Boards›Esports

What connects you to a team?

Zero Shingetsu·11/27/2015, 5:10:43 AM·1 votes·660 views

One of several reasons I don't consider League a sport, though admittedly one of the least important... is that I'm baffled at how people get attached to a team. Riot makes untold millions on team logo icons and championship skins, so there must be something connecting people to these teams. In real sports, you've got teams attached to cities. There are exceptions, but the vast majority stick with their teams because of community pride. Even if your team never wins ANYTHING (say, the Chicago Cubs), you stay loyal because they're your home town team.

I understand that you have cases like Japan, where many sports teams are bound to sponsors rather than cities, but that's the norm there. And even then, each team is kind of tied to a city. So why is it that people follow an esports team? Do people become fans of individual players instead? If so, isn't it more like an individual sport than a team sport?

9 Comments

disregardable11/27/2015, 5:18:07 AM1 votes

I sort of have this problem myself with esports. I think, mostly, I just want all the teams to win.

TurquoiseYoshi11/27/2015, 5:43:47 AM1 votes

It depends. Mostly I just pick different teams each split because of who's on the team and which team I previously liked. For example, I liked Impulse for Season 5, but everyone has left (NRG Impact, C9 Rush, DIG Apollo, Adrian retired, Idc about XiaoWeiXiao). Now I'm picking RNG because they have Alex Ich and Remilia (and they used to have MapleStreet ;-;). It's mostly just what team I like most as a whole.

VulcanIsHere11/28/2015, 9:05:33 PM1 votes

I feel like because they were the first team I saw should be an option

Aviously12/3/2015, 6:05:28 AM1 votes

I voted for Because ______ is on the team, but when I mean that, I usually mean coaching staff. I like Fnatic because Deilor is a good coach and I will continue supporting them even if Huni, Reignover, and Yellowstar are gone. Also, I apparently tend to prefer teams with videos (Life of Legends, whatever TSMs was called, TL's) but only if the people seem like actually good and interesting people. I liked Gravity because their logo was well designed. I like CLG because they seem to want cooperative and nice players vs good ones.

THE KILLER GUY11/29/2015, 11:56:23 AM

For me, I was a support main for a long, long time. I came across N3tworkkitt3en's "Top 5 adc" and "Top 5 support" videos and I was instantly hooked on this guy's videos. I ended up watching his "Reasons why you should watch Rush Hour" vids and as a high plat bot lane main, I was just dumbfounded by Double and Aphro's plays. I also realized that N3tworkkitt3n placed Doublelift at #2 ADC NA in his "top 5 adc" vid, so I figured his duo partner Aphro was someone worthy to learn from.

I watched basically every video Aphro's ever been in (interview, game, vod, highlights, etc) and I credit him 100% for helping me take that extra step I needed to achieve diamond. From watching aphro's vids, naturally I began seeing Doublelift's gameplay and personality more as well, and I took to him pretty quickly. I was just watching some of his highlights some time and I suddenly decided I'd main adc, and I ended up reaching d3 in season 4 which I think is pretty crazy considering I was in high school as well as year-round athletics and playing TONS of ranked 5's with the now co-owners of Serpentis Esports (the dream has been alive for a long time for them lol).

Anyway, I was a diehard CLG fan during Season 3 up until Doublelift joined TSM. Siding with Doublelift and becoming a TSM fan wasn't a difficult decision for me. I'm definitely there more for him than for the team, and I want to see him succeed internationally more than I want to see CLG enter worlds and get bodied again but somehow be content with it because they're all best buds and who needs winning when you have friendship blah blah blah.

I think it's easier for people to follow players than teams in esports. We might lean towards an entire organization because we started out liking their league team or their csgo team or whatever, but we liked that first team because of a certain player.