IEM Rio Major: ESL gets involved in the home crowd controversy

In an attempt to minimize crowd influence at IEM Rio Major, ESL adopted strict measures but quickly faced backlash from the Brazilian CS:GO community.

The Brazillian audience attending the Rio major at Riocentre has demonstrated how fervent and excited are about CS:GO, especially when any of the local Brazilian teams or players are up there on the main stage competing in a battle against top CS:GO teams in the worlds. Since the beginning of the event on October 31, the fans have been chanting, waving flags, and playing musical instruments to express their love and support for the Brazillian teams. 

 

At the indoor stadium, cheers, boos, and banter have become all too common, as has crowd interference, which has sparked controversy and forced ESL to step in and take necessary countermeasures. Many fans in the live audience have occasionally shouted out information about which site the attackers are going to target, in addition to giving away other vital details. Brazilian players claimed they could plainly hear the crowd during the event offering directions despite the extremely loud sound decibels. The organizer find it challenging to properly identify the offenders and take appropriate action since these instructions were frequently in Portuguese.

ESL hides minimap and X-Ray to preserve the competitive integrity

Unfortunately, ESL’s plan to restore fair competition involved diminishing fan satisfaction at home. In order to safeguard the tournament’s competitive integrity, both minimap and x-ray vision were temporarily disabled during Imperial’s game against Cloud9 on November 1, when the instance of crowd intervention was clearly noticeable. The audience shouting player positions and giving information is not new at a CS:GO event, especially at a Major. 

The Danish crowds were heard shouting “he’s close to you” during the PGL Major Stockholm 2021 in Copenhagen, clearly showing a preference for their native CS:GO team, Astralis. The X-ray and radar at the location had probably never been taken down by a tournament organizer before, though. Brazilian spectators’ experiences were substantially impacted by a restriction imposed by the organizer, which led to a community backlash.

ESL reverse the changes after community backlash

The decision made by the ESL disappointed CS:GO fans, especially the Brazilian community, which led to a massive backlash across the internet. This intense community outcry may have been initiated by Gaules, a well-known Brazilian CS:GO streamer. For some Brazillian teams, this move may have come too late. Teams like 00 Nation and Imperial have already been eliminated from the Challengers Stage, and other Brazillian teams are also in a difficult spot with only one best-of-three series left to secure their spot at the Legends stage at the event.

Header: Stephanie Lindgren/ESL Gaming