So around a year ago in the counter-strike scene, a CS_summit match was played against the legendary Brazilian team Made in Brazil(mibr in short), featuring old big time superstars such as Fallen, Fer, as well as Taco. While established as one of the most dominant teams in the early 2016s, in 2020, the core of Fallen Fer and Taco were on a downward spiral, struggling to keep up consistent results and falling to 20th place in the world, a long shot from the consistent number 1s that they were comfortable with at the peak of their prime.
The situation was interesting, because at their 20th place standings, fans of mibr weren’t really expecting to win a whole lot. With a young and coming team like Chaos, Mibr losing to them wouldn’t be that big of a deal. And yet, there was such a large outrage when Chaos beat Mibr that you would’ve almost thought that mibr was a top team again.
I’m really not trying to throw shade at anyone here, I’m just stating the facts. I’m sure most fans can agree that mibr were at best mediocre. It wasn’t that big of a surprise when Chaos was able to beat them.
I want to put emphasis on this. It wasn’t a surprise that Chaos were able to beat mibr. Everyone knew that, Mibr fans knew it, chaos fans knew it, and even mibr themselves probably understood that.
The trouble and the accusations began because of clips that started surfacing of possible foul play being involved. In a normal situation, Mibr fans are reasonable enough to understand that they lost, and accepted it as just their favorite team producing mediocre results again.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUPkwUSTR-U
Looking back, I knew then, and I still know now, that those clips are suspicious as all hell. If you looked 3 times, 4 times, there were just really suspicious moments that you just could not find any reasonable explanation for. And that’s fair, plenty of professional players have had these really really suspicious clips that can’t be explained. It’s good to have suspicion, and it’s good to have some kind of wariness that maybe the game was fake, maybe all pros do cheat and valve lets them get away with it for the entertainment value.
And I think in this situation most people seemed to have forgotten that. It’s healthy to have suspicions and to mistrust someone, it’s human. And while many people seem to take these kinds of conspiracy theories too far, we often seem to misunderstand the very reason that these conspiracy theories came up in the first place: to question the system and to maintain a healthy skepticism.
Obviously I’m not saying that sending death threats to a 16 year old kid is “healthy skepticism.” That would be completely wrong. I just think that the way the counter-strike community reacted upon these accusations and threats was irresponsible and childish. Sure, so are the people sending death threats, but aren’t we also acting childish, screaming at people online about how shitty of a person they are?
Mibr’s in-game leader, Fallen, and current Evil Geniuses player Tarik’s reactions were both reactions that were born out of this healthy skepticism that lit the fire of the rage of the mob. And yet people fail to understand that the people who lit the fire the most, the people who added the most fuel to the fire and animosity, was the community itself.
Everytime someone sends a death threat to someone that isn’t us, we act upon it like it’s a personal attack on ourselves. We proceed to attack their fanbase for being so derogatory and rude, while being derogatory and rude ourselves. Our twitter battles of slurs and angry tweets in context looks like 2 children fighting over who gets to keep the toy. It is nothing short of idiocracy.
I won’t deny that I’ve been the same way. Me lashing out on reddit, on twitter, has always only made things so much worse.
I know that, and I realize that I’ve made mistakes. That’s why I’ve made it my goal to be more understanding. That’s why I still forgive the guy who told me to kill myself, because I knew there was a damn good reason I was receiving that message.
It won’t be perfect. I’ll still be childish and petty. Sometimes I’ll judge people for making bad decisions, and sometimes my insecurities will show and I’ll send an angry message to someone. But I know, that if I at least attempt to understand someone, that when that moment comes, it’s going to help me grow drastically as a person.
I’d say something cliche, like be the better man, but honestly, I really hate that line. It’s not about being a better man, it’s about establishing a relationship, understanding them, so that you can share opinions and laugh it off the way freedom of speech was supposed to be.
It’s not about feeling better than other people, it’s about feeling equal. It’s about empathy, being able to sit down, watch the sunset, and (if you’re legal) drink some beer and share thoughts with friends, who hold differing opinions from you, but whom you respect as equal individuals. Once the world reaches this phase, both you and the world we live in will be in a much better place.
I’m honestly not sure where this article went. I started off wanting to write about counter-strike but as the clock ticked to 12 i think i just started rambling lol. It’s been a while since i’ve felt this good about something i’ve put out though, and I’m pretty satisfied with where this piece went :)
