Boards›Esports

Shouldn't pro players be using their actual names?

Zero Shingetsu·7/13/2016, 2:42:51 PM·1 votes·1,095 views

I'm not exactly what you'd call an LCS fan. (In fact it repulses me.) But I keep seeing these front end promos and I can't help but wonder. If League has truly taken off as a sport, as Riot has said... Isn't it time the personalities involved start going by their real names? I'm not sure about America, but where I'm from, the only people who go by aliases are comedians and some singers. Professional athletes always go by their real name, and they work to make it so that you respect that name for when they move on to other occupations.

A more western example... Maybe mixed martial arts. Almost all the fighters have nicknames, but Carlos Condit doesn't go around referring to himself as "Natural Born Killer". You know what I mean? I feel like it would help legitimize your sport if players and especially commentators went by their real names more often, because from the viewpoint of people who watch real sports, they see this on TV and think it's a bunch of children who never grew up based on these handles.

I don't mean to sound rude, by the way. I merely suggest based on Riot's stated goal for esports. If my comments seem offensive, I apologize. o(_ _)o

6 Comments

archerno17/13/2016, 2:51:43 PM3 votes

Please dont...

Lets talk about most populart sport shall we? Football (or soccer as americans call it)

-Guess who is Edson Arantes do Nascimento? PELE. He always used that nickname

-Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite. Guess who it is? Famous player who wear KAKA on his shirt

-Javier Hernández ? Ever heard of Chicarito

-Givanildo Vieira de Sousa? U thought Hulk was his real name?

I dont really follow other sports that much. But i know throughout history there were thousands players who didnt use real name.

BigBellBrute7/13/2016, 11:52:59 PM1 votes

American football had the XFL and someone put HEHATEME as his name.

FlashNeko7/14/2016, 3:48:16 AM1 votes

In terms of in-game casting, it's easier to use the screen names for the players because each one is unique and tend to be short.

Out of game interviews and such, they have started using the players real names somewhat, though usually just for interviews where they have [First Name] "[Screen Name]" [Last Name] on-screen. And yeah, a lot of times sports stars will be mentioned by their nicknames more often than their real names anyway, such as "A-Rod", "Chipper" and the like.