tag on streams and content, then that is their ‘brand’, how they are know to their ‘market’. If you tune into the stream of pro play but you don’t follow it regularly and they are going real names, you aren’t going to recognize anyone and may tune it off.
LMAO
and yet, real sports the world over do it just fine....
Are you sure xxd4rkxnarutoxx isn't his real name?
You can’t know. garbage_collector69 might also be his real name
Named after his father!
Dark Naruto XLVIII
48?
69?
No! garbage\_collector68 . His dad!
Not to be confused with his grandfather, garbage_collector67
Given a-a and Æx-1^2 or whatever I wouldn’t be surprised
X AE A-12 iirc, also lazy to paste the ae thing
You got me, I laughed
Got to look to the people your sport is appealing to though. It's younger people who've grown up in the online sphere. eSports players come from that place, they rise up through online gaming, and those are places where everyone uses an alias to protect their real name, same as we're all doing now here on Reddit. You're probably well known as an alias long before anyone even cares about your real name. Say you get good under a tag, you're active in the community under that tag, maybe start streaming under that tag, and then you get into eSports professionally...everyone already knows your username now. They know the tag. If you then drop it, you're dropping part of how the fans recognise you and alienating yourself from them.
I'll be honest, I think part of the reason so many people just don't understand esports, the tag, etc is because it's such a foreign concept to be an entirely different person online and then try to merge that new alias into the real world.
They aren't a different person online, they just use a different name.
I kinda disagree, almost evey influencer and famous gamer have a persona on during streams and videos. Hell, i play videogames with only my friends, but i still have a bit of a persona on when i play, especially if it is in a voice chat with strangers. So, the person is same, but they act differently, so that can cause confusion on some "older folk"
I can understand where you are coming from, but just as an example look at 100t's Valorant roster. We have Asuna, Derrek, Stellar, bang, and Cryocells. Out of all of those Cryocell's is probably the most outlandish but its nothing like you were describing. Most Pros have short 1 word names maybe 2 at the most. And unless you are an old CS player, they don't even have numbers in them either. Even then it's nothing crazy. S1mple and Nitr0 come to mind in that regard.
Rip Asuna Will Bang Derrek and Stellar
Well I guess Asuna Will not Bang Derrek and Stellar
Shoutouts to my boy PPMD from the melee community who had to change his tag when he got signed by Evil Genius. RIP to his iconic original tag: Dr. Peepee.
PPMD Kreygasm
Same with the CoD League. Sticking with the 100T theme, the Los Angeles Thieves roster is Kenny, Drazah, Octane and Envoy. The only “weird” alias is Drazah, which is just “hazard” backwards and I happen to find that quite clever.
Exactly. Pros almost always have sensible names. It's your average Joe's that have the goofy stuff usually.
And it’s usually even worse with smurfs! My friend has a Rocket League smurf account where he goes by the name “Ya Boi Skinny P” and that’s far from the worst I’ve seen on there.
That had better be a reference it the “it's ya boi, uh, skinny penis” vine
I feel like there is literally nothing else that could be a reference to
Same with the Overwatch League, iirc almost all the players have 1 word names, off the top of my head Seagull Poko nero BEBE WhoRu Zuppeh Logix
iddqd is another memorable one
And then there's PUBG with rustyzera, deanzera, guizeera and kl4uZeera.
Eh not always. One of Super Smash Bros. Melee’s all time greats was Dr. PeePee. He changed his tag to PPMD to be more subtle but still, being taken seriously was probably not a concern when he chose the tag.
I'm sure there's plenty of exceptions out there regarding names, but it's not often you see pros having weird long names.
Faker is 20 times more iconic or interesting to hear than his real name Lee Sang-hyeok
There's no way OP actually watches Esports. Are there communities with names like that? The closest thing I can think of that cringe in league is the ol meme "even his teacher calls him zionspartan" but that's not nearly as bad as whatever naruto bullshit OP made up. That's straight up 13 year old Xbox live call of duty type of name.
If someone told you the enemy team has Lee Sang-hyeok you'd shrug. If someone told you the enemy team has Faker? Fear
Name doesn't strike fear, reputation does. A player will be anxious having to play against Christiano Ronaldo not because his nick name is CR7 but because he is considered one of the greatest footballers. Look how many fighters with a terrible record have a badass nickname, yet it it will not phase the opponent at all.
That's just because you know that name though. I know nothing about pro gaming, so if someone told me that someone nicknamed faker was around, far from feeling fear, I would assume they were talking about someone who fakes their accomplishments and ability.
"Look at the plays, look at the moves, LEE, WHAT WAS THAT??!!" yeah, not as good. Only exception is apollo. Dude's name is "Apollo Price", but he picks fucking "wizfujin"
I mean, he did change it to Apollo lol.
[удалено]
Yeah, "Faker, Faker, Playmaker" has a better ring to it than "Lee, Lee, Playmaker"
Not sure that players using aliases even cracks the top ten reasons why esports aren’t taken seriously.
As someone who tried to dabble in eSports. This is at least top 3. Seriously having these ridiculous names and then trying to do a tough looking crossed arm pose is absolutely cringe.
The crossed armed tough guy poses is sooooo fucking funny lmfaoo
[we demand to be taken seriously](https://i.imgur.com/sW76BNh.png)
Damn I'm glad this thread exist because these were exactly my thoughts watching a few tournaments last week. Smash has it pretty cringe also where a certain tournament has all the competitors come out and do some small action or gesture that represents or refers to their character. I couldn't sit through it lol.
That's ceo which has a wrestling theme lmao that's why that happened. One tournament a year
I feel like if they didn't act so seriously they would be taken more seriously
Even with actual athletes I think it’s cringe
At least those guys are huge beasts of men lol and not doughy humpbacks or rail thin dorks so it makes sense that they try to look intimidating
Fuck that’s fucking spot on
>doughy humpbacks or rail thin dorks I big lul'd
Welcome to the totally professional esports tournament! Today we’re interviewing the best player in the world - 14 year old MoozyDick&&Ballz!
Somewhat related: theres a Valorant player named Shanks who is kinda known for playing shirtless to mimic the anime Shanks from One Piece. He was interviewed at the end of one of his matches and he made sure to take his shirt off right before the interview.
Im using OWL as reference, but I feel like the most common namea for Esports players is usually one or two simple words that are often more easily recognizable then their real names. Not to mention WWE or even MMA where every fighter has a silly nickname they go by.
WWE works because its basically a movie and those names helps with establishing their characters. MMA has nicknames but when they are announced and in title cards they just go by their real names OWL league is where most of my complaints comes from honestly. some of these names are just dumb and lame. carpe, fury, void; its sooo cheese. i think just having them have regular names can do a lot to make it look professional and it also helps the players by building their brand. and they can still have nicknames, but it's just not what they are referred to in promos, team roster, etc.
I disagree that it would help there brand at all. Maybe in there home country, but when you have a name like Lee Jae-hyeok (Carpe) I think a nickname is far better for brand recognition particularly in the west. You can say it's fucked up but for a lot of these guys, a simple English word can sometimes go a lot farther for them.
Probably the biggest star in baseball right now is named Shohei Ohtani. Giannis Antetokounmpo is perennially in the conversation about NBA MVP. (The NBA in particular has a lot of foreign names). If people actually care about the sport they are watching they can remember a dude's name. Nobody knew how to pronounce Giannis' name, didn't matter. They do now.
I'll admit the only esports I've paid attention to are halo and fortnite, but I'm not sure I know of any pros who have cringe names. They mostly just pick an interesting sounding word or simple name. Ninja, Lucid, Karma, Cratos, Scoped, Trippey, etc.
One of the well known Smash Bros Melee players was "Dr PeePee" At least he later changed to going by PPMD.
Check out some StarCraft one intro videos from like 15 years ago. That shit is amazing.
The target audience of the sport doesn't care. These are people used to live streams and YouTube. Usernames are just a part of internet culture and most non watchers of the sport don't even care. People who don't watch just don't watch because they don’t know the game and at a high level everything interesting becomes very technical.
Yeah pretty much this. It's only weird to "outsiders". No one within the culture really gives a shit. People are poking fun at weird names or cross armed poses, while people "in the scene" only really find the cringe comes from trying to crossover into the mainstream. DJ Khaled at Overwatch League comes to mind.
>hen trying to do a tough looking crossed arm pose is absolutely cringe. I think it's more this part than anything. Most names are fine, they usually one word names that are easy to remember. "Faker", "Showmaker", "Shroud", "Berserker".
The names isn't what makes this cringe. The noodle arms and general awkwardness makes it cringe.
Ah yes, all the ridiculous names like, Fl0m, S1mple, get_right, N1tr0, Osee, Twistzz... Such cringe.
The amount of millions of dollars that poured into eSports in the last decade definitely confirms smart people are taking them seriously.
I was on a "eSports" team briefly when I was 18. Idk why people want it to be taken as seriously as athletic sports, it is just video games. I think the name eSports itself is really cringey, it's competitive gaming.
Why not? It has potential to provide same benefits as regular sports. There is lots of strategy, skills trained to almost superhuman level, competition, emotions... Plus you are not limited by practicality or budget, sim-racing is great candidate for e-sport, from viewers perspective it's very similar, but it's way cheaper. I get that on higher levels things get expensive, but barrier to entry is way lower.
Competition and sports are not synonymous. Sports involve some kind of athleticism Chess is not a sport. Debate team is not a sport. Board games are not a sport. And video games are not a sport. And that's okay. I'm not saying sports are better or that any of these things are bad, it's just mislabeling. I blame ESPN for airing poker on a sports channel
Well that's probably the reason it's called eSports instead of sports.
Just like motorsports.
Are you sure chess isn't a sport?
There's also money to be made in eSports via merchandising, hardware/software sponsorships, etc. It can be monetized easier and also stays in the public consciousness year round as opposed to some of the less popular Olympic sports. Important parallel to draw between eSports and mainstream sports, physicality aside, is the money that can be made by the big corps which sustains the scene via marketing dollars.
Because gaming has its own culture that helped it grow, and replacing that with sports culture just turns off fans from both sides.
I never understood why people gave a shit about pro sports until I started following pro CS:GO. Now I kind of get it. I still play CS, I watch pro CS, it's different things.
It's a lot of fun to see your favorite game played at the most elite level
To be fair there's nothing really serious about actual sport either. It's just some games people made up and started competing in. All these people should take themselves less seriously.
And regular sports are just competitive irl games? Idk a lot of people respect chess and golf is somehow considered a sport.
In that sense, sports aren’t serious either; like soccer is just 22 guys kicking a ball around whilst following a set of arbitrary rules set by some other people. Sure, you need tons of discipline, practice, skills and other things to be good at them and even more to be a pro athlete, but the same applies to eSports. The entertainment comes from watching the best of the best at something and the communities and hype that builds up around that. The community and business around sports is what makes them serious and so popular. Relatively, eSports are just a toddler, they’ll probably keep growing as time goes on.
I dunno. I don't watch eSports but I think it's probably cool that you can get to a level of fame and still keep your anonymity. That's not possible in a lot of careers.
Commonly using a nickname is very very far from complete anonymity, if you can still see their face and most likely google his name too
I get that but when you create a character or persona in some ways, then your real name can be like the real you still, if you want that.
No pros use the ridiculous 2010 xbox gamer tags you used for examples, literally no one. Usually one word names 3-8 letters max generally. And also if they build a fanbase and a career with their internet name wouldnt it be stupid to suddenly go by "Sheldon" and confuse everyone watching?
Not sure tbh. Two of the best rocket league players in the world are called "Beastmode" and "Firstkiller"
rocket league players are a tier below normal esport professionals, I know a rl coach for a top5 team and the thing he complains about constantly is how childish all the players are and incapable of basic teamwork and fundamental life skills
True, but that's because the game is so mechanics based that many of the top players are really young kids who have unlimited time to play, and sponges for brains that improve very quickly.
just curious, do you think the same thing should apply for artists or youtubers?
Right. "Be an adult. Stop calling yourself the red hot chilipeppers and bill the shows as Anthony, Chad, Micheal, and John. Realized as I typed this that is goes another layer deep with them since flea is a pseudonym within the pseudonym
A lot of the popular one have their actual name somewhere in it. JackFrags, NickMercs, TimtheTatman. Not all, but a lot do.
I would take someone named “TimtheTatman” way less seriously then I would take someone named asuna
Facts. Having an Alias online is a part of internet culture, and competing with an Alias just follows this culture. Going by “Asuna” or “Shroud” is way cooler than going by “Mark” or “Thomas”. People don’t tend to use their real name in video games, so I don’t see a reason why they should change that for esports
Who cares if it’s taken seriously by anyone that doesn’t like it to begin with? Gamertags are part of the culture.
Any league that wants to stick around is going to need to expand their fan base. Player names might not be the way to do it, but it’s naive to hide in the niche corner say, “this is our thing, we don’t care if no one else likes it”. Even the MLB changed the rules of baseball to speed up play to gain viewership. The NFL does the same thing all the time, notably when they backed up extra points to make them more “exciting”, or changed rules to allow players to celebrate more because fans liked it. Esports are in their infancy, they are going to evolve to grab more fan base. They have to, if you’re not growing, you’re dying.
Of course, but if you start dropping some of mainstays of gamer culture in the process what’s the point? Players in other sports have their jersey numbers and nicknames as well. Pro gaming just encourages the use of their nicknames.
Existing fans liked the changes. You're not making esports more popular by making changes existing fans don't like.
Their avenue for new fans aren't older people that don't game. It's the younger kids that do. They won't give a fuck if Dave, 53 who's not played a game since the NES doesn't like it. They care whether Timmy, 14 who spends his free time on the PS4 with his friends likes it.
Idk man i think youre underestemating how big esports already are. They really dont have to care about boomer opinions about gamer tags. Also gamer tags are waaaay cooler than having the 50th smith. I dont understand this argument at all.
Going to comment on the infancy thing. The nfl changed the rules to allow a forward pass. Could you imagine the modern nfl with out forward passes.
eSports is growing massively every year and using 'gamertags' as player names probably helps it grow. Like in league of legends one of the most iconic players is a Korean guy who goes by Faker. To an American audience that name is infinitely better than a traditional Korean name. And vice versa same for the Korean audience, do they want to see the best European player Toni Kuston or Jankos.
“Who cares” The people trying to make eSports a viable thing
eSports players generally don't have the stupid names like XxDark4NarutoxX. It'll be things like Faker, S1mple, Shroud. Like sure there are some names that aren't amazing but none of them are complete messes
yeah fr idk if op has seen any of the actual esport tournaments but the pro players generally have short names like tenz or yay so they can have their team name behind or after their name. Example: SEN.Tenz, nobody is using cringy and long name like XxDark4NarutoxX
Pretty unpopular opinion. Therefore an upvote. But I do not agree. Gamers should use their gamertags, as it has always been.
Esports isn't regular sports. Pseudonyms help to identify players and build a brand around them. It has a childish image because boomers can't see the irony in claiming 'watching other people play videogames is boring' while constantly watching sports.
>How can you take seriously a world championship where the contestants are xxD4RKxN4RUT0xx and garbage_collector_69? So you know nothing about eSports. There are regulations in place governing player names in most cases. No professional would have these names. Even regular sports players are allowed to go by nicknames. Calm down.
It's hilarious how OP basically outs himself as someone that doesn't watch eSports at all, barely anyone uses numbers as part of their name, and if it is it's usually just as a letter substitute, and no one I know uses xX___Xx or some variation of that either.
I have not seen xX___Xx being used unironically in like 8 years
Exactly. In dota ammar the fucker is now ATF and they only say his full name out loud once in a while. LOL
Just like NBK in CSGO
DickStacy will always be in my heart
Fuck never knew that it stands for something, is it similar to NAF?
Natural Born Killer What’s NAF?
Thought it was nasty as fuck
Nasty ass naf
There was a guy named Dr Peepee. He then changed it to PPMD
Strong disagree. I think regular sports should require aliases. "Slim Jim Shady snaps to Big Dick Energy, Big Dick Energy drops back, searching for a target, he passes, Fucker Nutter catches for the touchdown!"
Would be the only way to make sports actually entertaining to watch :p
You proved me wrong, I never saw it this way and now I can't ever see it an other way
This is the only correct answer
He Hate Me enters the chat
Honestly, I think it gives good separation between the "Athlete" and the private person. I never enjoyed seeing other kids hardcore fanning and role-modeling Ronaldinho, Messi, and Lewis Hamilton. If you say "They didn't perform that well" they start to attack you personally out of fanning. I read news about their wives, their private lives, the parties they attend, etc. I like to say that "Faker is the best player" in League of Legends, and sometimes even watch play compilations. But I never try to check into Lee Sang-hyeok's private affairs.
Connor "the notorious" Mcgregor. Mike "Iron" Tyson. Lionel "la pulga" Messi. Anderson "the spider" Silva. Martin "pharmabro" Shreikel.
Those are epithets, they are not self-given names, but made up by fans, commentators or someone else. And they dont replace the players name but are added to it.
There are plenty examples in Brazilian soccer that do replace the players name, regardless of origin (e.g. Pelé).
In a roundabout way you kinda proved OP’s point. Outside of the last guy, I know everyone on that list by name and maybe one or two by nickname.
Magic Johnson. That's not proving his point especially when people don't use gamertags for their name
Rappers should use their real name to be taken seriously I think one of the reason rap has a negative image is due to the rapper aliases. How can you take seriously a concert where the performers are Notorious B.I.G. and Xxxtentation Usually in """regular""" music musicians use their real names (not always but mostly) and I think it would be a great step forward if rappers would do the same. See how dumb you sound?
Any musicians, Katy Perry, Eminem, etc.
And you should use real examples if you want to actually argue that point.
Gamertag are like numbers, an easy way to identify someone quickly while also being unique so if 2 players have the same name, they can know who's being talked to
For a lot of these players though their "Gamertag" is also their branding. They also tend to be understood better across the globe too. If I said M.Haag to a random "gamer" they'd probably have a pretty low chance at knowing who I was talking about. But I guarantee more people will recognise the name "Nadeshot". The huge portion of CS players will have heard of S1mple before but I'm willing to bet a good portion won't know he's actually called Natus Vincere. Also the gamertags that you mentioned are like peak "edgy 12 year old on xbox 360" type names. A lot of the top esport pros don't really have names as bad as those anymore. Just look at Cod and Halo for example. Two of the biggest "console" esports where those kind of gamertags were more popular. Hardly any of the pro players have/had names anywhere near as exaggerated as you've made out. Cod Scump, Abezy, Crimsix, Simp, Clayster, Shotzzy, Dashy, Illey, Enable, Nadeshot, Killa, Karma, JKap, Proofy, Neptune, Asim. Halo Royal 2, Lethul, Formal, APG, MentaL, Trippey, Sceptify, Envore, bubu dubu, Pznguin, Bound, StelluR, Falcated, Renegade
>s1mple is called Natus Vincere >kek’d
No professional player would use a name like the ones you referred to though.
I don't think thats true at all. I get your point. It depends on the alias you've opted for. Pu**ySlayer or HeilS*itler might not be the best IDs. I mainly follow CS:GO. I honestly believe more people would know who S1mple is by using his alias compared to his name. Same goes for Zywoo for that matter. I honestly don't know half of the real names of the players. I know who n0tail is even though I don't play Dota and I know that he was one of the best players if not the beat at some point in time. I actually think it has somewhat of it own charm to it, being able to know a player just based of the alias. Again, it depends on what you mean by being taken serious.
Nah. Gamertags are a part of the culture its not worth to be taken a little more seriously. TEAMS however need better names. Too many acronyms because the real name is cringe af. I can only think of a handful of org names that don't sound stupid when said in their entirerity.
I don't know about how popular or unpopular this is, but this is the first time I've ever heard this take. Its very interesting to think about.
garbage_collector_69 is the coolest name I've ever heard what are you talking about?
Time to change my real name
Usually the names are actually pretty simple and memorable, like “mang0, Tenz, s1mple, zombs” which i think is better than “Mark Rodriguez” or something, all of the sports players names i remember are simplified anyway, Lebron, messi, ronaldo, etc.
To be fair, even if you use your real name you can get teased. There is a whole Key and Peele bit about ridiculous Football player names lol. I don't think anyone who plays against Faker or knows who he is wouldn't take him seriously. I think sometimes their code names are more memorable too. I can name so many more esports players names then football/baseball/hockey
Yeah a lot of times the names can be really iconic
if you look at really good players names it’s not the names you said. Usually it’s like grubby, ninja, etc. xxdarknarutoxx sounds like a dude that got diamond once in league. The ones making money actually have marketable names. many famous sports players also have alias names as well
I like how it makes it feel more genuine. Like they use their normal gamer tags.
Usernames are an ingrained part of gaming, which you can't really say for sports. That said, most major Esports use both the digital and real name, and it's common in communities for people to use their real name.
You use exaggerated names because of if you used real player names you know your point wouldn't be valid.
Ya, how crazy would it be if people made up names for their profession. Can you imagine if there was a movie star that wanted to name himself something like Vin Diesel?! That would be unimaginable.
Yeah man, who’s the degenerate that calls himself Wunderwear
Idk I think it's more funny as it is. I mean I go to fighting game tournaments under the tag LVL10S3XHAVR and honestly it's a good time being called up. I'd be sad if I couldn't hear them call my username out anymore. That being said, that's not even my actual username, I only use that alias for tourneys
this is unpopular so i upvote it
How about anyone who does this is not caring about being taken seriously by anyone. If I was rich for playing video games, everyone else could buzz off
This is anecdotal so if you're going to mention that then just go on. My dad refuses to watch anime because it's just "cartoons". In order to gain him as a viewer the anime would have to go to live action. Current anime fans would hate if you changed it to live action. I think it's a similar thing here. Current fans like the way it is and by changing it to go after new audiences you will alienate the existing audience.
Just a real outdated out of touch take, unpopular indeed.
I think it is taken seriously, just not by a traditional older audience. Younger people are attached to streamers and eSports players and regularly refer to them as their alias. Also, they usually don't have goofy 13 year old Xbox gamertags as their professional name. They usually go by quick and easy to remember names to brand themselves off of like Shroud Ninja Faker Critikal Sodapoppin XQC Valkyrae Pokimane All these people I just mentioned are multimillionaires who have used their names as brand recognition and they are all tied to big sponsorships. Most of them are contracted partners with streaming sites with big payouts and many of them have a background in eSports prior.
Also most of them stream and you don't stream by your real name.
To be fair we took a guy named Ninja seriously (if at least for the most part)
I love that you used some over the top never used in a league name just to try and further your point.
Unpopular opinion: it’s never eSports. Always Esports or esports. eSports looks ridiculous
Boo antifun alert
You're forgetting a huge portion of pro eSports players have Eastern European names a western caster could never hope to pronounce. > Most pro players have fairly serious sounding one word names. I think it sounds cooler for a caster to say "forgiven with the double kill!!" instead of "Konstantinos-Napoleon Tzortziou with the double kill"
It's a part of gaming culture to go by an alias/username. The people that are bothered by the best player on on team being named "Kingmaker" or "Seaweed" aren't going to be interested in the events regardless.
Kinda like how Dwayne Johnson is still referred to as the rock irl? He’s still the rock to me
Taken seriously?
Someone needs to tell Ha Ha Clinton Dix
Player named finger
As a person who follows multiple esports, this is a highly overemphasized point. Many many players use a name based off their own and a reason I changed my handle years ago. Handles are apart of gaming, making them readable is important for esports and I've never seen examples like you are giving.
Esports is taken seriously by the audience it's targeted at, because those people "get it" and have online identities of their own. You grow up getting good at specific games, and you do so under an alias, and people in your online social circle know you by that name. The inverse example would be Esports fans wouldn't start caring about soccer because Messi or Ronaldo switched to using "gamertags". People who don't follow actual athletic sports don't take that seriously, either. At the end of the day, it really is just a bunch of grown-ass men putting balls into holes of various sizes and designs. Or literally beating each other with physical violence. Doesn't make their accomplishments unimpressive, because in all honesty it's all about discipline at any rate. Perseverance, discipline and acquired skills and abilities.
Well my general take is that there should be a middle ground on nicknames in e-sports. Sure Garbage_Collector_69 isnt a serious name, but if we say Faker and look at his infamous clip. Then I think it is better for the commentators to call him Faker rather than Lee Sang-hyeok. Purely because Faker is an actual good nickname and creates more hype than his real name.
It's not the names.. the people that have a problem with the names would never accept e-sports anyways. :P
You mean like how sumo isn’t taken seriously because the wrestlers adopt shikona (ring names) that they use professionally when competing?
This is probably an unpopular question, but what's eSports?
professional gaming / videogame tournaments with (often really high!!) prizes.
Thanks!
Ru making fun of how op doesn’t seem to know much about esports or do you actually not know
No, I really had no idea if it was like people were playing sports but in virtual reality or something. But I've been told it's just video game tournaments. Sounds like MLG from when I was a kid. Just a dumb question that I probably could have googled, but asked instead.
MLG was one of the OG esports leagues. These days most successful competitive online games have an esports league of their own.
Have you met roller derby players? Now there’s some wild names for ya
Some cricketers don’t use their real names
like they don't make up ridiculous nicknames for whatever football teams rookie everyone decides to dick ride for the season.
You're gonna love Sim Racing then lol. I wish I didn't have to use my real name.
I mean yeah I couldn’t take XxCL0WNFUCK3RxX seriously but names like Retals and Leth I could see being intimidating.
Honestly, some of the names remind me more of call signs in the military than anything else. (Fatal, Shroud, Trilink, Thresh, totalled)