There was a big 1.6 tournament over the weekend. PGS won, but I was far more intrigued by the number of spectators and the response to it.
Basically, it was used as another example of why Source sucks, why the CGS sucks for using Source, and why anybody playing Source must not only suck, but be mentally retarded. At this point, every 1.6/Source argument seems to have degenerated into a “My dad can beat up your dad” squabble. They’re silly, they’re full of hyperbole (my dad can beat up Chuck Norris!), and it doesn’t change anything about the situation at hand: CGS is using Source, and they’re not able to broadcast 1.6. The end.
That being said, I still thought this particular argument about spectators was particularly foolish, and I’ll give you two reasons why. First, all it does is reinforce a thought everybody will freely admit: 1.6 has a larger fanbase. At the risk of sounding like a valley girl, let me be the first to scream loudly, “WELL DUH!” I don't think anybody would dispute that. The numbers back it up, and even if you argue that Source is more popular than 1.6 in the United States, 1.6 is much, much bigger globally. It’s not even close. From what I understand, CS:S in non-U.S. countries is like CoD2 is here: wait, there are CoD2 tournaments?
So that didn’t add anything new, especially considering the ESWC is an international tournament. But there’s a more insidious bias in the statistic, too, because people were comparing it to the amount of CGS spectators. The problem is that making a comparison like that is almost totally meaningless.
LAN tournaments are the closest thing eSports has to the playoffs in professional sports. Teams are pitted against one another, sometimes in a best-of-three series, and then they get eliminated. The CGS is in the regular season. Games in the regular season are less interesting. Lost 20-1? Don’t worry, more games are coming tomorrow. Nobody can win a regular season in one day. It’s a grind, and over the course of a season it’s less exciting.
(Sometimes teams can’t even go “all-out” because they have to prepare for a game the next day. How else can you explain Doug Dascenzo pitching?)
The regular season isn’t a bad thing, because it also makes the playoffs more special. But comparing the spectators from a major LAN tournament using a more popular game with a larger fan base, and then concluding the CGS will fail because they’re in the regular season, and have a smaller, domestic fanbase is completely ridiculous.
This logic break is over. You may now go back to your regularly scheduled forum trolling.
