In Switzerland, at a football game between Young Boys and Basel, fans on both sides held a pre-planned protest against eSports by throwing tennis balls and controllers onto the field on Sunday, September 23. This protest held up the game for just a few minutes while the referees had to clean up the mess.
The protest was to show that fans of football teams are disgruntled that money is being spent on eSports teams rather than being spent on the physical teams themselves. Young Boys does not support eSports as of this present time; however, Basel does support eSports teams for FIFA.
I find this rude, not just because it’s utterly stupid to protest something so trivial, but because this was a home game for Young Boys who, as stated previously, do not spend money on any eSports teams. Additionally, it is the fault of the players themselves or the referees what happens to the money and where it gets spent? So why make them suffer?
Why waste your money to buy seats in a game that you then would disrupt? If we’re talking about wasting money: didn’t you do just that?
Would it not be easier to boycott paying any money to those in favor of eSports? You’ve paid money to protest, willingly emptied your pockets, so that more can be invested into eSports. And what’s more, you also paid for the controllers and tennis balls to just throw away! Somehow I feel like this plan backfired… Rather than prove a point, it’s made the protesters appear as idiotic apes.
Sponsoring teams for eSports is becoming more standard than what we’re used to seeing. Naturally, it’s within human nature to become afraid of anything new.
While eSports fans might be ready to take up arms, I can honestly say that people will always find a sport to argue whether or not it’s legitimate. It happened with Ninja Warrior, Quadricopter racing, and even NASCAR–and that sport as been around for some time! As a NASCAR fan myself, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to stand up for the sport and legitimize it. eSports are sports; they take talent and hours of practice.
The best thing to do is not give these ass holes a second glance. eSports are here to stay.
What do you think? Do you think they had a right to protest? Do you think eSports are the way of the future? Drop your comments bellow.