No light at IEM Rio Day 2: Teams play in darkness

The second day at the IEM Rio was just as exciting as the first day! There were a few surprises in the match results, but what also surprised was a dark stage in the stadium after the lights went out. 

After the lights on the stage went out in the middle of the match, CS:GO teams Heroic and TheMongolZ agreed to continue playing in total darkness yesterday on Matchday 2 at IEM Rio 2023. Just three years ago, when all CS:GO events switched to online play due to the COVID pandemic, it was quite normal to see player cams that went completely dark, with esports superstars only by their monitors were illuminated. Gamers are used to playing in the dark.

Pros don’t need lights

It wasn’t until we were able to return to offline events that this image became less common in Tier One CS:GO tournaments. But it looks like viewers are getting a little flashback back to the online days. Yesterday, during a group stage match of IEM Rio 2023 between Heroic and TheMongolZ, the lights in the stadium suddenly went out, engulfing the players in total darkness.

HLTV author Nohte posted a surreal image of the stage with the MongolZ players sitting in the dark.

When the observer switched to the POV of Baatarkhuu “Bart4k” Batbold on the second map in the 20th round, you could suddenly see how his player cam went completely dark. But he didn’t let that distract him and continued to concentrate fully on his screen. A technical break was called shortly after TheMongolZ lost the round.

Incidentally, Heroic even had to play with their coach Richard “Xizt” Landstrom as a replacement for Jakob “Jabbi” Nygaard because he suddenly didn’t feel good anymore in the middle of the match. However, he did quite well.

This break was rather short considering the circumstances. It was only after the second map ended and TheMongolZ played the third map that the casters revealed to the viewers that during this short break all players unanimously decided to continue playing in the dark.

LAN sleepover parties are returning?

The most surprising part? Nobody even batted an eyelid. None of the players were surprised, and neither were the casters. To be fair, both casters weren’t there when the lights went out.

Pietro, a senior partner manager at ESL, likened it to a “LAN sleepover”. This is reminiscent of the old days of Dreamhack LANs, where players played in the dark all night.

Although there were problems with the light, it seems that the players didn’t let it bother them. Heroic won the series 2-1 and will battle NIP for a playoff spot in the elimination match in the next round.

Header: ESL