Swiss Soccer Fans Protest Esports by Throwing Tennis Balls and Game Controllers On the Field (variety.com)

Soccer fans in Switzerland protested against increased investment in esports by throwing tennis balls and game consoles on the field during a Swiss Super League match. From a report: The fans reportedly threw tennis balls and game controllers onto the field, forcing the referee to stop the game between Young Boys and FC Basel for two minutes while everything was cleared away. The Young Boys protesters then held up a giant banner with a pause button symbol, while Basel fans also raised their own sign supporting the protest. One of the banners read "Scheiss esports," which roughly translates to "esports are s---." European soccer clubs are increasingly getting involved in esports leagues. While Young Boys doesn't have any skin in professional gaming yet, Basel has its own "FIFA" team.

Comments

The funniest thing

[ArchieBunker]

Is that people who play video games got the name "esports" to stick.

Re:The funniest thing

[Anonymous Coward]

Is that people who play video games got the name "esports" to stick.

Well, when bridge, chess, and Go are sports ... what did you expect?

The answer is that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has recognised the World Bridge Federation as a sport organisation, and as such, bridge is subject to the same regulatory environment as any other Olympic sport.

Recognized by the IOC ... and apparently they have to do drug testing:

It is the semi-final of the World Bridge Championships and, after a gruelling nine hours of intense concentration for the 12th day in a row, I am greeted by the news that I may not wind down over some food and drink with my team, but must instead report to the World Anti- Doping Agency offices for a random drugs test.

So, in the sense that bridge is now recognised as a "mind sport", how is competitive video gaming any different?

Re:The funniest thing

[lgw]

People like to watch challenging things done well. Sounds reasonable to me.

Re:The funniest thing

[tepples]

So, in the sense that bridge is now recognised as a "mind sport", how is competitive video gaming any different?

Nobody owns exclusive rights in bridge, chess, or go.

Soccer fans ruin soccer match

[Anonymous Coward]

That'll show them nerds

Okay, but why?

[michiganbob]

The article is pretty light on details. Why exactly is an "increased investment in esports" a bad thing for these teams? I don't really care what my club invests in, as long as it makes money and helps the organization.

What the article leaves out

[Anonymous Coward]

Is that the fans are under the (possibly true) impression that the league is making participation in esports a licensing requirement for next season.

Poorly informed outrage mob

[Anonymous Coward]

... is poorly informed outrage mob.

This almost sounds like a stunt 4chan would pull. Not the protest itself, but getting people to do it.

My issue with e-sports

[TeknoHog]

You can play soccer with any vague spheroid, at least when you're a beginner. Even at the highest levels, there are multiple vendors for the necessary equipment. In essence, traditional sports are open source. I will accept e-sports as sports when the games and the requisite operating systems are Free software.

Re:My issue with e-sports

[Anonymous Coward]

Weird definition of sports. try playing Polo for free

Re:My issue with e-sports

[tepples]

Perhaps the real difference you're getting at is this: Several manufacturers make computers for use with X11/Linux. You can run it on a computer from Dell, System76, or any of several other brands. Likewise, several manufacturers make tennis balls, rackets, and nets, and they don't need permission from The Tennis Company. By contrast, only one publisher is allowed to distribute necessary software for a particular esport, unless it's either A. free software (such as SuperTuxKart) or B. a computer adaptation of a traditional tabletop game (such as Internet chess).

Re:My issue with e-sports

[tepples]

to play professionally, you will have to invest in much more expensive regulation gear.

But in ball sports, there's no law prohibiting companies from manufacturing regulation gear. There's no Tennis Company that can sue you and win just for making and selling a tennis racket that conforms to the spec.

Because esports are proprietary

[tepples]

Why exactly is an "increased investment in esports" a bad thing for these teams?

Under current law, a video game's publisher has the exclusive right to play the game in public. This means it can end a league's license to stream the league's matches at any time for any reason or no reason.[1] It can also cause an esport to cease to exist by turning off a game's online multiplayer matchmaking server and threatening suit against third-party matchmaking servers.[2] By contrast, the governing body of a ball sport lacks power to shut down a league.

[1] "Why Nintendo can legally shut down any Smash Bros. tournament it wants" by Kyle Orland
[2] "EA shuts down fan-run servers for older Battlefield games" by Kyle Orland

Sports vs. eSports

[static0verdrive]

I think eSports are a joke when they're just a video game version of a real sport; however, I believe there is legitimacy in the case of a game that cannot be played in real life (such as Rocket League). I do agree with the Olympic committee that video games that promote violence (while I love them) don't really belong under the "eSports" moniker. Therefore games such as Rocket League uniquely qualify to usher in exciting global competition much like the Olympics. (I'm not commenting on whether I feel RL should be in the actual Olympics - that's a separate conversation IMHO.)

Anyone can make a bike for cycle polo

[tepples]

Anyone has the right to manufacture a bicycle for use with cycle polo. Anyone has the right to breed ponies for use with traditional polo. And anyone has the right to think up new polo variants using newly developed personal vehicles.

In esports, by contrast, a game publisher's copyright precludes this sort of incremental experimentation.

Re:Because Socialism

[Opportunist]

I've heard people slander Switzerland in many ways. Calling it "socialist" is new, though.

Considering that it's one of the richest countries on the planet despite having pretty much ZERO resources, you might want to rethink that claim. Else you're basically saying socialism can make you rich even if you're not sitting on a sea of oil.

Explain the logic, please

[Kokuyo]

You want people to understand what "Esports ist Scheisse" means but you don't dare spell it out? Like, whu..?

I live among a horde of weak, pathetic fools...

Re:Explain the logic, please

[Hallux-F-Sinister]

No. "Scheiss esports" (without the "ist"...) means "fuck esports".

The idiomatic translation is the one that tells you what the person saying or writing a thing actually means.

The verbatim, or literal translation in this case is leading you so far astray that you're actually altering the original to fit into what you think is what they're saying, (or in this case, what's written on a sign,) either because you took a semester or two of German and so you think you know the language, or you assumed Google Translate is always right... it often isn't and in this case it's wrong. Nice try though...

No, a word by word translation is only useful if you want a translation of each word in turn, and ignore how they relate to each other in the native language in which they are written. If you want to understand what the original writer or author of a message meant, you need the idiomatic translation, which is WAY harder for a machine to do.

Source: I lived in Germany for a few years. Living among the people who speak a language is always a better instructor of HOW they actually speak a language, than you can get from Herr Berlitz, or whomever. While regional differences do change a few things, like whether to say "Grüss dich," or "Servüs" or whatever for hello, it doesn't, as far as I know, in this case. "Scheiss esports," (not "Scheisse," and definitely not "esports ist Scheisse,") means "fuck esports."

Hope that helped clear things up.

Code your own conforming game? Get sued.

[tepples]

And anyone can code their own video game if they really want to.

One who codes his own video game that conforms to a particular esport's regulations would be sued and lose. Tetris v. Xio (2012) was the particular case that woke me up to this.

Re:Sounds very European...

[Brett Buck]

Baseball is too subtle and sophisticated for the average European, and no one starts a riot if they lose, so, to them, where's the appeal?

Under what law?

[tepples]

They can't stop someone from playing the game... but they sure as hell can stop anyone playing under whatever they are governing.

Once FIFA expels a league, that league can no longer claim affiliation with FIFA. But so long as that league doesn't claim such affiliation, what right under the law of any developed country does FIFA have to keep that league from playing matches by the same rules, using a pitch and ball with the same specifications as those used by FIFA members?

Local sources

[DrYak]

Source A, local free small news paper "20min"
Source B, the national ISP and IPTV service provider Bluewin

Sorry, source in German only (well at least it's in Schriftdütsch and not in dialect).

Source A has a side bar with an interview of one of the potester. His arguments, he's feeling danger, because :
  - Mixing E-Sport could divert kids attention away from "real" (his words) sport and keep them glued to the screen.
  - He's actually not afraid of money being invested into e-Sport instead of soccer teams (i.e.: not afraid of money lacking). But he'll find it problematic once the league's clubs start to assemble E-Sport teams. "What could this lead to ?"
  - He's not buying the argument that e-Sport could attract more fans. His opinion is that a video game is a wrong reason to become a fan. He's actually against bringing even more people into stadiums (?!). Specially given that Bern's team is already successful for the last 3-4 years. He's not interested in pseudo-"fans" who are just following some fad.

On their side, the proponent of the e-Sport investment actually want to fight the "fat nerd in the sofa" clich&eacute. Actually the point is to have the e-Sport team have some fitness training and balance diets, some are actual soccer players, etc. They want to cultivate healthy gamers.
At the end of the day, they see eSport as a marketing tool, able to reach out and attract more of the younger generation..